While at the helm of the BSO, the outgoing Paul Meecham has seen lots of positive changes.
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How has the BSO changed since you came on board? The biggest change was Marin Alsop. Her spirit of innovation has inspired those of us on staff and in the orchestra to think more broadly about how we can engage with, and become more relevant to, our community. OrchKids, in particular, was created because there was a deficit in music education in Baltimore City schools. It was followed later with OrchLab in Montgomery County.
The BSO Academy resulted from conversations with our musicians about how they can help reignite the passion for music in adult amateurs. We draw on our musicians as coaches through the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras. We also perform Music Box concerts for the very young. All this has stemmed from a vision of providing greater access, understanding what the community needs from us.
A decade of
progress
While at the helm of the BSO, the outgoing Paul Meecham has seen lots of positive changes.
by Martha Thomas
Paul Meecham has been President and CEO of the BSO since October 2006. A musician by training, he has held leadership positions in classical music in London, San Francisco, New York, and Seattle. At the end of June, Meecham will leave the BSO to become President and CEO of the Utah Symphony / Utah Opera. During his decade in Baltimore, Meecham has partnered with Marin Alsop to lead the BSO into its second century, by increasing community outreach and collaborations with other arts and cultural organizations, as well as bringing new audiences into the concert hall.
The BSO has also become more involved in collaborations with local groups in Baltimore and D. C. Strathmore had only been open a year and a half when I started, and our approach then was to repeat a program prepared and performed in Baltimore. Now, we are more intentional about establishing roots in the D. C. region, and we do this in part by inviting once or twice a year a D. C.-based group as an artistic partner. We have collaborated with such choral groups as the University of Maryland Concert Choir, the Cathedral Choral Society, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Later this year, we are creating a version of Duke Ellington’ s Nutcracker with the wonderful Washington dance troupe, Step Afrika! Here in Baltimore, we regularly collaborate with Peabody, the Baltimore School for the Arts, City College, and Morgan State, among others.
Does the BSO’ s role as an ambassador for Baltimore create a certain responsibility? It’ s by far the largest cultural organization in the state, and with that comes a great
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