Moore: Tomorrow night at 7 at the Thaden School in Bentonville, the performing arts nonprofit Ovations is hosting a concert celebrating trans rights and artistic expression titled Authentic Self. Ovations is an organization combining the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra and Trike Theatre for Youth.
Artistic Director and Conductor Steven Byas of the Philharmonic joined Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis over Zoom to discuss the concert and how identity and personal voice will shape the performance.
Byess: This program, Authentic Self, was designed specifically for the piano soloist who's being presented with the orchestra. The pianist Sara Davis Buechner has performed with the Arkansas Philharmonic in the past. And at that time, we created a program titled Authentic Self as an opportunity to play some music by composers that were sometimes challenged in their own worlds and times of trying to find their voice in the music world, played by a piano soloist who had some extraordinary challenges in her life to be heard. And we selected some piano works.
The orchestra will play some works as well, but it allows moments of narrative within the program so that we can learn about the soloist and some of the challenges that face composers and performers when they're trying to be their true selves.
Travis: Tell me more about Sara Davis Buechner. What makes her one of the most original concert pianists of our time? That's how the press release described her.
Byess: Sara Davis Buechner is one of the most extraordinary piano soloists on the planet. She won the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano Competition, the Leeds International Piano Competition, won a bronze medal in the Tchaikovsky, the very prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. Really such an extraordinary roster of accomplishments in a career, and as a solo pianist, as a chamber musician, performing with orchestras. There are very few pianists on the planet who are of a parallel level and skill and ability and artistic accomplishment.
And Sara, when I first heard her recordings, I thought, I have to hire this pianist. She's just—the nuance, the power, the breadth, the sensibility, the phrasing, the musicality. Everything was there. And it's such a rare thing to have someone that is a complete package in those ways. But Sara, in her recordings, would make that come through, and even some of the finest pianists in the world will release a recording or have a video, and it's good, but it's sometimes not great. But with Sara it was great. So, I engaged her, oh gosh, starting maybe 12 years ago with an orchestra in another state, and it was such a wonderful experience.
But then I learned about her life's journey—becoming a transgender woman—and the plight of winning so many major competitions. When she made her transition, losing those contracts and those connections because of biases or problems with the people who are concerned about their patrons. Yet I've always started and I always end with the fact that Sara is just one of the most phenomenal pianists in the history of music. That's saying a lot. Of course it's easy to describe any pianist like that, but truly, I have never heard anything that Sara doesn't play well.
When I talk to her about what can we do for this concert—here are some of the other pieces I'm considering—she is always full with an abundant list of suggestions that she can play in dynamically different styles, dynamically different demands, musically and artistically, but always delivers on this wide, kaleidoscopic breadth of demands for a pianist. So I begin and end with the fact that she is an amazing pianist and amazing soloist and collaborator with the orchestras that we've worked together with. And the fact that she had such a difficult time becoming who she was, using her own voice, being represented as who she wants to be, it's just another part of the story.
For instance, on the program, I have a piece by Florence Price, an Arkansas native. And here in Northwest Arkansas, people are familiar with that name because in the past 10 years, especially, the music of Florence Price has been rediscovered—from her roots in Little Rock and Chicago, finding remnants of manuscripts in the attic of her vacation home outside of Chicago. And Florence Price had enormous challenges because of her gender and because of her race 100 years ago when she was trying to find people just to perform her music.
Luckily there was someone from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra judging music that was submitted blind, and she was a clear winner. Her music was so well crafted and so wonderfully composed. So, her Symphony No. 1 was chosen to be performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the most preeminent orchestras in the country at that time and now really recognized as one of the top orchestras in the world. But because her music was what judged her, she got a huge boost to her career.
The same is reflected in some of the other composers that, for one reason or another, have been restricted, or there was prejudice of some sort, to be able to hear their music. And it's just a joy to create a program like this where the composers and the soloists can be their authentic selves. Essentially that's the gem of our program.
Travis: What striking parallels between composers today, soloists today, and soloists or composers of 100 years ago.
Byess: Jack, that's a really brilliant observation about this because even Johann Sebastian Bach, when he took his job in Leipzig at the Thomaskirche and then becoming the Kapellmeister and then in charge of all the music in the city, there were people who thought his music was much too modern, and they couldn't possibly hear his music. Beethoven, the same way. Mozart was too chromatic. Mendelssohn would dwell in things like Shakespeare's plays. And why couldn't he just write this serious music? Richard Wagner, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland—even composers that are writing in the 21st century are facing some of the same issues that have been prevalent in the world and the cultures for hundreds of years.
So in many ways, this is a chance for the Arkansas Philharmonic to present a program that allows people to hear for themselves, make a decision based on the musical and the artistic merits of the music of the performers, and let that speak for itself.
Travis: And then finally, please tell me more about the organization behind Saturday's show, Ovations, and how it supports the arts across Arkansas.
Byess: Ovations is the umbrella organization under which the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra works. We've always had, as far as traditional orchestras go, an unusual and progressive mission to what we do. Our goal has been to take music to people where they are, figuratively and literally.
We've taken the orchestra to perform in various locations throughout the region. We perform a variety of works that include our very successful Carnegie Hall Link Up program, where we bring thousands of children to a performance after they've learned curriculum to sing in different languages and to play instruments and to come and perform with the orchestra. And it's just an amazing program that links communities to their local orchestras and connects them to the orchestras, to the local school systems.
But also some very straight-ahead concerts like Authentic Self, where people will look at the roster of music and think, I don't know these composers, but I know that what the Arkansas Philharmonic does is really wonderful, interesting, creative, and thoughtful. So I'm going to go to the performance.
We've also commissioned some dramas by the director of TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Robert Ford, to write a drama that could be paired with the music of Johannes Brahms, with a story about Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann, and that love triangle that they had with Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms’ mentor and Clara Schumann's husband.
Things like this that are thinking outside of the box and engaging people on various levels to be able to consume music and the arts. We have such a unique environment here in Northwest Arkansas, really driven in great part by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. And what that has done to the landscape of Northwest Arkansas is bring people from around the world who can experience these things in Europe, Asia, various places in the United States, but to come and see how things are done here.
The mission of that museum to make art available, to allow everyone—to invite literally everyone and anyone—into the museum is part of the mission that we have as well, to do the same thing through music. I have been a charter member of the Crystal Bridges Museum since they opened in 2011. And one of my favorite things to do, no matter where I am on the planet, is to go to that museum every single time I'm in Arkansas, peruse the permanent collection, and eavesdrop on the conversations of people—some of whom are setting foot in a museum for the very first time, to others who are having erudite conversations about a particular artist or a particular school of painting.
And it's promising to me about human culture and the society in which we live that an organization, a museum, can do something like that to create the opportunity, the atmosphere, the environment to bring people together to experience something.
And hearing the conversations about the considerations of color, the consideration of subject matter, some of the temporary exhibitions that are there, is incredible—to hear some people whose first comments upon entering a museum can be very simple, about, “I don't like the main colors that are being used here,” to, “Isn't that an incredible composition, and I see why Frida Kahlo would want to represent that in her physical pain,” I mean, it's just—for an example, it's really remarkable.
I love the same thing about what we do with the Arkansas Philharmonic. Rather than presenting just straight-ahead concerts with an overture, a concerto with the soloist, and a symphony, every one of our programs is dynamically different and engaging on various levels and in different ways. So from concert to concert, things do change dramatically, but that's been by design.
And again, we want people to come to our programs, and they often do just because we're performing. They often don't know what the program is or don't really care about the details. They know that what we're going to do is going to be good, creative, artistically satisfying, and inspiring. So that's what sets us apart, and I'm proud of what we do with the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra.
Moore: That was Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra Artistic Director Steven Byess speaking with Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis. Tickets are $50 and are available for pre-purchase online or at the door.
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