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No Vivaldi in the Garage: A Requiem for Classical Music in North America

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Every volunteer board member for any arts organization in the US (especially those related to classical music) should read this book before voting on anything at their next meeting.

Morgenstern tells us the behind-the-scenes truth about the business of making classical music in America and casts some dire predictions about its future. He documents that symphonies in particular are in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs without a complete revamping of the manner in which America deals with the arts, its professional musicians and the musical education of its MTV age children.

The book is grounded in Morgenstern's lessons learned as music director of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC which he founded and lead for 35 years as conductor of the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra before his move to France, where he now guest conducts regularly in Europe's more hospitable musical climate.

Morgenstern gives both the layman and the professional alike a seldom seen glimpse into dealings with the prima donnas and bureaucrats, the geniuses and drudges, the students, volunteers, financial backers and paper-pushers who populate the classical music world and are collectively sitting silently by as it lies on its last sickbed.

The book is full of personal stories about the best and worst of the famous, from Leonard Bernstein to YoYo Ma; but he also gives the reader some sense of the joys and frustrations he experienced at the EMF summer festival where he happily served as teacher and mentor for thousands young classical musicians over the years, many of whom have played with major orchestras all over the world.

Every serious music student, professional musician or conductor will recognize in these collected rememberances familiar stories about the beauty and difficulty of a career in music-making. In a trumpet call for unlikely government support, Morgenstern leaves us a stern prediction that without strong European-type subsidies and a renewed dedication to music education in our schools, we may all soon discover that we will no longer be able to find any Vivaldi in the garage, or the local concert hall, on NPR or even on a CD at the mall for that matter.

Or at least, that's how Sheldon Morgenstern views himself in his book, "No Vivaldi in the Garage". The book claims to be a critical evaluation of the state of affairs in the classical music world, but is really a set of dull memoirs, in which Morgenstern is the Hero (note the capital H). He is harshly critical of people (the more famous, the more critical), but mostly only if one of those "superstars" declines a gig offer from Morgenstern, or makes more money than Morgenstern himself.

He takes great pains to list all of the famous people he's worked with, and all of the famous alumni of the Eastern Music Festival. He is trying to put himself on the map with this book, since he never enjoyed the fame he condemns others for enjoying.

The book is filled with double standards, condemning behavior in others while relating stories of his own similar behavior with a wink and a nod. At the same time he criticizes people for taking advantage of the system in some way, he relates stories of how he took advantage of a landlord in NYC who offered lower rent to struggling musicians who would use the apartment as a studio for private lessons (Morgenstern wasn't offering private lessons). Wink wink.

His condemnation of Yo Yo Ma as someone who doesn't care about children and music education comes not from Yo Yo's direct involvement with kids, but because he declined to play in a concert that Morgenstern put together for the cellist Leonard Rose. Morgenstern never asks why, he just condemns if people don't follow his plans.

He complains that the US allocates a miniscule amount of funds for the arts, but then relates stories of how board members run their orchestras under by squandering the funds they do have. Many of his stories outline symphony orchestras who got back on their feet by restructuring their board. Do you want to pay more taxes so that incompetent boards can waste your money? Or would you rather have orchestras take pains to select a successful board? He doesn't know what the solution is, but he just wants to rail on what the solution isn't.

He complains about board members who meddle in artistic affairs, when often they have no qualifications for doing so (other than being a listening audience member, and Mr. Morgenstern knows the audience's opinion is certainly of no value). Yet, he doesn't mind, being artistically trained himself, meddling in the business affairs of the board.

Speaking of poor solutions, he says it's a waste to have marching bands in high school and college, and that these schools should invest in a guitarist with a large amplifier. Nevermind that fewer students would be participating in music. My brother and sister aren't musically inclined, but they both spent time in the color guard and marching band, and received worlds of good from it, even if they don't play the kind of music Mr. Morgenstern appreciates. But like I said, if you're not enjoying music in the way that Mr. Morgenstern likes, then you shouldn't be involved in music.

Which brings me to another point which truly upset me. He rails on audiences and musicians who don't like Bartok's music or the music of his friends like Gunther Schuller. He praises Beethoven's rebellious nature and the fact that, for quite some time many regarded his music as unintelligible (this seems to be one of the things Morgenstern enjoys about Beethoven). Yet, he devotes an entire chapter to condemning all composers after Bartok, pretty much a blanket condemnation. "Where did all the melodies go?" he asks, and then offers up a dimwitted and naive view as to why composers nowadays are merely trying to create obnoxious noise (in his view, anyway). Mr. Morgenstern, the type of bickering, whining and complaining you employ in your book is one of the main reasons people are losing interest in the classical music world. If classical musicians spend all their time condemning each other on a whim, without researching facts and trying to understand where someone else may be coming from, how can we expect others to be interested? It's like expecting people to want to become members of a dysfunctional family.

I am happy to say I checked this book out of the library. I'm glad I didn't waste a penny on it.

No Vivaldi in the Garage
Sheldon Morgenstern

Music Day in my elementary school in North Carolina was always an adventure. Two boys would be sent down the hall to roll the little piano into our classroom, and someone fetched the big carton of "rhythm instruments". This was a collection of things my folks called "noisemakers" at home - tambourines, triangles, cymbals, sandblocks, and wooden sticks. At the appointed hour either Miz Crystal Bachtell or Miz Margaret Marsh would arrive for our lesson. Miz Bachtell was a dignified lady, with blue eyes and blue hair, and she wore sober gray suits with silk blouses and a discreet strand of pearls. Miz Marsh was young and snazzy, and dressed in leopard prints and cat-eye glasses decorated with rhinestones, and her hair was a different color every time we saw her. Both possessed the formidable talent of making Stravinsky's "Petrouchka" realer to us than Walt Disney's "Pinocchio". We were taught to read music, to sing in harmony, and to bang things in time to a piano accompaniment. We loved it.

Each spring, when the North Carolina Symphony came to town, we were given a special course to acquaint us with the orchestra's program. After a few weeks of listening to recordings and learning about the composers' lives, we were taught proper concert comportment: the symphony has four movements, don't clap between them; wait until the conductor turns and bows before applauding; don't sing along; and don't chew gum during the performance. That was how I first heard "The Firebird" and Dvorak's "New World Symphony", when I was ten years old. It was an experience that set me on a lifelong path of concert-going and paved the way for my own professional music career.

Sound like a lost paradise? Well, it was a very long time ago, about 40 years, and judging from reports of my nephews' and nieces' schooling, things have changed a lot today.

In Sheldon Morgenstern's "No Vivaldi in the Garage" we are shown a heartbreaking picture of the growing wasteland that is the current U.S. cultural scene. Lack of government funding for the arts, bureaucratic managements, overpriced soloists - all are taking a toll on the availability of performing arts to the American citizenry. When I was growing up, music lessons were not considered a luxury. They were a part of one's general education, as much as biology or football, and from our high school orchestras and choirs came the fine musicians who are being thrown out of work today, as one orchestra after another goes bankrupt.

This book is a "must" read for all who love the arts. In addition to spotlighting the precarious situation of symphony orchestras, music festivals, and theatres in today's cultural landscape, it offers the delightful portrait of a truly formidable educator. Every page that Mr. Morgenstern writes breathes love for the many students he has helped to professional careers, and pride in their achievements. Would there were more like him, and more money to go around to realize their teaching goals!

What is it about music that provides us with such a powerful link to our better selves? Immediately following the September 11 tragedies, the nation and the world found enormous solace and inspiration in music, above almost anything else. It united us in expressing emotions we could not reach with words, it gave us courage, it allowed us to grieve. It is there for everyone. But who is there to stand up for music itself? For the composers and artists?

If you have ever thrilled to a Brahms symphony or a Schubert string quartet or the "Nutcracker" ballet, if the final movement of the Beethoven Ninth moves you to tears of joy, do these things in the New Year: support your local symphony or opera company, write to your congressman, and READ THIS BOOK!

.....

Sheldon Morgenstern, conductor and Director Emeritus of the venerable Eastern Music Festival, has written what purports in its preface to be a hard, comprehensive look at the deteriorating state of the arts in general and classical music in particular in North America. The book doesn't turn out quite that way--it is mostly a career memoir, interesting and colorful enough with many telling anecdotes about one musician's formative years and influences. "No Vivaldi in the Garage" works best on this level. As an indictment of the sad state of the performing arts today it offers a valid portrait, but no solutions other than the oft-stated ones of not cutting music in the public schools et al. In addition, while Morgenstern must be given credit for being willing to name names, too much personal criticism of particular figures makes his writing seem at times petty and whiny.

I have read most of the reviews already posted and wish to add a conciliatory thought.
I am a professional musician in the Cleveland Orchestra. In the interest of objectivity and credibility, I will concede that the book is largely an autobiography and that there are anecdotes and opinions which are gratuitous to the main thrust of the topic. However, I think it is well worth reading this because of the underlying wisdom gained by the experience of someone who started a significant education-oriented music festival and kept it running for so long. Allow yourself to be amused by the stories and experiences and glean the volume of intelligence in the analysis of the problems confronting the classical music world and orchestras today.
I think the fact that this book has stirred so much controversy implies that there is plenty of substance within the narrative so it ought not be dismissed because of its many personal and provocative opinions.

Morgenstern tells a rattling good tale with a tone that is conversational and readable. Unfortunately, his message is startling and alarming for those of us who care about the future of classical music. His perspective as a lifelong champion of music education gives the narrative authenticity and credibility. His points are illustrated with numerous anecdotes, both humorous and depressing, culled from his many years as a professional conductor.

It is the politicians, especially school boards, who should read this book, but at the very least, we can hope that it provokes discussion and alarm in professional musicians and educators to shake off any complacency they may have and speak out for classical music's survival.

Sheldon Morgenstern's new book "No Vivaldi in the Garage," appears in bookshops at a pivotal time for the Arts in the United States.
Shaken by the events of September 11, 2001, artists have tried to come to grips with the human conditions of intolerance, bigotry, and the fanaticism that breeds destruction of all this is meaningful and beautiful; the essence of "neutral" creative 'energy,' used to deconstruct civilzation's brightest beacons. Can we in America, accept the premise of the Taliban, that music should be banned, and that there should be "No Vivaldi in the [OUR] Garage," as Danny DeVito proclaims - a Bin Laden henchman of sorts - banning classical music from the 'garage' set of the sit-com "Taxi?!"

Mr. Morgenstern's very personal account of a life spent in advocating for the Arts, traces his artistic roots, and weaves a touching memoir out of the strands of early influences, student days, and the travails and triumphs of an orchestral musician, emergent political-artistic foci, and conductor-music director-administrator pioneering. Mr. Morgenstern emerges from these pages as a man of many parts, and a student of much more than just musical scores.

The rather grave mesage of this volume [warnings proven all too correct by recent alarums throughout even the most supposedly "safe" - read: heavily endowed - arts organizations] is couched in an engaging prose style that invites the reader to relax, but also to pay attention. Rather like a committed musician/conductor building a particular interpretation of a score, Mr. Morgenstern shares his odyssey - his calling - with the reader in compelling fashion.

Placing the Symphony Orchestra, the Opera company, the Ballet troupe, and other Arts organizations on the pedestal of "high Arts," amounts to a death-defying tightrope walk.
Top-heavy with ineffective managements and unresponsive (curiously "deaf-eared!") administrators, an inexoribly adversarial scism between the producers of Art and its executant performers, seems a staus quo and repetitive stress syndrome that pressages the collapse of many Arts organizatioins.

Mr. Morgenstern may not have all of the answers, but he makes a case for a trajectory that must be adopted in order to salvage our sinking ship of Art in America.
What, indeed, will the visitor from outer space do with Terrestrial "culture," when asked to evaluate America's impact on the culture of the world?!

Futurists predict that the entertainment of the "new age" Aquarian Millennium will consist of solitary cyber worlds conjured on private small screens; an almost asocial, and perhaps anti-social medium that will tend, even further, to diminish the audience for the "live" listening and viewing experience. This may spell a future of young people increasingly alienated from the interactive, socializing and humanizing experience that has been for many of us a life-altering "Ah Ha" epiphany: for audience (YOU NEED US!) and performer (WE NEED YOU!).

Change is inevitable, but history's lessons need to be heeded. Mr. Morgenstern may prove to be a modern day Nostradamus, as he looks over the water from France at our floundering "ship" of Art.

Dedicated and concerned musicians, artists and arts administrators and patrons would do well to read and heed this book.

Ralph Lockwood
Professor of Music
The School of Music
Arizona State University
...

This is a witty book, well written, but frightening for those who care about the future of our symphony orchestras. Even the
world famous Philadelphia Orchestra is now facing serious financial problems for all the reasons that Morgenstern describes in No Vivaldi in the Garage. I share his views of what has created the problems faced by so many orchestras, and sadly share his pessimism for the future unless there are visionaries ready to take serious action.

Morgenstern's book also includes a detailed appendix about statistical information I'd not found elsewhere, information about what orchestras should and should not be doing. Highly recommended, by far the best I've yet read on this topic.

Having just finished Sheldon Morgenstern's "No Vivaldi In The Garage" I find myself both melancholy and perplexed. With his 35 years as a well known symphony conductor and educator he is most certainly the perfect individual to issue a plea to save the musical arts in North America. This is a respected musician who for years travelled world wide spreading his knowledge of and love for music. It should be the desire of each of us who truely wish for future generations to be able to enjoy what is rapidly fading to help Mr. Morgenstern plead his case. I will give this book as a gift for all occasions.

As a non-artistic person reading this book, I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised! No Vivaldi in the Garage is a great look at the crisis of Classical Music in the US entwined with the highlights of the professional career of conductor Sheldon Morgenstern. It was so interesting following the career of an American Conductor through the highs and lows. Mr Morgenstern offers great tales of his life experiences from growing up to dealing with such greats as Leonard Berstein and Wynton Marsalis. As someone who knows almost nothing about the industry and classical music at all for that matter, the book brought incredible insight. From Mr. Morgenstern's travels and experiences with different orchestras all over Europe to the turmoil of the music boards, directors and fundraising, it was all fascinating and at so many stages, quite frustrating. The last chapter gave great ideas about remedying the situation or at least making a start of fixing the problems. I know that throughout my entire education, I don't remember hearing more than 5 words about classical music, except for the mention of the Greats such as Mozart and Beethoven, and that was only in mentioning that they were great, but how, why, and hearing the music - Never. Such a shame for our culture today.
The book has certainly opened my eyes and I do hope that it will open others in the right positions to fight the good fight and hopefully soon, classical music will be taught in our schools and thought of among the population with as much respect as Rock N' Roll.
Also, as one who knows little about classical music, I am thankful for the names mentioned in your book. It offers a great guide to buying and listening to music in the future. So many names that seem so basic in Mr. Morgenstern's world will be a new experience for me and my family to be treasured in the future.
Thank you, Mr. Morgenstern for writing such and enjoyable and educational book. Even from an inartistic person such as myself, I can appreciate the grave loss that we will experience as a country if things don't change SOON for the future of Classical Music in the USA. And may the message be heard for the sake of our country and it's artistic culture.