PSO musicians & respond to PBT

To the Board of Directors of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre:

I am writing on behalf of the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to express our bewilderment at the decision of the Board of Directors of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre to remove live music from all performances for the 2005-06 season. If the Pittsburgh Ballet is to survive, it must find strategies to increase both audiences and contributions. Cutting live music from performances of classic works of art such as "Carmen," "The Nutcracker," "Coppelia" and "La Sylphide" is not a strategy -- it's a travesty. And the decision is more likely to infuriate patrons and donors than to attract them, especially coming as it does long after the season's programs had been announced.

But what is the Ballet to do in the face of the financial challenges it faces? We have some suggestions, which we offer in the spirit of support for the wonderful fabric of artistic institutions in our region. Frankly, we view your approach to the coming season as suicidal, and Pittsburgh cannot afford to lose you.

1) By announcing your intention to eliminate the orchestra while ostensibly bargaining with them, you have destroyed your credibility with the musicians and the community. It may take new leadership, or at least an outside mediator, to begin to rebuild the trust that is a prerequisite to solving your problems. A willingness to re-examine your recent decision would be a crucial first step.

2) You must publicly release the financial statements that the Ballet's musicians have been requesting before the NLRB forces you to do so. At the same time, offer to sit down with representatives of the dancers and musicians and jointly establish a shared vision of the Pittsburgh Ballet's future. Only then can you begin to work on effective strategies to save the company while maintaining artistic integrity.

The musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony are not strangers to financial pressure. We understand that the Ballet must make difficult decisions if it is to survive. But we urge you to abandon the secretive and confrontational approach you have taken so far so that, with the benefit of creative thinking from all constituents of the institution, you can find affordable and artistically satisfying solutions to your very real challenges. Most importantly, you must establish transparency in your dealings with the community if you expect its support.

Hampton Mallory
Chair, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Committee

---

Jukebox ballet

I am writing to express my disappointment over the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's obvious lack of concern for the art form. I may be wrong, but I really don't believe that "jukebox" ballet will catch on in the 'Burgh. It needn't have ever come to this if the PBT would have taken our musicians and their repeated offers to help raise money seriously.

I attended meetings over the past year or so where our musicians asked how they might help the PBT with fund-raising. Management told us that they would "get back to us on that." We have yet to hear from them.

In a town where we hand our baseball team a stadium that, sadly, they do not deserve, how can we allow the ballet orchestra to go by the wayside? The cost for the orchestra is "chump change" by any comparison. I just can't believe that someone out there doesn't care enough to "step up to the plate" and help. If this decision is allowed to stand, it will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the Ballet's future, and we will all be the big losers.

George Clewer
President, Pittsburgh Musicians' Union

---

Dancing robots?

I was appalled to read that the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre plans to save money by using canned music, expecting that after a year it can re-hire an orchestra of live musicians. We know that in recent years the leadership of the Ballet Theatre has been improvident. But its proposed solution to bad management would be bad art.

There are many wonderful recordings of great music. But what draws audiences to pay for tickets, dress up and go to the Benedum for a performance is its aliveness. Things can go wrong for living musicians and dancers, so there is always an edge of danger. Live musicians and dancers breathe, interact, provide a sense of heightened experience. To listen to recordings, one can stay at home.

Assuming that the Ballet can survive a year without real music, do decision-makers think it will be easy to reassemble a high-quality orchestra? Does the Ballet's management imagine that these musicians will be sitting around waiting to be re-hired? If the Ballet thinks it's reasonable to use recorded music, it might just as well consider using mechanical dancers. Why not go all the way and hire a bunch of robots for management as well? They'd be cheaper, I suspect, and maybe they'd make better decisions.

Liane Ellison Norman
Squirrel Hill

---

Phoney feeling

I am a 12-year-old, and I have taken ballet and other dance classes since I was little. I have performed for Pittsburgh Musical Theater, and I have performed with live music and with recorded music. When I perform to recorded music I feel stupid and phoney. Won't the ballet dancers feel stupid when they have to dance to recorded music, too?

I always see the ballets, and I think it is ridiculous to use recorded music with professional dancers! Why can't the PBT directors understand that? I'm 12, and it makes perfect sense to me!

Beth Anderson
Moon

---

Gentleman newsman

In 1989, not long after I began working in television as a correspondent for "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings," I asked him for a small favor.

It was around 5 p.m. on a Friday -- 90 minutes before airtime -- when I ducked into his office and asked him to sign a birthday card for my mother, Agnes Dodds Kinard. I explained that she and my stepfather were visiting from Pittsburgh, were huge fans and it was her 75th birthday.

"Where is she now?" Peter asked. I said: "I think she is visiting my wife's office at Citibank on the East Side -- across town from ABC headquarters on the West Side."

"What's the number?" he demanded as he picked up his phone and began dialing. He got my wife, then asked to speak to "Mrs. James P. Kinard." Peter insisted to my mother that she and my stepfather had to come to ABC right away so they could be his guests watching that night's broadcast.

I scrambled over in a cab to pick them up and try to get them in time. When we arrived, about two minutes before air, we found chairs set up for them on the edge of the newsroom floor, just out of the normal camera shot and about 30 feet from the anchor chair. My mother and stepfather were reluctant to sit down, fearing they would disturb Peter's unflappable delivery. Perhaps they did not recall that once when a fire alarm went off, he announced to viewers that he would remain here but let them know if there was a fire they needed to worry about.

During the first commercial break, he immediately waved to them and shouted welcome. And at the end of the program, he could not have been more cordial. He chatted with my mother, kissed her cheek and went over the top a little, kissing her hand. She immediately joked: "I guess I'll never be able to wash it again."

After that visit he always inquired about my mother. And when he met her again the following year, he was even more gracious than before. In addition to being a superb newsman, he was a consummate gentleman.

Allan Dodds Frank
New York

The writer worked for Peter Jennings for six years. He is now a correspondent at Bloomberg Television.

---

Hometown pride

A former Pittsburgh resident and avid country music lover, I drove two hours from Cleveland to see my favorite country artists perform at Heinz Field on July 30. I read John Hayes' review of the show ("Chesney's energy heats up Heinz Field," Aug. 1), and it was a perfect summary of what was the most amazing concert I've ever seen.

However, I do wish Hayes had mentioned the energy within the crowd that was the result of classic Pittsburgh pride. Whenever there was a lull during the show, the whole crowd broke into "Here we go, Steelers." The loudest screams of the whole concert occurred during Chesney's song "Back Where I Come From," when huge video screens showed Pittsburgh images ranging from a Forbes Field street sign to the Roberto Clemente statue.

One of country music's most prominent themes is hometown pride, and the people of Pittsburgh demonstrated it in a way that made me not only enjoy the concert so much more, but miss my home city like I haven't in a long time.

Emily Yahr
Cleveland