In Friday’s (5/2) Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.), Melinda Johnson writes that Catherine Underhill, managing director of Symphoria, “the successor orchestra to the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra,” has written a letter to the New York Times in response to Zachary Woolfe’s April 30 article profiling innovative upstate New York orchestras, including those in Albany, Rochester, and Buffalo, but not Syracuse. “The only reference to Syracuse was in the first two paragraphs describing ‘a city with dark associations for classical music lovers.’ The news article … briefly summarized the demise of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in 2011…. Underhill said the reporter did not contact anyone on Symphoria’s staff. Neither Woolfe nor the New York Times responded to requests for comment about Wednesday’s story. Underhill said her letter provides information on the innovative approach of Symphoria,” a musician-run cooperative orchestra. “In her letter, Underhill referenced writer Samuel Clemens: ‘I am writing to let you know that the death of classical music in Syracuse has been greatly exaggerated.… Your first sentence indicates that you drove right by Syracuse in your travels from Albany to Buffalo, and in so doing you missed the chance to see for yourself the excitement that Syracuse’s new, innovative, and successful professional orchestra is generating.’ ” The Post-Standard article includes the entire text of Underhill’s letter.
Posted May 5, 2014
