Buffalo charges into Poland
mainThe Buffalo Philharmonic is setting off on its first foreign trip in 30 years.
But there is a small shortfall….
See below.
Help us raise $30K in 30 days!
With less than six weeks until we depart for Poland,longtime BPO friends and supporters Cindy and Francis Letro have challenged the BPO to raise $30,000 in 30 days for the orchestra’s first international tour in 30 years!
Starting today, the Letros will match challenge contributions dollar for dollar up to $30,000. If you give during the challenge, you will be entered to win an autographed copy of the not-yet-released “Treasures of Poland” CD, a Poland tour hat produced by New Era Cap, and a voucher for two tickets to any concert in the 2017-18 season.
This is your chance to participate in a proud moment in Buffalo’s history. Gifts of any size will help get us to our goal, and are deeply appreciated.
mozzarella di bufala!
Buffalo has a budget of about $11 million even though it serves a combined statistical area of 1.2 million. The LA Phil’s budget at $115 million in in 2015 is over ten times higher. Chicago’s is 7 times higher. 26% of the residents in Buffalo live below the poverty line. In 1950, Buffalo was the 15th largest city in America. Today it is 81st due to American social and economic philosophies that have caused enormous problems for highly urban art forms like orchestras. I hope they will raise the money they need and have a successful tour.
Well, Buffalo is another one of those places where residents tend to retire in southern states but collect retirement in Buffalo, and so the money is sort of being sucked out of the system.
I think suburban white flight has been an even greater source of population loss, along with economic policies that destroyed the city’s once lively manufacturing sector. In the larger picture of things and the myriad interrelationships of society, to destroy manufacturing jobs is to destroy orchestras.
It’s not quite relevant to the tour, but I just want to add that I hope that the Toronto Symphony has been seriously considering Falletta.
Don’t mention the war.
Huh? The USA and Poland have been allies ever since Kościuszko and Pułaski fought on the American side during the Revolutionary War. Certainly they fought on the same side in both world wars. A very odd comment.
Article in the Washington Post today about Poland’s government making it illegal to say thant any Poles were complicit in crimes associated with the Nazi era
This one wins the “Irrelevant Comment of the Day” award …
Thank you. It was an honor just to be nominated.
For what it’s worth, I am against this new law, just as I am against laws that criminalise Holocaust denial. I don’t support people who falsify history, but nor do I believe that they should be subject to criminal sanctions.
Unfortunately, as I understand it, there has been some misreporting about the new law in the anglophone media. Nobody is claiming that there was not a single Polish citizen throughout the entire course of the war who collaborated with the Nazi regime, just as nobody denies that there were British and American collaborators. I believe that what is asserted is that there was no collaboration by the Polish nation (naród) or state (państwo). That assertion is entirely accurate provided that one understands that an individual Polish citizen does not represent an entire nation (and quite clearly the Polish government-in-exile was not collaborating with Nazis).
The most important part of the law is the clause prohibiting use of the phrase “Polish death camps” (Polskie obozy zagłady). Calling Auschwitz Polish because it was located within occupied Poland is as absurd as calling the Luftwaffe British because its bombs fell on London.
So visitors to Poland do not need to worry about talking about the war. They should simply avoid suggesting that the nation or state of Poland was responsible for Nazi atrocities, in particular the construction and operation of extermination camps.
Wrong “buffalo” in the picture. I think you meant this kind:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison#/media/File:American_bison_k5680-1.jpg
Fantastic!!!!Fine orchestra,and Maestra Faletta did such a great job getting the orchestra to new heights,including a series of fabulous naxos recordings showing the orchestras´excellence!!!Remember fondly the concerts she did here with the Mannheim Opera orchestra when i came here,ca.1992/93.She did a splendid “Planets” performance..The orchestra,which was quite tough in those days,really fell for her.Her picture even today graces the “wall of fame”of guest conductors at the rehearsal stage,along those of Eugen Jochum,Vaclav Neumann.Kondrashin.Kitaenko,Runnicles,Rostropovich,Domingo,Andrew Litton,and many more!Good luck for the tour to all!!!
The first Buffalo picture is certainly a fine example of the Cape Buffalo, from Africa, great observation!