Back to the classics: Local classical music performers say they're witnessing a surge of interest in their art form, but some wonder how long it will last

By Brian P. Nanos, ExpNews@ExplorerNews.com

November 29, 2006 - Though no one is sure how it happened or how long it will last, one thing seems clear: Tucson has experienced a classical music renaissance.

The list of classical music performers in Tucson that have attracted growing audiences includes both the relatively new and the old. This year, the three-year old Tucson Chamber Artists have seen their audience double, and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's first few shows of the season have drawn larger crowds than those last season. Last season the orchestra's ticket revenues rose 5 percent over the previous year (see chart page 18B).

In the last two years, the Southern Arizona Women's Chorus also has doubled in size, while audiences to its performances have almost tripled. Similarly, the number of people who attended the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra's first few concerts this season almost doubled from those who attended SASO shows in previous years.

Meanwhile, the number of performance organizations in the city continues to increase.

In the past year alone, Tucsonan Cyndee Chaffee has started two groups - the Catalina Community Chorus and the Clarinet Ensemble of Greater Oro Valley - both of which still attract new members.

"I think right now, we're kind of in a golden time," said Adam Boyles, SASO's music director.

His group recently drew 650 people to its eighth show of this season. "There were some years when we wouldn't see 650 come to a two-show series," he said.

Boyles also sings with the Tucson Chamber Artists, a professional vocal group founded by his friend Eric Holtan. The singers recently drew more than 800 people to a Mozart concert series. That number eclipsed the group's previous record, which stood at just more than 400.

Both organizations also have seen increases in the number musicians wanting to join their ranks. Most dramatically, the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra had an unexpected number of applicants show for its auditions.

And yet, neither Boyles nor Holtan seems certain how Tucson found itself in this enviable position, a haven for well-heeled audiophiles.

"How do we know what brought these people to the concert?" Holtan said after his chorus's Nov. 4 and 5 performances. "We don't."

He could only guess. And so too could the directors and members of Tucson's other classical music organizations.

Maybe it's part of a larger national trend. Or, maybe it was caused by Tucson's booming growth. Or maybe, some suggested, it started with the University of Arizona or the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Perhaps it's all - or none - of the above.

'Alive city'

Holtan, Southern Arizona Women's Chorus Artistic Director Terrie Ashbaugh and Tucson Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Susan Franano attribute the growing popularity of classical music to the region's growing population, which just eclipsed the 1-million mark.

If they're right, and as long as such growth continues, then music directors won't have to worry about this resurgence coming to an end.

"I think the talent will always increase as the growth increases," Holtan said optimistically.

Tucson's population boom should ensure the continued success of classical music groups "until we use all the water," Holtan joked.

However, that Tucson's become a burgeoning metropolis doesn't entirely explain its residents' interest in classical music. According to Franano and others, the way that Tucson has grown is just as important.

According to 2000 census figures, less than 40 percent of people who live here were born in Arizona. Everyone else came from someplace else. Franano figures that many of those people came from larger cities, where they had come to expect easy access to the arts.

When retirees look to move to the Southwest, according to Catalina Chamber Orchestra President Patrick Gibbons, those interested in the arts will choose a place like Tucson over, say, a place like Phoenix, which he described as "more commercial."

The resulting population is more open to the arts than those in other regions.

Which would explain why, when Johanna Lundy came to Tucson earlier this year to serve as the acting principle French horn for the TSO, she was surprised by the interest the community showed in the arts.

"It seems like a really alive city for such a small city," she said.

Franano says she hears it all the time.

People who have moved to Tucson from Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston or another large city often are pleasantly surprised after going to a TSO concert. They tell her, "Frankly, we weren't expecting much, but this is amazing."

Youth movement

Yet, census figures reveal that as the region gets larger, it's attracting just as many young people as old. And young people don't like the classical music, right?

Not so, suggested Glenn Petry, a partner at 21C Media Group, a New York-based management firm that represents classical musicians.

According to Petry, American classical music performers have found an easy way to attract young people to their concerts: lower prices.

"If ticket prices are affordable, people show," he said.

In fact, lower ticket prices are one reason - coupled with creative programs - that Columbia University's Miller Theatre has, according to Time Out New York, "single handedly made contemporary classical music sexy in New York City."

Miller Theatre Executive Director George Steel said that most other producers "forget to remember" that ultimately the ticket price is an artistic decision that affects the success of the concert.

Tucson's classical music groups aren't among those doing the forgetting.

The TSO offers discounted last-minute tickets to students. And Peter A. McAllister, who has been the director of the University of Arizona's School of Music since 2005, has increased the number of free concerts his students perform. The University of Arizona Philharmonic Orchestra, for example, will give a free concert Dec. 1.

The big two

Many say that the classical music scene owes a lot to those two organizations because both the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and University of Arizona draw talented musicians who wouldn't otherwise live Southern Arizona.

Under its previous director and co-founder, Maruice Skones, UA's choral conducting program received national recognition for giving students hands-on conducting experience. The graduate choral program, now run by Bruce Chamberlain, attracts students from all over the world.

The program claims to be the only one in the country to produce a finalist in each of the American Choral Directors Association's last three conducting competitions.

Currently, the graduate program has 27 students, most of whom have joined off-campus music organizations.

The Tucson Chamber Artists, for example, includes a number of choral conducting students. Holtan, the group's founder, admits he may have never come to Tucson if it hadn't been for the university's strong graduate program.

Then again, if the university brought Holtan to Tucson, then the Tucson Symphony Orchestra has played a roll in keeping him here.

He's the assistant director of the orchestra's chorus, which makes him just one of the many TSO musicians to have a second performance outlet.

Holtan doesn't have to go far to find others.

In the Tucson Chamber Artists, there are at least four other singers who also perform for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

TSO Executive Director Susan Franano said this is common in cities with a strong, central arts organization.

Historically, she said, when that organization has success, it "is able to attract to it quality professionals who then have their own projects."

According to Franano, this is most likely a phase that will eventually peak as spin-off groups lead to more spin-off groups. She said that, in time, there would be too many for the town to support and some people will lose interest, even in the organization that spawned them all.

"Eventually," she predicted, "we will feel a pinch."