“On the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, the musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra launched their concert with a piece that many of their symphonic compatriots nationwide were also playing that mournful week: ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ ” writes Cary Darling in Friday’s (9/11) Star-Telegram (Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas). “Fourteen years later, the Fort Worth Symphony is one of the few major-city orchestras that play the national anthem before every full-orchestra performance. … Recently, the routine inclusion of the national anthem has ruffled feathers … A musician attending a concert at Bass Hall wrote a Facebook post Aug. 29 bemoaning the anthem’s automatic place at the top of the program … The post received enough supportive replies to compel the symphony’s president, Amy Adkins, to write a lengthy post on her Facebook page. … ‘For Theodore Harvey, a cellist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra who wrote the critical Facebook post, it’s an issue of place and mood. ‘I don’t think orchestra concerts are meant to be nationalistic or patriotic events unless it’s a specifically patriotic program,’ Harvey said … While most American orchestras include the anthem sometime in the year—often for a season-opener or for pops, outdoor and holiday-related concerts—it’s unclear how many perform it as regularly as the Fort Worth Symphony. The League of American Orchestras, an umbrella group of about 800 North American orchestras, doesn’t keep track, but the organization’s media relations director, Rachelle Schlosser, said, ‘It is certainly a rare occurrence.’ ”
Posted September 11, 2015
