Sunday, April 23, 2000
1970 series a model for other orchestras
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was one of the first orchestras in the country to reach out to the African-American community.
“It turned out to be a model for other symphonies,” says Leonard Herring Jr., one of the founders of the CSO's first Open Door Series, 1970-72.
It was 1969. Former Ohio House Majority Leader William Mallory Sr. and Edgar “Buddy” Mack, former president of the board of the CSO, were on a flight from Washington when the idea surfaced.
“We were sitting together, and I said it would be a good idea to have popular artists play with the symphony,” recalls Mr. Mallory, 68. “My objective was to reach out to a diverse community.”
He contacted Mr. Herring, who owned a public relations firm, to help.
“The most critical thing we did, was to get people involved. These were people who had never been asked to do things like that. They got on committees that were totally white, and they worked together,” Mr. Herring says.
The Open Door Series, funded by a grant from the Corbett Foundation, had three concerts annually for two years. The first soldout show (at the Taft Theatre) starred Roberta Flack and Les McCann.
Other shows at Music Hall had crowds of more than 3,000 for each performance. Artists included the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Cannonball Adderley, Joe Williams, Johnny Mathis, Nancy Wilson and Hugh Masakela.
It was a success, Mr. Mallory says, because of the quality.
“Word of mouth spreads. People talk about it. They say, "Did you see that performance?' I remember I took my daughter to see Johnny Mathis, and we went backstage. It was an experience.”
The series folded after 1972.
In 1997, Pops conductor Erich Kunzel tried a Pops “Plugged-in” series, with Take 6, jazz singer Peabo Bryson and saxophonist David Sanborn. It lasted one year.
“(Pops Plugged-In) was a huge success, and attracted a lot of African-Americans,” Mr. Kunzel told the Enquirer last June. “The problem was, we got no more funding for it. When you do a miniseries with higher-profile artists, your artistic budget goes up so much.”
Mr. Herring, now president of Management and Public Relations, Ltd. in Los Angeles, heard about the revival of the Open Door Series. After contacting members of the Multicultural Awareness Council, he helped bring jazz artist George Duke to Cincinnati for the premiere of Mr. Duke's Muir Woods Suite with the CSO last year.
Can multicultural outreach be successful in Cincinnati?
Yes, Mr. Herring says, but “you can't segregate it. Just like the word minority. If you label it minority, you'll treat it like a minority.”
— Janelle Gelfand
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