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Commission Music

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STRAVINSKY' S DUMBARTON OAKS INSPIRES AN ANNIVERSARY GIFT AND, WHEN ONE COMMISSION LEADS TO ANOTHER, IT TURNS INTO "BARBASH WEEK" OF NEW WORKS AT THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC.

Maurice and Lillian Barbash might be called musical "insiders." For 27 years, Lillian has directed the Islip Arts Council on Long Island. She has established and overseen a performing arts series that offers free events as well as concerts by such star ensembles as the Juilliard and Tokyo string quartets. She has also presented performances by the New York Philharmonic on Long Island for 25 consecutive seasons. And Maurice has been active in musical organizations since his retirement 15 years ago when one of his daughters took over his very successful residential development enterprise.

Lillian and Maurice Barbash

Together, Maurice and Lillian helped found the Long Island Philharmonic and have served on the board. The couple also founded the Bayshore School Arts Education Fund that enriches school music curriculums in a variety of ways, such as bringing artists to classrooms. Last year the school district was cited as one of the 100 best in the nation for music.

Both say they have never been musicians. Lillian took piano lessons as a child, but didn't like to practice. At the age of 50, Maurice tried the clarinet but said he "blew his brains out." Nevertheless, they passed on their enthusiastic love of music to their three children, who all studied music. And among their six grandchildren, one is a whiz classical pianist and jazz saxophonist-the grandparents are watching his progress with great interest.

Maurice: Our experience with commissioning began one day when we were driving someplace and listening to WQXR. Our 40th anniversary was coming up and I said, do you want to have a party? Just then the music ended and the announcer said, "That was Dumbarton Oaks by Stravinsky, commissioned by Mr. So-and-So in honor of his and his wife's anniversary."

Lillian: I said, that's what I want! I'd like to commission a concerto for Yo-Yo Ma because we knew him a little and our kids went to school with him. Luckily we had an inside track because our daughter Cathy was then the orchestra manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yo-Yo was scheduled to perform there.

M: So we went to his concert and saw him afterwards and he immediately said well, who do you want to compose it? My funny reaction was they're all dead! I said you choose because I really don't know the contemporary composers. He picked one of his old college professors, Leon Kirchner. Then our daughter asked Maestro Muti if he would conduct the premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra and he said sure! It was that easy for us. But I know that's not always the case.

L: Our luck continued. Yo-Yo warned us that it was possible that the new concerto would be played once and never heard again. That's the risk. And we said, well at least we'd have a tape to pass on to our grandchildren. But as it turned out, the work was recorded and the CD won a Grammy! A pretty amazing outcome.

M: We were skiing at Taos on the night of the Grammy awards. Yo-Yo faxed us a congratulations to our hotel! There was just one fax machine at the post office and two sisters who ran it. And one comes running up to us with the fax in her hand, which of course she had read. She said, is this from the real Yo-Yo Ma? Of course we traveled to Philadelphia, then to Cleveland and to Boston to hear the piece played. Then it was performed at Avery Fisher Hall in New York with Leonard Slatkin. We attended rehearsals and the recording sessions and all the time we had a blast.

L: Our first commission was so successful and we had so much fun, we decided to do it again for our 50th anniversary. We thought of Emanuel Ax because he's such a generous musician. In my work as director of an arts council, I arrange concerts in public schools with soloists who are performing with the Long Island Philharmonic. Once Manny did a wonderful school visit and then when I tried to pay him the honorarium, he refused to take the money, saying that he was out there anyhow and was happy to do it. He was the only one who ever did that and I never forgot it. So when we broached the idea of the new work, I reminded him of that time. He said, so you're doing this because I'm a nice guy? And we said, exactly!

M: We asked Manny to choose the composer and he picked Christopher Rouse, who had never written a piano concerto. After the premiere with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Slatkin, Manny played the concerto all over the world. He told us it got an exceptional reception in Zurich and last summer we heard it at the Proms in London.

L: For us, the key was to approach the soloists because they will make every effort to get performances.

Bright Sheng

M: Since Yo-Yo and Manny had been playing together for over 25 years, we then thought let's do a double concerto. Yo-Yo co-opted it for his Silk Road project and brought in the composer Bright Sheng. The work was premiered in March 2003 at the New York Philharmonic. The orchestra's executive director, Zarin Mehta, had the idea to program the three works we commissioned all in the same week! I guess we'll go down in history somehow. I've been telling people, if you don't like contemporary music, you can blame us for that whole week at the Philharmonic. We know that because Lillian is a professional in the field, as is my daughter, it was easy for us. For others who are looking for a way in, I would say that contacting an organization like Meet The Composer would be a good first step because that's where the expertise and contacts are-an instant network. New music can be daunting and even insiders don't necessarily know what composers are out there right now. For instance, we had heard of Christopher Rouse, but not Leon Kirchner or Bright Sheng.

L: But now as a result of our commissioning, I'm more receptive to listening to contemporary music. Before the Kirchner piece, I confess that if the radio was playing contemporary atonal music, I would switch to a different station. I could do Stravinsky and Shostakovich but not much beyond that. But now my ears have been stretched! I saw Lulu at the Met the other night and I just loved it.

M: As long we're alive and have a few bucks left, we're going to commission music. It's one of the most pleasurable things we do. Commissioning is a way for people who love and appreciate music, but who can't play an instrument, to make music. We feel we participated in making three pieces of music. That's got to be some kind of ego trip! And one of the great side benefits is you get to be an insider by meeting and becoming friends with so many musicians.