Thanks for
watching!
Thanks for watching!
I figure we might as well get that
one we know we have there.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for
watching!
Oh, boy, I'm going to die.
What I want to do is start this
up with just a bunch of
spots.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for
watching!
How long do you anticipate the
opening?
And that part is like the part
like this program is brought to you
by that thing.
I hope for the next week, probably
next week in the world, let's be in
the blue skies.
The sky was a little bit, so this
time, we're gonna have a really nice
view.
There you go, you can operate this
one behind the scenes, you know,
we'll show that happening.
Ciao!
All right.
Okay, well, thanks for doing this.
Thanks for sharing.
Can you tell us your name
and how long you
have been and your title with
the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra?
It's Eva Marie Restel and I'm the
executive director of the symphony
for the last six years
now, going on six years.
Where were you previous to coming
to the cross and
what what was your position?
I have an art business,
I'm still an artist and
I was doing sculptural pieces
like you see behind me and
I still do that but I did it
full time before I did this.
So is this the first orchestra that
you have been associated with?
Yes, I was actually on the Board of
Directors at the time
that they were looking for a new
executive director and
they had actually asked me if
I would consider being
president of the board and I said,
oh, well, I would much prefer to be
the executive director.
They're like, Well, then I think you
should apply.
And that you said that was six years
ago? Yes.
So right about just before
COVID.
Oh, it was, it's just I started
April 1st of 2019
and so I did not have a
full, I've never had a full
season that was normal so
it's hard to compare one to the
other.
What was that like a little
bit when COVID
reared its ugly head?
How did that affect the
orchestra?
It completely like it
did everyone else right so
we had just had our march concert
we had played by toga and
five i mean it was a
packed house it was just a beautiful
concert we had symphony for you
three days later on the
wednesday and
then the world shut down in
lacrosse on thursday so
we have had two thousand
little people in that
you know because it hadn't really
This area at the time,
and it was just all in the news.
So it was very immediate.
It was, we have a
partnership with The Turbo, so they
are the ones that provide where
we perform, and they said,
you know, we needed to follow all
the rules as they were.
So quickly made
a partnership with them and stayed
in contact with them.
I said, well, what are we going to
do about these next
concerts that we have?
And so we ended up,
we ended recording
our
musician,
our guest artist did
it in her home in New York
City, had her husband
record her doing it and
we live streamed it for the
first time.
And we, I
immediately learned on YouTube how
to create a channel.
And I spent probably a
hundred hours a week just
learning how to do online
everything.
And we moved everything,
talked to Alexander, our
maestro, and said, I know
we have our entire season ready for
next year, but Viterbo
says if we just did string
instruments and there were
only 20 musicians, they would
allow them to perform,
whether or not you people in the
audience will go.
Performance by performance, but they
would allow that.
And so he's amazing,
you know, just great to work with.
He just, he says, okay.
And he created a whole new season
of six concerts,
all string chamber
music.
And we rewrote all the notes.
We did a completely new season
in about a month and
produced it, you now, and
did all of it.
The promotionals for it and
hired the musicians for that,
and we had an entire season.
And then every time before
each concert,
two weeks before the concert,
Viterbo would let me know what I was
allowed to do.
It was either, you know, we
followed the rules, Veterbo followed
our local rules, we had a group
in town that kind of let us know
what they wanted us to do, and
we followed those.
And so sometimes it was,
no people can come.
Other times it was, well, as
long as each group
of people that's together is six
feet away from everyone else.
So we did a lottery system.
And so I went
and I physically
measured and
came up with this whole paper
system of how to see
people and we did it by the lottery.
And then we opened it up for.
Friday night dress rehearsal,
you know, that if you didn't win the
lottery for getting in those seats,
then you got in the lottery and got
in those. And then everyone, whether
you could go or not, you got a
live stream.
We live streamed.
We livestreamed it and then they
would get those live streams,
which we had not done before.
And then we added a lot of content,
you know, we added meet the musician
and we had them interview
about the musician, what is it like
and learn their, you, know, meet the
musicians and we added that to the
channel and Alexander did
a 40 days of symphony and
you could, you could watch that
on our YouTube channel.
So we added, we, we did
a lot that we had never
done before.
It seems that way in
talking to other orchestras too that
COVID forced
a lot of
changing over to
the digital world and
adding all of that
and now that hasn't
gone away even though
everything's gone back to normal
even with in-person performances.
So who takes care
of all the stuff on the
web for.
Of the symphony.
Is that part of your job?
Ultimately, yes,
but Brett Hoos is our videographer
and so he is the one that produces
all of We now, we no longer
do live stream.
Technical issues come up every now
and again at Viterbo, like anywhere,
right? And then if you're live
streaming and the sound goes out
in the entire building,
it's, you know, so
we were also, so, we record it
and then we produce it
and Brett Hoose does that.
And Cassie Davis,
our administrator, she is kind
of overlooks and makes sure
everything is where it's supposed to
be.
So what has made
you want to stay in
this position?
That is a great question.
There are several things.
One, we have a large
board of directors and
they are a great team
of people really interested in
the symphony continuing to
thrive, to grow,
and that's a very
exciting group to work for.
So, working
with them.
We have the ability to really
think forward.
We're looking at five years down the
road as we are looking just
down the road a year, but we also
have our sights on five years down
the Road and Really
thinking what could you do?
You know what what what would be
great for this community?
What what aren't we doing?
Who else could we reach?
How can we reach more people and
bring all of this to more people?
And that's that's
how the job goes and that that's
a very exciting place to work when
you are constantly looking
for more partnerships and
connecting with people.
I'm sure you all at PBS Wisconsin
have noticed that you
know working with people and
partnering with people no
matter what you do it's better
and things that you never thought
you could do were.
Really interesting, dynamic
things can
happen that way, and that's what
we're doing, and that's
an exciting thing to be a part of,
and we're growing, so that's always
fun.
Is that part of what drew you to
wanting the executive director
position?
Because I would think being an
artist, you're kind of working
on your own.
And in the executive-director
position, it seems like you're
really working up with
a lot of other people.
Right, so I
like to be
with other people and I like working
with other people and that's the
hard part about my artwork.
And so being an artist,
you know, I have a beautiful
studio but
it's in my basement and there are
no other people that can
make the pieces that I'm making.
So although my husband will
come down and work down, you
know, in the studio on his
thing.
So, I'm not always all by myself,
but I needed something
other than my work where I
was connecting
with others and getting to work with
others.
This was bigger than I was
thinking, but, I
love it. It's a good fit for me,
so I get to work
a lot of different people and
artistically put the evening
on. So my job is to.
Is everything outside of what
happens on that stage.
Alexander is amazing and
does his art.
So all I have to do is
make people aware of that
and then create the experience
around it.
And we have completely
changed how it is to experience
the symphony.
The evening is now a very full
evening. It starts at 6.30.
You've got live music in the
lobby with cabaret tables
and...
Little lights and the bars
are open and the background music
and there's all these things going
on so you can go from
6 30 to midnight because
we have something going on
around the beautiful
symphony so it makes for a fun full
night.
You mentioned Alexander,
Maestro Alexander, working with him.
Can you describe that a little bit
more, what is it like
interacting with him
and how has that been
over the last, you said six
years?
Yeah, so it's
great. I mean it's always
interesting working with
a genius.
I mean really he knows
all of the history of
the people, the music, the time,
the politics of everything of
all of this music.
He just has this vast
knowledge and he's able to
pull it all together and why this
particular group and he does
that really well and then
And then my part is connecting
him to the patrons and
to events and putting
his calendar together and having
him come to the Bowball and be part
of that and going to
dinners and doing
that. And he is so
agreeable.
He enjoys it.
He interacts really well with the
patrons. Patrons enjoy him very
much. And so we
work together on that.
I mean, the hardest thing that we do
as a team is work on the
budget.
You know, and try to be really smart
about what you're bringing.
And let's say this main big piece
that you're bringing is
a smaller symphony.
It's a Beethoven.
You don't have, you don't need 80
musicians on the stage for
that, right?
So then if you're going to be really
smart because this other concert
does require 80, we'll do all
your 80 pieces in that.
And can you pick the right
pieces?
That have the right numbers and put
them all in one concert and make
it make sense.
And that's my part is
the budget part and then he
just comes back and he's fun to work
with because he's able to do
that without any problem.
So he's fine to work with.
What about the other members of the
orchestra?
How large of an orchestra is
the La Crosse Symphony?
So we have 70 musicians,
and then we have
substitutes that come on,
and not all 70 musicians can be
there for all.
If they're one of our musicians,
they're definitely there for four of
the six main concerts.
But when they aren't there, then we
a list of substitutes and people
that also substitute as well.
And they,
again, Alexander.
They enjoy working with him.
He challenges them.
These are really talented musicians
from a three-hour radius
and then we have a
couple that are outside of that as
well and our fellow is also from
outside of there as well.
So it's a wide radius but
they come in and they really like
working with him.
He he's able to bring out the
best in all of them and and
get them and they they love that.
It's a special camaraderie that
he creates with the musicians
and so that's another one of his
gifts that he brings to our
symphony.
I noticed in looking at the roster
of musicians that there are
several who have been with the
orchestra for
15, 20, 25
years.
Is that common that
once they
start they seem to
want to continue doing this?
It is.
You'll hear from stage,
we have someone retiring this year
and he's been with the symphony for
31 years.
That's amazing.
Yeah, so, and we
have quite a few that are in the
upper 20s to low 30s.
Yeah, it's
common that they, if they have
settled into this area
permanently,
then yes.
You mentioned before about
working with Viterbo University.
Yes. How long has
the Viterbro Fine Arts Center been
the symphony's sort of home?
I'm not 100% sure, but I
think it's the late 70s.
Okay.
Yeah.
Do you know where the symphony
performed?
I don't but I think they had
some halls it was whenever it was
built and I feel like the
Fine Arts Center was built in 1978
perhaps.
The FSPA sisters were
the ones that said the
symphony needs a place
and the turbo should be
the place we're going to build it
and they will come is the joke that
they that the the Sisters
of Perpetual Adoration say
today but They are a
pillar of this community.
Have made such a difference, but
it's because of them that we have
that Fine Arts Center to
perform in.
And the idea was that the
symphony, it was
so that the Symphony had a great
place to perform.
What accomplishments are
you most proud of for
the symphony?
I would say making
it so well through COVID,
adjusting and
a lot of people had to do a lot of
different things and
providing quality
experiences for our
season ticket holders and they
stayed on with us and
we needed them to do that and they
did. So, and then as we're
coming back, I would say.
I'm creating that
fuller experience of the symphony
that I was talking about earlier and
we have added
a new package for
youth so it's
$60 for a season
ticket anywhere
and that's only been the last two
years and we now have
families coming, you know,
they're getting six season
tickets, two adults, four kids.
And really bringing a lot of younger
people and our
attendance is higher
than it's ever been in the history
of the symphony.
So I
feel really good that we are
bringing a lot of people from
a younger age group and a broader
age group to
the symphony.
What are some of your goals for the
future?
We have big goals, we
have big big goals.
So the Board of Directors,
they're really actively looking,
I told you this, five
years in advance, and
what can it be, and they have a
strategic plan.
And right now we have things
that are possible, and things that
we realize we could do.
And right know we are just grabbing
stakeholders for all of the
different areas.
And having meetings about these
things. And some of them might be
things like having
another main concert, you
know, that is just for
rising stars or, you now,
and building that out or,
and other things like that.
So growing, as far as that is
concerned,
is one of those.
But they're, they've got a lot
of things,
they have their sights on continuing
to.
Increase the quality and
quantity of the symphony so it
can reach everyone.
What about for you personally?
Do you have any personal goals
that you would like to
achieve with the symphony?
Yes,
continuing these partnerships with
this idea of partnerships is we
have a couple of new ideas of
companies in town that
we can partner with and create
smaller smaller
experiences off of
what we already have and
offer those out.
One of those, I have a meeting on it
next week So none of these things
have happened yet, but.
A possibility is to take from
our archives.
So we've been recording our,
professionally recording our
symphonies for the last five years.
And we have some beautiful pieces,
but creating an archive series
where you might pull out one
big piece and one small
piece, you have about 45 minutes
of symphony
music, and then you create a one
hour, not a lot unlike what
you're doing, but having it
be Two pieces
from our archives have
Alexander would curate
these and then
put some fun things in
between and
create these one hour
experiences and then play them
at the movie theater,
at the Reveille movie theater which
is our local movie theater
and also in some old folks' homes
where they have the movie so that
you can bring the symphony
broadly.
You know, and in a one hour
increment, maybe on a Sunday
afternoon or, you know in
different ways.
So we are right in the
planning stages of creating
something like this to
bring to our community, which I
think would be a great thing.
That sounds wonderful.
You talked a little bit about the
Art Hive.
Can you give us a little background
on the La Crosse
Symphony Orchestra, how long
has it been in existence,
and how long in its
present structure, you know,
kind of what changes it went through
over the years?
Oh, sure.
So the La Crosse
Symphony Orchestra was founded in
1898, had its very
first concert on March 4th
of 1898.
And since then,
it was a community
symphony.
Right now we're a professional
symphony, so it started as
a community.
Somebody was a volunteer
and I said, hey, you know, I can
conduct, who's musicians
in town?
And they grabbed the musicians in
town, and you had that come
and go, you know, since 1898.
And then back
in 1970s,
1980s,
then we had a
new conductor came in.
That started to attract people
from a little farther out, and
we also started paying our
musicians.
And that's when you become, you're
no longer a community symphony,
but you are a regional
symphony.
And so a regional professional
symphony and so that shift
happened back,
I believe in the eighties, maybe
early nineties.
And then as
that went through,
And the big change came with when
Alexander came in in 2010.
When he came in,
he really attracted
a lot of musicians at a higher
level. And we were able to bring
in, attract musicians
from that wider
range. More of those came in.
And it elevated what we were to
do. And so the
kind of repertoire that we play now.
Is is different from what
we used to be able to play and
I would say that has been in the
last 10 years the structure has
changed and then the board structure
had to change as well right because
a community symphony it is run
differently and and so the
board made that switch
over so
that they are...
They're the vision of
the symphony and then they also are
how everything happens and I let
them know what we need.
This is your vision, this is what we
needs, and they help
make sure we have it.
And so that's
the new structure of how
that works.
You mentioned that you have more
season ticket holders now than you
ever had.
About how many season ticket
holders do you have?
Well, no, I said we have more people
attending. More people attending, I
see. Yeah, yeah.
So season tickets, usually
it's around 450 season
ticket holders is
around the norm, but then
you have your single ticket folks
that come in
and fill it
up.
Can you briefly talk about some
of the educational programs
that the El Macross Symphony
engages in?
I think there's the Play It Forward,
the String Scholarships.
What are these and why are they
important?
Well, if you look at our mission
statement, half of it is
about our music, and the other half
is about the education, because
the symphony can uniquely
tap into these,
the musicians
and offering educational,
rich educational music
experiences, which it's very
difficult to do from the school
system point of view, you can
afford to do that.
And so we are able to,
and we take it very seriously
to.
As part of our mission for
our greater community, for
the good of the community.
So one of the things we do is we
offer a youth symphony.
So the symphony for youth, it
always happens at March and there's
about 2,000 third
graders that come to that.
And it is a 45
minute symphony that is designed
specifically for them.
And Alexander gets up and does an
instrument introduction.
So all the different instruments
come forward and they have the.
Can you explain this is called this
and it sounds like this and
this is the job it has in the
symphony and the kids love it and
then they all play the same don'ts
so they can hear the difference.
So it's educational and
then also have obviously
beautiful music for
young people. So that's one of the
items.
The one you may be thinking about is
the one that's happening at the May
3rd concert is the
string scholarships.
So that, there's an
audition process for...
Students who are in
kindergarten through 11th
grade, that happens like in
three weeks, and they get to
audition.
And they audition, and
it's not how well they play,
it's their
desire to play, desire to
learn, is
what is measured, as well as
need-based.
So those are the things that they
look at.
And there's 11 scholarships
given out, 10 get.
They get lessons from one
of our musicians, private lessons,
and half of it is paid.
So the parents pay half, and we
pay the other half, and then they
get two season tickets.
And then one is from Boys and Girls
Club, and they get a full
scholarship.
And then at the end of their year,
so you'll be seeing them at all
of our 11 scholarship
winners from last year who have been
learning this year.
They do a performance in the
lobby, that's our live music, before
the concert begins.
And so they get to do a concert,
which is a recital,
I should say.
They get to a recitle, which a great
experience for any young person
to get to learn a piece well enough
to perform it and
have that experience is very helpful
for them.
How long has that
program, how long have you been
doing that?
I think about 16
years maybe, so it's been going
on for a long time.
It could be longer.
That's great.
You had asked about the Play It
Forward. Play It forward goes along
with the boys and we
have free, we also do free Boys
and Girls Club lessons.
So at our Boys and Girl's Club clubs
we have two and we free
lessons at both of them and any
student that wants to learn violin.
Play violin, we
pay for the instructors to
do the lessons
and then we also purchase
all of the instruments that they
need.
And that's Play It Forward is our
instrument, our
instrument donation,
but some people donate
instruments to Play It forward and
then the symphony pays to have
them fixed and then placed out into
those places as well as
four other school systems.
So we.
We typically send
out about $5,000 worth
of instruments out into the
school systems and the Boys and
Girls Clubs every year.
And this is so students
who can't afford to go in band
or orchestra,
then they can because
they have the instrument.
One other program,
this isn't educational but
promotional, is the
Conductor wannabes.
Could you talk a little bit about
that?
Yeah, so the Conductor
wannabes, we're
going into our
26th season of
Conductors wannabees.
We skipped two during COVID.
But 26 seasons
of Conductor wannabes and we've
had a hundred and
I think it's a hundred and we
had a 126.
Conductor wannabes total in
that time because you always have,
you know, about five, five
to seven
Conductors wannabees and then they
these are community members that
raise money both for
the symphony and they get to pick
another nonprofit And
so all the money they raise Half
of it comes to the symphony and the
other half goes to the other
nonprofit and they have six
weeks To raise money and the
top two fundraisers get to
conduct a four-minute march
at the May
concert.
And how are they raising the money?
They are being so creative.
They're being so creative.
Um, they have, they'll have, um,
at different locations,
they will do, somebody did a
dance party, another person
went to, um they were,
um a bartender, they were
a guest bartender somewhere and
you could add tips for the bartender
that went to the conductor wannabes.
Um.
At Rudy's one
of our restaurants, you know
restaurants will pair up with them
and say well if you donate
dollars Then Rudy's will give you
you know a root beer float
So they partner with people
like that.
I know one of ours
had Oh,
he he's
theater man And so
he had auditions for
the sidekick.
So And
he raised dollars through that.
So they are creative,
it's different every single time,
how they raise dollars, but they're
reaching out to their other
nonprofits through their avenues
and that group is also helping
as well as us and so between the
two. It's a great way to
get other nonprofits
better known throughout
the whole community.
So it's a a great partnership
with all of those other nonprofits
and it's lots of fun and a lot
of people benefit in the community.
Sounds like it's a win-win.
It is.
And a win for the audience too.
It is super fun for the audience.
Speaking of the audience,
the audience is made up of people
from the La Crosse community.
What is it like working
with the greater La Cresse
community?
What's so special about
here and working with these people
in this community?
So I grew up going to
the symphony down in North
Carolina and I've
been to other symphonies.
There's something special about
this community.
This community embraces
the symphony as
a critical part of our
overall community.
I would say that's true about the
arts in general, that our community
is just really appreciative
of the arts that are
provided.
It creates a culture that they enjoy
living in and
they take it upon themselves
to be sure that they continue.
So they.
They are all in.
So when they come they are
fully invested and
there's an
enthusiasm you can and the
musicians talk about this because we
have a lot of musicians only about a
third of our musicians are from
lacrosse and the other two-thirds
are from outside of lacross and
they talk about how great
it is there's this energy that
comes from the audience and they
just feel like they're on the edge
of the seat and they're like right
there with them and so it makes it
particularly exciting to perform
here.
And you can feel it
afterwards. We have coffee
and cookies for everybody afterwards
and you can meet the maestro and the
guest artists and the musicians and
the energy that happens out there
and everybody connecting with each
other.
The community members say it's a
place to connect and to feel part
of the community and you feel
that when you go to the symphony.
Thank you, that was wonderful.
That was a perfect answer.
What is it like then also working
with the
guest artists?
Because you have world-class guest
artists coming in here.
Yeah. What is like being able to
work with them?
It's a privilege.
It's exciting.
It can be a little bit
nerve-racking. Some of them are
extremely famous people
and they come and you think
they're accomplished and
they're getting major
awards and...
They always turn out to be these
amazing people
that are just excited
to get to share their music with
your community.
And they're very fun to work
with.
I either speak with them or
their manager ahead of time, so
there's a lot of pre-planning that
happens and everything is
put into place well ahead of time so
we are full aware of their needs
ahead of time, which makes it
nice when they come.
We're in pretty good shape of
knowing what they're going to need.
And making sure that we have all
those things all set for them.
But we do a guest artist society.
It's a membership for people.
And with that membership, they get
to go to a party the night before
every concert.
And then our guest artist comes with
Alexander.
And there's a cocktail party and
some food for like an hour.
But for half an hour, Alexander
interviews them just
about pretty much anything in their
life, the personal things you would
never know about.
And then they get to do a private
concert of anything,
except for what's happening at the
concert. They can't play anything
from the concert, so they get play
their favorite whatever
they want to play.
And we had one violinist
come in, and she's like, I actually
really like to fiddle.
Can I fiddle? I was like, of course
you can fiddle, and the
Guest Artist Society members loved
it. But in
this manner, we are really
fortunate in La Crosse where we
really get to know our guest artists
very well.
And they get to know a nice
contingency of our
patrons as well.
And they make a lot of fans when
they come here.
They get a lot personal fans.
So to me, that's one of
the coolest parts of the job is
getting to meet these amazing
people and hearing about all the
other things they have going on.
It's never just music that they're
doing. You know, they're not just
performing music in places, they're
also innovating and doing all
of these other things and you get to
be part of that story.
So that's a pretty special part
of sitting in my my
position anyway.
Talk a little bit about the
guest artist for this concert,
Rachel Barton-Pine.
And have you worked with her before
and what was
that like and
what are you looking forward to
with having her come to this
concert?
Well, Rachel Barton-Pine was
here several years ago,
and I did get to meet her.
And she's super dynamic,
just a
big and a great personality.
She brings a ton of energy.
And she has quite a fan base here,
because she's been here before.
And she did all these things I'm
talking about, and we'll do it
again. And people are like, oh, god,
I get to see her again.
So she is, um.
Such a dynamic performer
and then she's
dynamic as a personality as
well. So I always
look forward to
getting to see her
again. It's fun when it's
a return artist that I've met before
and she, I have met her before
so we're looking
forward to connecting again.
It seems like a number of
artists tend to come back here.
They do.
Not every year, but every two,
three, four. Two, three.
Two, three, yeah.
So they must like.
They do.
They do!
We had Andrei Gugnin
was here last
year, and when
he was leaving he said,
you know, and I was taking him to
the airport, and he's like, you
know, I
would really like to come back.
And my visa is good for this many
times, like maybe we could fit it,
so we did.
And he will be playing
again in next
May.
Because that's right inside his visa
coming from abroad,
which is pretty extensive
work to get someone's
visa all correct and over.
But he enjoyed it so
much. And he won the world's
piano championship.
So he's been asked
for, he's playing all over the
world, but he still wanted to come
back to La Crosse.
So we took that as a great
compliment and we're bringing him
back next year.
Do you ever get guest artists who
come and they say,
I've talked to other people and they
say La Crosse is the orchestra.
We have had a couple of people
that have said, you know, my good
friend so-and-so, we're like, we
do.
Yes, because they all, I think they
know each other.
I think there must be a circuit
of folks that
know each others. So we have heard
that a time or two.
So you talked a little bit about
working with the community.
How do both
the LSO and the community
benefit from one another?
Right that's a great question.
So the community benefits
from having a symphony because
a symphony is considered
a high level art form and
if you have a symphonie
that means you also have a theater
that means, you also, have an
arts gallery
of some sort it means you would
also have those other art forms
just because a Symphony is
particularly expensive to put
on. Um that would
be um so
that means we have
um Mayo Clinic when
they opened um you
know a new um
opportunities here in La Crosse and
made us a hub a couple
of years ago right right before
COVID,
they brought 200
new physicians to
La Crosse.
Then they were offered to stay here,
and several of them said the only
reason I stayed, because it was
such a smaller town, and
they were concerned that there was
not going to be anything to do.
And they said, well,
you have a symphony.
If you have symphony,
then you have everything else.
That means you have an arts culture,
which we do. We have a rich arts
culture with our theater and
everything else, and so.
That helps a community
to have that.
It attracts high-level
professionals to want to
work in that community.
It attracts musicians, right?
It attracts artists.
And you need to have an artist
in town to have
the arts culture, where it's not
just at the symphony, but it's also
in other places.
And you have...
Artists that do, you
know, three-dimensional art or, you
know, visual arts and all
other kinds of arts.
And so that's how it helps
the community.
Now the community.
Without the community's support,
you can't have a symphony
in a town this size.
It's extremely unusual to
find a professional
regional symphony, in
a city the size of
La Crosse, Wisconsin, because
it's expensive to do and the only
way to do it is through all of our
partnerships that we have
with community members
and companies.
And so we have many partnerships
and because of all of
those partnerships we are able to
exist so we kind of co-exist
and help each other by
both working together.
Could you just
say a little bit
more about why you think
the La Crosse Symphony has continued
to operate and prosper
here in La Cresse
in this greater Coulee
area over the last
125 plus
years?
Yes, we've prospered
here because the community
appreciates and wants it
to be here, and I
think with their support
and on
our end with us continuing
to bring in a high level,
we have a top-of-the-line
maestro.
Alexander Platt brings
amazing dynamic
programs every
year. He is.
Always pushing to bring,
not only those classics we all want
to hear, but that paired
up with some really interesting
new things or some
nuanced things, so
you bring in a nice mixture of
those so you can celebrate both
and you bring that
to your audience and they
want to hear.
Both of those things and so
they enjoy those and want them
to be there so as long
as we continue to bring and
our musicians are high level you
know they have their PhDs
and come from you know Juilliard
and places like that so
these are highly professional
musicians so you bring this
beautiful product in
a beautiful hall where
they can experience this music,
and that...
That continues on
that history.
Um, I
think we have covered everything
that they wanted to.
Let me just check to
make sure.
The only thing I might add on
that is I
should mention the
Board of Directors.
So the Board Of Directors, it's a
large board of directors.
It's anywhere from 15 to 23
members at any time and
they are community members that are
really invested in
making sure the symphony lasts
for a really long time.
And back
in 2012.
One of those board of directors
started an endowment
and so we now
have a really nice endowment to
help us through times like COVID
which it turns out
we didn't need it but it was there
so we were able to
know that we can provide what
we need to provide no matter what's
happening in the world and I think
that makes a difference of being
able to
confidently be able to plan
and provide really amazing
programming knowing
that you have that if something goes
wrong in the world to temporarily
be able to help you get through.
I think you operate differently
when you do that and so you have
this infested group of
board of directors that
are doing everything they can
strategically to
keep the tradition moving
forward. And I think that is
another key part of
why the symphony has lasted
so long and will last
into the future.
There is one other question that
I thought I would ask.
Can you just briefly
talk about how you went from
being an artist to them being
on the board of directors to them
executive director and
linking those up?
Sure.
So,
I was on
the board, the arts board,
with our city.
Unusual to most
of the world, our arts board
for the city is connected,
is part of the city government.
It's part it.
So I was on that for
like eight years.
While I was on it, we
we got a National Endowment for the
Arts.
And where this is going is that
we had to celebrate the
big John Pugh mural
going up, which was what our
National Endowment for the arts was,
in one form or another.
And we decided as a
group that we were gonna put on
a big arts fair and we were going
to start an arts fair.
And so I was on the team,
it was a whole team, but on the
theme that created Artspire.
And then I I
chaired that with
Brian Fukuda for the
first five years and
it won the
award for best special event
in all of Wisconsin.
And it was at that time that
I was, so that was
a volunteer thing that I did.
And then I got
invited to be on the board because
they said, you know, we don't have
any artists on our board of
directors and we want an
artist. Okay.
So I joined the board in
2013 and then
I was there for
my six years, it was in that
sixth year when I was going to be
going off of the board when our
executive director left and
I, you know, they said
you know what do you want to be
president and I was like would
rather be executive director and
like well have you considered
applying, please apply and when
I applied
using the experience
that I had running Artsfire.
Which was, you know, it was
doing, you had to
raise dollars, you have to
put on productions and plans and
all of those things.
That's why, that's
why I ultimately, I
had that experience and was very
successful at that.
So that's, that was the connection
of how I ended up
So what's a really good
day for you?
Let's say.
What would make you go home smiling?
It happens all the time.
I'll give you three.
Can I give you three?
Okay.
We have patrons that pop in the
office and they
they come sharing
great things.
And when they come in and they pop
their head in the eye, I just have
to tell you how much I loved
fill in the blank.
That's one.
Other times we get Things
in the Mail,
where they are...
Really sincere thank you
notes that we get from
patrons for the
most amazing experience.
That's a good day.
And then when partnerships
work out, you know,
I'm constantly looking,
probably my favorite part of the job
is trying to
create partnerships and
create things that are super full
and diverse
and that they help the other person
and they bring something to a lot
of different people and how can you
create that.
And when those come
through and they're like,
yes, we're going to, and like with
the Rivoli and this meeting,
we've got a lot the parts put
together and I think it's going to
work, that's an exciting day
when you're going build this
new something that's just going
to make it that much better.
That's a really good day at the
office.
What about Saturdays
for our performance?
So Saturdays are,
I'm usually
in my studio.
I usually start the day in
my studio and go in the yard if I
can or on a walk and do something
outside.
I eat dinner at three
o'clock.
And then I get dressed
and I head in
and I'm on
my feet until midnight because
we have the after party.
At La Cove, which is another fun
partnership that's gone really well.
And so after a concert, La
Cave opens their doors from
10 to midnight for
symphony patrons and they
put out a huge charcuterie
for everyone and then there's a
specialty drink for ten dollars and
everybody goes and Alexander goes
and the guest artist goes and the
musicians and the patrons and
we have like about 50 people
normally go and You
just.
Lapse in the glow of the
experience, which is really fun to
share all the different people, how
they experience the symphony.
And then at midnight,
I go home and I
crash.
It's a long day, it's a good day,
it's exciting, you know,
it is fun, it a fun
day.
Well, I think we've covered
everything. Thank you so much.
This was great.
Thanks. You gave some wonderful
answers.
I'm looking forward to...
I always get the transcript so
that I can see and
highlight what I think are
going to make the best sound.
Well I hope you get a couple.
Good ones.
Thanks so much for taking the time.
Thank you very much.
Yeah.
Yeah, before we cut, I just want to
get the 30 seconds of the video.