San Francisco Symphony honors Michael Morgan with 3 concerts
NewsThe SF Symphony has hired three young conductors for a series of concerts in honour of the late Oakland Symphony conductor Michael Morgan, who died in August.
Sharing the baton will be SFS resident conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, with Akiko Fujimoto and Earl Lee.
From February 17 to 19, Lee will conduct Carlos Simon’s “Amen!” and César Franck’s “Le Chasseur maudit.” Fujimoto will preside over Florence Price’s third symphony. Bartholomew-Poyser will deliver Johannes Brahms’ “Alto Rhapsody” and three American hymns arranged by Jack Perla: “Give Me Jesus,” “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord.”
Michael Morgan was a musician of great integrity and a wonderful human being. Early in the pandemic, a few of my colleagues in the Chicago Symphony viola section and I planned to record remotely some patriotic songs arranged for four violas in time for July 4. Then George Floyd’s murder happened and it occurred to us that “The Stars and Stripes Forever” would be a rather tone-deaf statement as our country was tearing itself apart.
I decided to arrange “Lift Every Voice” instead, but we were sensitive to the danger that it might strike some as cultural appropriation in that particular historical moment to have Asian and white musicians perform a song with such profound roots in the Black community. I knew Michael from his days as the CSO’s Associate Conductor, and I contacted him for advice. He urged us to do the video, and with characteristic generosity offered to give us a spoken introduction. You can see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUXva_dSgDU
Religious music in the form of hymns??!! That ought of infuriate millions of people!!! Oh, wait…
Yes Sue, keep waiting..and baiting..
No, only you and people who think like you. Happy holidays.
If they really wanted to honor Maestro Morgan, they would have had these conductors each conduct a subscription concert instead of these meaningless, bitty programs. This is the typical pattern for American orchestras when they hire conductors of color–they are relegated to such meaningless concerts, pops concerts, or the obligatory Martin Luther King Day program (for Black conductors). American orchestras have an awfully long way to go to get to some sort of equality, even in a supposedly liberal city such as San Francisco.
Just to clarify, this is the original program Michael Morgan was scheduled to conduct with San Francisco this season, split among the three conductors. These are subscription concerts. The sad thing here, to me, is that if SFS had really wanted to honor Michael Morgan, they would have hired him during the 30 years he was Music Director in Oakland, doing great work right across the Bay.
As I see it, MM was quite happy working in Oakland, a diverse community, where his eclectic programming was well received. The only sad thing here is that he is so suddenly gone, although he left his legacy and inspired countless others to carry on!
I’m thankful they didn’t ask MTT. He’d probably do Ruggle’s “Suntreader”, Ives’ “Three Places in New England”, some mediocre Brahms, and a full length Mahler symphony in an idiosyncratic and dragged-out manner.