Art As Entertainment?

Rancho Santa Fe Review
Maestro’s Podium
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Art as entertainment?
By Jung-Ho Pak, artistic director and conductor, San Diego Chamber
Orchestra
Can art entertain? Should art entertain?
This is the question I have asked
myself over the past 20 years. As I
moved from being a college student to a
professional, I began the well-traveled
journey of trying to discover what it
means to be an artist. Of course, there
are as many different answers as there
are people, and I found myself questioning the very essence of what responsibility I had as a musician.
I've had the privilege of wearing
many different hats in my profession …
as many as one can wear as a conductor.
Jung-Ho Pak
I've conducted at major conservatories,
important professional orchestras, and worked with most of the great
international soloists. What caused my musical mid-life crisis was the
slow, but sure, distancing of modern society from fine art. Those in our
profession usually blame audiences and the public's general lack of
understanding.
However, after some philosophizing and observation, I've decided
that the problem primarily rests with the artist. One reason is that, like
in Mozart or Beethoven's times, the "customer" was always right, meaning that art (even great art) had almost always been a commercial exercise. While artists like Van Gogh or Arnold Schoenberg may have been
primarily self-motivated artists, most artists were likely Sally Field-like
… wanting to be liked, or even better, paid.
There is an air of entitlement that modern artists often have for the
price of sacrifice and a moderate amount of hard work. However, the
basic responsibility to please another human being is sometimes considered to be a distasteful and awkward subject. After all, giving people
what they want is more about Madison Avenue than about Carnegie
Hall. I believe both worlds can exist, but as exemplified by only a few
brave souls. Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang … these artists are
among the highest paid musicians in the world because besides being
consummate musicians, they are extremely human on stage. That in
itself is refreshingly desirable, for they actually dare to make people
happy.
So this is my journey, to entertain and inspire. The greater challenge
as a conductor is to find an orchestra who has that same entrepreneurial
attitude. Luckily, I have found it with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra.
Season of celebrations for
Jung-Ho Pak and San Diego
Chamber Orchestra
The San Diego Chamber Orchestra, under the leadership of Artistic
Director, Jung-Ho Pak, is capitalizing on its highly successful 2007-08 season by announcing its 25th season with one of the most exciting line-up of
concerts ever.
Celebrating its 25 years of stability, and focusing on a bright future,
the Orchestra’s new vision of providing “the next generation of the classical music experience” through innovative programming, beautiful music
and a total high-quality customer experience that begins with the purchase
of a ticket and lasts through the last note of a concert will be expanded even
more during this season of celebrations.
By almost any measurement, Maestro Pak’s second season as the
artistic director for the San Diego Chamber Orchestra was a stunning success. Concertgoers were wildly enthusiastic, the musicians were excited as
reflected by their obvious connection to the guests during performances
and while mingling with guests before and after the concerts (a first in the
San Diego area), and ticket sales and revenue were stronger than ever, with
most concerts sold out. Adding to the excitement building around the
Orchestra, major ground-breaking education programs, involving thousands of students and teachers throughout the county, will be kicked off this
fall.
The Classics Series concerts are performed in three venues: St. Paul’s
Cathedral, Downtown; Sherwood Auditorium, La Jolla; and Del Mar
Country Club, Rancho Santa Fe. Pops Concerts at the Center will be performed at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, and Masterpiece
Messiah will be performed in two local churches and at the CCAE.
The Classics Series concert, The Mozarts: All in the Family, will open
the season at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m. This concert, to be billed as a “biotech night” will offer repertoire from three generations of Mozarts and, as concertgoers have come to expect from Maestro
Pak, will feature some surprises.
Details for the upcoming concerts are provided on the SDCO Web
site, www.sdco.org:
Classics Series:
October – The Mozarts: All in the Family (Celebrate the genes)
November – Asian Silk Road (Celebrate the exotic)
February – The Creation: Haydn’s Masterpiece (Celebrate the beginning)
March – Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Celebrate fantasy)
April – Handel: 250 Years (Celebrate majesty)
May – Beethoven: Rebel with a Cause (Celebrate heroes)
Masterpiece Messiah (at two churches and California Center for
the Arts)
December – Messiah (performed with Bach Collegium San Diego);
complemented with video of art masterpieces during the performance
Pops Concerts (at California Center for the Arts)
September – Broadway Delights
May – Ultimate Opera
Visit www.sdco.org or phone 858-350-0290, ext. 7, for tickets.
www,sdranchcoastnews.com
April 17, 2008
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