Call to action

As artists, we must do everything we can to get off our asses and get our current system off life-support.  Take, for instance the magnanimous gift, the selfless generosity of one heiress to not only bail out one of the country's most troubled symphony orchestras, but to create a potential situation in which that institution could not only survive, but flourish.  Of course, some of us have as much faith in the people handling the moolah as we do in the Tooth Fairy (perhaps he/she could do a much better job, actually). 

I digress...but, my main point is that relationships with donors/sponsors are fostered over years and generations.  It's apparent to me that this phenomenon occurred in the city referred to in the previous paragraph.  Thank-you letters are important.  My in-laws give money annually to 3 or 4 great rust-belt orchestras.  My wife's parents INVARIABLY receive exuberant, gushing, handwritten letters expressing the gratitude of the organization for their generosity.  From all but one.

We must all do our part, whether it's writing a seemingly unimportant line or two in a 29-cent card with a 44-cent postage stamp.  For Christ's sake, at least send a Goddamned e-mail.  Shame on those who proclaim that they have gratitude, but have nothing with which to back it up, other than endorsing the back of the check. 

We musicians owe more than just doing our job, too, and I am aware that we do an extraordinary amount above and beyond our job description.  But that's still not enough, and it's far from everybody.  Is it my imagination, or are those who do the least amount of external work the ones who bitch the loudest, and create further acrimony between management and labor?  This is not an overt indictment of either side (there shouldn't even BE two sides to this), but a call to action.  Get off your asses, those of you who care about your future and being custodians of the future of the Fine Arts, and go the extra mile.  This is not over yet, but it will be soon enough.  True, happenings are cyclical, and one may luck into a windfall, but that's not luck.  That's cultivation. 

I remember Janos Starker telling me once that if I'm going into this business for the fame or for money, then I shouldn't waste my time.  It didn't matter, because I've been an artist since I was very young, and I got bitten by the bug, and I'm a hopeless addict.  Starker told me that there will be times in my career that will be meager, and I have weathered those storms, and am prepared for the one whose vortex we all appear to be in (apologies for the dangling preposition;  James Joyce I'm not).  My love for music and my craft have sustained me through the worst of times:  through alcoholism, through a terrible breakup of a marriage, and the deaths of both of my parents.  It is worth saving.

Step up, O you bitchy ones...do something.  Put up or shut the hell up.

I still love you all,
XO,
BOB