Philharmonic of the Future

MANY OF THE nation’s most well-known orchestras—including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic—have canceled live performances through the end of 2020. “It’s been a very challenging period,” says Jesse Rosen, former president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras.

“I’m a people person,” says Alexander Mickelthwate, maestro and music director for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. “The whole connection with the orchestra, the music, and the audience, that’s really missed.” During the summer, the musicians posted videos on social media. One video, featuring German composer Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was notable for both its musical quality and pet cameos.

Now the Oklahoma City Philharmonic resumes live music with a new concert schedule, incorporating hour-long programs without intermission. Musicians and patrons alike will be socially distanced. Temperature checks will be performed, and masks will be required.

Whereas the typical orchestra might seat more than seventy musicians onstage, this season less than fifty will perform at once, leading to creative musical selections, Mickelthwate says. It’s a plan of optimism—and flexibility if circumstances warrant. “This is really a result of incredible teamwork, and months of research and learning,” says Agnieszka Rakhmatullaev, executive director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. “Nothing can replace live music.”

It’s important to Mickelthwate to present not only bust-worthy talents like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky but also diverse, contemporary composers. “Orchestras have always played dead composers from the last one hundred to three hundred years. It’s like a museum, and that’s great,” says Mickelthwate. Today, however, orchestras must relate to all people.

This season will feature music by young Black composers Carlos Simon and Jessie Montgomery, and the late Jack Kilpatrick, a Cherokee composer. In the future, Mickelthwate plans to commission new works inspired by Oklahoma’s diverse culture and history. He envisions a traveling orchestra to tell those musical stories to national and perhaps international audiences.

Other highlights during the new season will include work by late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson and a memorial to Americans who have died of Covid-19 with a performance of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.

As Mickelthwate spices up his classics programming—Frank Zappa was featured last season—he’d like to see more pairings of popular artists such as Björk with composers like Jóhannsson. This year’s Pops Season offerings include a diverse array of stylings: women in country music, New Orleans ragtime and jazz, movie score composer John Williams, and the music of Queen. In time, orchestras may play different genres in one sitting like a playlist on a device, says Mickelthwate. “It resembles our listening habits.”

Mickelthwate joined the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in 2018 after a successful tenure with the Winnipeg Symphony, and Rakhmatullaev was named executive director in 2019 after leading the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. Now the duo is building on the fiduciary and artistic successes of their long-time predecessors while looking to innovate. “What’s so uniquely interesting and attractive about the Oklahoma City Philharmonic is that combination of the past and the future,” says Rakhmatullaev.

The pandemic has changed some things for the good. There’s talk of streaming Oklahoma City Philharmonic concerts to prisons, hospitals, and hospices, anywhere music lovers reside. “My mom lives in Germany,” says Mickelthwate. “Imagine if she could buy a subscription?”

The 2020–2021 Oklahoma City Philharmonic season extends through summer of 2021. okcphil.org