Washington Post: 'New Orchestra Seeks A Diverse Audience'

[John Baltimore, Denyce Graves & Harolyn Blackwell]

WashingtonPost.com
By Anne Midgette

Washington Post Staff Writer 

Thursday, March 5, 2009; Page C04

“As arts organizations across the country cut costs and trim their schedules, Washington is getting a new orchestra. The D.C. Philharmonic held a news conference yesterday to announce its maiden concerts April 9-10 at the Music Center at Strathmore -- an ambitious program of Michael Torke's 'Bright Blue Music,' Samuel Barber's 'Knoxville: Summer of 1915' and Gustav Mahler's towering Second, or 'Resurrection,' Symphony. Denyce Graves and Harolyn Blackwell are the featured soloists.

“And according to John Baltimore -- the 30-year-old conductor who in a mere few months has brought this fledgling organization to life -- the ensemble will represent a new model for orchestras, funding itself by turning to a market he describes as 'untapped.' 'You just don't find this level of educated upper-middle-class African American income anywhere else in the United States,' he said yesterday in an interview. Added Baltimore: 'I am an African American myself. I believe wholeheartedly that Washington in particular has this unique demographic of educated, upper-class, recession-proof government wage-earners that, if this music was marketed to them and they could see that this music is for them, they would be supportive of it.'" [Full Post]