BAM's 1990s Brooklyn Philharmonic Experiment Revived in Essay Reprint
Joseph Horowitz reprints his 1995 essay detailing the Brooklyn Philharmonic's transformation under his executive directorship at BAM in the 1990s. The orchestra, having lost two-thirds of its subscribers, adopted thematic festival programming curated by Horowitz, which tripled audiences and secured NEH, Mellon, Hearst, Rockefeller, and Knight grants. Festivals included 'From the New World' (Dvořák) and 'The Russian Stravinsky,' featuring scholars like Michael Beckerman, Richard Taruskin, and Robert Winter. The experiment ended when BAM director Harvey Lichtenstein withdrew financial support after an audit. Horowitz also recounts his earlier Schubertiade symposiums at the 92nd Street Y, which inspired the BAM model. The essay reflects on the potential for orchestras to attract younger audiences through interdisciplinary, intellectually engaging programming.
Key facts
- Joseph Horowitz was Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic in the 1990s.
- The orchestra lost over two-thirds of its subscribers before the new programming.
- Thematic festivals included 'From the New World' and 'The Russian Stravinsky'.
- Audiences tripled after the change.
- The orchestra became the first to be funded by the NEH.
- Major grants came from Mellon, Hearst, Rockefeller, and Knight foundations.
- Harvey Lichtenstein cancelled financial favors after a BAM audit.
- Horowitz's Schubertiade symposiums at the 92nd Street Y preceded the BAM model.
Entities
Artists
- Joseph Horowitz
- Harvey Lichtenstein
- Peter Bogdanoff
- Michael Beckerman
- Louis Andriessen
- Sofia Gubaidulina
- Lou Harrison
- Steve Reich
- Philip Glass
- Lukas Foss
- Gunther Schuller
- Zhou Long
- Chen-Yi
- Peter Schickele
- P. D. Q. Bach
- Gidon Kremer
- Hermann Prey
- Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg
- Robert Winter
- Malcolm Bilson
- Sanford Sylvan
- Will Crutchfield
- Timothy Mussard
- Johann Michael Vogl
- Walter Frisch
- Christopher Gibbs
- William Wolfram
- Corona Schröter
- Ludwig Spohr
- Anselm Hüttenbrenner
- Joseph Roth
- Franz Liszt
- Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
- Stephen Heller
- Geza Zichy
- Karen Smith Erickson
- Nathaniel Watson
- Carl Friedrich Zelter
- Johann Friedrich Reichardt
- Bernhard Klein
- Karl Loewe
- Susan McClary
- Maynard Solomon
- Andras Schiff
- Steven Lubin
- Artur Schnabel
- Alfred Brendel
- Ruth Solie
- Richard Contiguglia
- John Contiguglia
- Cyrus Hamlin
- Caspar David Friedrich
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Friedrich Hölderlin
- Leon Botstein
- Susan Youens
- David Owen Norris
- Twyla Tharp
- Robert Wilson
- Jerzy Grotowski
- Pina Bausch
- Mark Morris
- Peter Sellars
- Peter Brook
- Ingmar Bergman
- Jean-Marie Villegier
- Harry Kupfer
- Peter Stein
- Alfred Schnittke
- Arvo Pärt
- Keith Jarrett
- Laurie Anderson
- Dennis Russell Davies
- Edward MacDowell
- Amy Beach
- Harry Burleigh
- Alan Feinberg
- Maurice Arnold
- Scott Joplin
- Will Marion Cook
- Arthur Farwell
- John Mack Faragher
- Dmitri Pokrovsky
- Richard Taruskin
- Theodore Levin
- John Bowlt
- Elizabeth Valkenier
- Lev Karsavin
- Nikolai Gogol
- Marc Blitzstein
- Daniel Gregory Mason
- Virgil Thomson
- Aaron Copland
- Charles Ives
- Edgard Varèse
- Harry Partch
- John Cage
- George Gershwin
- Cole Porter
- Irving Berlin
- Richard Rodgers
- Henry Cowell
- Paul Bowles
- Colin McPhee
- David Zinman
- Michael Torke
- Antonín Dvořák
- Anton Seidl
- James Gibbons Huneker
Institutions
- Brooklyn Philharmonic
- Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
- New York Times
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
- Mellon Foundation
- Hearst Foundation
- Rockefeller Foundation
- Knight Foundation
- South Dakota Symphony
- Boston Symphony
- 92nd Street Y
- Kaufmann Concert Hall
- Columbia University
- New Yorker
- Carnegie Hall
- Lincoln Center
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- American Symphony Orchestra
- Bard Festival
- Baltimore Symphony
- Da Camera of Houston
- Chicago Symphony
- American Symphony Orchestra League (ASOL)
- New York Philharmonic
- Modern Music (journal)
Locations
- Brooklyn
- New York City
- New York
- United States
- Manhattan
- Boston
- Baltimore
- Houston
- Chicago
- Venice
- California
- Russia
- Moscow
- Iowa
- South Dakota
- Tanglewood