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Commission Music

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A SON'S MUSIC LESSONS INSPIRE HIS PARENTS TO TAKE UP INSTRUMENTS THEY HADN'T PLAYED FOR MANY YEARS. THE EXPERIENCE OPENS UP A WHOLE NEW WORLD AND RESULTS IN A PREMIERE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER.

David Thomas, co-founder of the Leitner Thomas Group, and Barbara Thomas, CEO of HBO sports, are the devoted parents of a teenaged son and daughter. They live in Manhattan and describe themselves as "die-hard Westsiders."

The Thomas Family

When David and Barbara travel abroad, they enjoy seeking out the local music scene. A decade ago, they found themselves in Prague and realized that no matter what the concert was, in Czechoslovakia there was always at least one Czech piece on the program. "What is it about us Americans?" David asked himself. "We would never do that." This observation brought David and Barbara to a resolve to support American composers and American music and for Dave to join the board of Meet The Composer.

Then they heard the world premiere of the Disney Millennium Symphonies performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1998 and realized that one person (in this case, Michael Eisner at Disney) could make a tremendous difference in the world of music.

But the real inspiration for commissioning a new work of music came from their hands-on experience…

David: About ten years ago, our son began music lessons on the recorder and the flute. As I watched and listened to him, I found myself really wanting to retrace what it felt like to be a student.

Barbara: Dave began taking lessons on the clarinet again, which he played in high school. Then he started in on the saxophone. He was having so much fun that it encouraged me to take piano again.

D: I began sax lessons with a luminary in the field, Albert Regni, who plays with his group, the American Saxophone Quartet. Studying with him provided an amazing window into the New York music community.

B: I love playing the piano, but when it came to contemporary music, I felt like a neophyte. But by studying music ourselves, we got to meet so many people and we learned so much from the interactions.

Bob Mintzer

D: I now am surprised when I hear people like my mother-in-law say oh, I don't want to hear any 20th century music. Then I put on a CD and she'll say gosh, that's lovely! What is it? And it's the latest music. There is still the immediate misperception that new music is screechy and hard to listen to. But that's simply not true about music being written today.

Since I love music for the sax and Al has played new music for many years, one day he said if you're interested in commissioning, I could hook you up with a composer and the American Saxophone Quartet would perform the work. He suggested that composer Bob Mintzer, one of the original members of the ensemble, write the piece. Then Al persuaded Leonard Slatkin to conduct the new work with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center. So pretty quickly we had a composer, ensemble, venue and an orchestra.

B: I heard the piece for the first time on opening night. I was surprised to find that I was really nervous. It was like watching a new play that I had directed or written. Or like the birth of a baby!

D: The National Symphony was so gracious. After the concert, Slatkin invited us onstage with the participants to take questions from the audience. I think that made the audience aware of how new works come into existence. The best question asked was how does it feel to commission a work of music that is played here at the Kennedy Center? That gave us a chance to talk about all the emotions involved for us.

B: Afterward we had a great celebration with the musicians and a reception with Leonard Slatkin and everyone stayed until late. What a party. And all the time, I felt so proud of what they had accomplished.

D: Barb's parents came to the Kennedy Center for the premiere and I said to her father, you should do something like this. When he said he couldn't afford it, I said, Jack, get five of your friends to join in so it's $5,000 a couple and you can listen to samples of the music together. And he said, oh we could do that!

I serve as president of the Trevor Day School and now we are contemplating a new project there. It's based on the St. Paul Suite that Edward Elgar wrote as a commission for the St. Paul School in London-a very famous and beautiful piece of music. Our idea is to have a group of parents raise a meaningful amount of money, maybe $50,000, and hold a competition for a "Trevor Suite." Perhaps some movement could be playable by students. But part of commissioning is not to inhibit creativity. You have to leave composers some leeway.

B: One of the big hurdles for people who might want to commission new music is that they can't just look up a composer in the yellow pages. They might not know where to start. That's what's good about an organization like Meet The Composer, because it has a network to connect everyone.

D: Meet The Composer is going to provide the professional guidance for our Trevor Suite project. What's attractive is that the school prides itself on a sense of community and this is a way to channel that into something permanent. In the future, the music can be played at graduation or on the first day of class or whenever. The idea has generated a lot of excitement and people have begun to rally around. There are a lot of schools and universities that would easily be in a position to do something like this.

The Kennedy Center premiere was a big weekend for our family. We still have the memorabilia from our trip to Washington around the house and we talk about it from time to time. As to what effect our musical activities will have on our children, it's too soon to say. But my teenaged son has been making music on his computer with the Sibelius software, and he recently surprised me by saying he planned to take a music composition course when he gets to college. Over time, our kids will come to understand the significance of commissioning new music. And if we can accomplish our next project, the Trevor Suite, they'll understand we're doing something as a family for the future.