 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Welcome viewers to thinktechhawaii.com. My show is The Will of the People, and I am your host, Martha E. Randolph. Today, my guest is Michael Titterton, and our show's title is Let There Be Music. This is a story of the bankruptcy and recovery of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, and where it stands today. My guest, Michael, was a former president and general manager of Hawaii Public Radio and is currently president of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra since October 2016. During his 18 years with Hawaii Public Radio, he transformed the underappreciated network into a nationally recognized nonprofit organization honored for its achievements in news programming, fundraising, and fiscal responsibility. I have no doubt that he has been making a significant difference in the orchestra's financial stability and expanded support from the community. But he's going to be telling us about that right now. So Michael, first of all, welcome, and thank you for being my guest today. Thank you. All right. I would like to start with a brief history of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. It's original funding and maybe budget, the bankruptcy, the recovery, and where it stands today in that situation. Okay. We have how long, how many hours do we have? No, let's keep it short and sweet because there are articles that people can always Google to get some information, but let's give them the facts, the basics. It's been a long history, a long and colorful history. As you might know, we're talking about here not one orchestra but two, the Honolulu Symphony Society, as it originally was, as it was until fairly recently, had a history of over 100 years. It was the oldest symphony orchestra west of the Mississippi, I think, was the claim and it's largely accurate. And it was in continued operation, serving the city of Honolulu from 1903, I think, up until the demise in 2008. 2008, which I believe was caused in no small part by an extended run of the Lion King at the Blaisdale, which personally I adore the show, but I was sorry to realize that it was so inhibiting to the orchestra. That wasn't the sole cause, but it was, it would be an understatement to say it didn't help. I mean, it did a lot of damage, absolutely. The orchestra had had feasts and famines over the years. It had very good years and it had very bad years. And as the orchestra is all over the place, the Honolulu Symphony Society, in more recent years, during this century, had hit a sort of a peak and then for a number of reasons, not the least of which were changing fashions, national economy, all that sort of thing, that everybody else. Yeah, the fiscal collapse. Yeah, of course, didn't help at all. And so the Lion King debacle came at about the wrong time and just knocked the stuffing out of a very important season at a very critical time for the symphony. Make a long story over, the symphony went into chapter 11 and then couldn't be brought out again and went into receivership and ceased to be. And that was very, very sad for everyone, especially those of us here who happened to love classical music, appreciate the value of not just good music for its own sake, but its catalytic effect on the community. I don't think many people realize how important the orchestra has been to other musical outlets here in Hawaii, the educators at the universities, various quartets, the opera and chamber symphony. You can't have a chorus doing a pretty good choral performance without some music. So people probably didn't realize how important it was to the infrastructure. So that was a bit of a wake-up call, really. It sure was, yeah. Because, yeah, you mentioned music education, you know, it's not been the best period for education in schools. In fact, it's practically disappeared. And so the teachers who are inspiring the young, even introducing them to the idea of good music, has fallen pretty much entirely on the folks who work for the symphony orchestra in any, in most communities, but especially here, where, you know, we're, you know, in the middle of nowhere, yadda, yadda, yadda, all the Hawaiian difficulties and challenges that we face. And when the orchestra went away, all those people didn't go away, but they gradually began to trickle away. And it quickly became apparent that it was a terrible thing to lose the structure of the orchestra, but month by month, we were losing these highly skilled, irreplaceable, talented, young, for the most part, musicians. They were, you know, you've got to go somewhere else to find a job. And if you are an artist, you must have your craft. Of course. I mean, sometimes, even if you perform for nothing, I think the orchestra members took a big financial hit in the process of bringing this orchestra back to life. Am I right? They took an enormous hit. What, we'll get to that. One of the things I love about working with this organization is working with the musicians themselves who are so ferociously focused on what they do. And I think one of the reasons that they're such a pleasure to work with for visiting conductors who come in, and they really are, they're a sought after orchestra at this point for major conductors who love to come here. You got your palm trees and your coconuts, but you've got this fabulous orchestra who work together as a team, as only a group of people who have been through the equivalent of combat can. Yes, exactly, exactly. And there's a sense of camaraderie about this group that is just extraordinary, but I digress. Let's, how did we get to the point where we are now, where we have an orchestra? I believe there was significant restructuring, reduced numbers of people in terms of support staff, maybe the size of the orchestra, but the performances are here and we can enjoy them. So how did we get from there to here? Okay, it wasn't restructuring. It was starting all over again. The Honolulu Symphony Society is dead. The orchestra is dead, long live the orchestra. It's a completely different operation. It's the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, a new 501C3, a new, a new everything, because there was nothing there. You can donate to it and get a tax. Oh my word, yes. And I promise you will get to that. Yeah. I'll look at it and you watch. Yeah, we've got another 23 minutes to go. Um, but it, it was brought into being deliberately by a couple of folks who were on the original board and some of those folks came back. It was recognized at that point that if it were to be done, if we were going to have an orchestra again, it had to be done very quickly because of this, um, exodus of, of musicians, and once it gets below a certain point, you can't rebuild. It just could never happen. And so, uh, in the space of a little less than three years, uh, a new 501C3 was brought into being. The orchestra was reconstituted many, almost all of the musicians that were left were hired back. And, uh, the first season was begun in, oh Lord, I shouldn't have this. I believe 2012, I think it was 2012 because they took 2013 off. That's exactly right. And then 2014 really began the new era. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's very fair to say. And there's been a, uh, a season ever since the, uh, the size of the orchestra has not really been reduced. Oh, okay. A great deal of the, um, uh, of the extra baggage, the nice offices, the very, you know, more, very adequate staff, support staff and all that, that's been reduced. But the actual, the machinery that produces the actual product has not been reduced. It's still a core orchestra of 63. And, uh, of course we have, we have a pool of other musicians that we hire for larger pieces than that. You know, the Brooklyn we have coming up, you need many more than 63. You, there are orchestras where you require a lot of extra percussion and things I know. Yes. Um, but that is according to what the composer requires at that time. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. And, uh, you can't, um, you don't get any benefit from high tech with a, with an orchestra piece. You know, you need four trumpets. You're going to have four trumpets. You can't have two trumpets in an electric box. No, it doesn't work. Um, so the actual product has not suffered. In fact, um, I maintain this and nobody's ever argued with me. They wouldn't dare that, uh, uh, the orchestra has never sounded better. I mean, I really believe that. And if you've, uh, if you've all through last season, I, my breath was taken away every time we had a masterworks concert. Uh, they just sound sublime. And we opened this season a couple of weeks ago with a concert where we've brought in arguably the world's best organist at this point. Cameron Carpenter, uh, to play a couple of new, well, really heard pieces for orchestra and organ, because that's a hard thing to do. Um, and we heard the, uh, Poulenc organ concerto and of course the symphony of the organ symphony symphony number three by Saint-Saëns and, uh, it was electrifying. I, I've gotten accustomed now to seeing audiences in Blaisdell a little more stunned than they were the concert before and they were totally gobsmacked after this performance. For those of you who don't know gobsmacked means that, uh, I lived in Australia for a while. So, so, um, anyway, the product is just absolutely fabulous. And, uh, uh, that interlude where the musi- the musicians, as you say, went through a very difficult time, hardened them somehow. It's become, um, it's always been a joy for musicians to work with other talented musicians to produce the magic that only a symphony orchestra can. But to add to that joy, um, a sense of defiance, of, you know, despite reality by Golly, we're going to do this thing because this is one of the finest things that civilization has to offer and we're not going to be, we're not going to be the only state in the union without a symphony orchestra. I think that's important for people to realize that when we lost our orchestra, we were the only state that didn't have one, even though our orchestra had originally been one of the oldest in the union. That's exactly right. And it's very upsetting that that happened. But excitingly, we have our orchestra. Can you tell us something about, um, some of the programs that maybe have been initiated with the new orchestra that are giving more access to the orchestra, to the common people and those people who don't eat, have a lot of money for tickets or who wouldn't think that this is a priority? Let's tell them what they're missing, but let's also tell them how you're making it easier for them. Let's do that. It's, um, to the I don't play an instrument. I know nothing about music. I've been around classical music accidentally through my association with public radio, and I've learned to love it. In fact, it's gone beyond that. I recognize great music now as being a part of the human experience that it's taken us thousands of years to get to. And it opens doors. It opens portals to ways of thinking and ways of feeling and ways of seeing and experiencing the world that no other medium. It's fantastic. Let's go to break and come back and pick this up. Absolutely. So that we can stay with continuity. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. We're gonna take a short break, and then we'll be back with Michael Titterton and talking about the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and how you can get lower cost tickets and enjoy this incredible experience. Thank you. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I just walked by and I said, what's happening, guys? They told me they were making music. When I was growing up, I was among the one in six American kids who struggle with hunger. But with the power of breakfast, the kids in your neighborhood can think big and be more. Go to hungarees.org to make breakfast happen for kids in your neighborhood. Aloha. I want to invite all of you to talk story with John Wahee every other Monday here at Think Tech Hawaii. And we have special guests like Professor Colin Moore from the University of Hawaii who joins us from time to time to talk about the political happenings in this state. Please join us every other Monday. Aloha. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is Martha Randolph. The program is the will of the people. Let there be music. My guest today is Michael Titterton, who is the president of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. And before we went to break, Michael, we were going to tell people about some of the new ways in which they can be a part of this orchestra, either participate or just come to the concerts. There was a five dollar concert recently, which do we have that more than once a year? Is that just at the beginning of the season and tell people how that works? The taste of the symphony is what you're referring to. Yeah, we did that. It was a five dollar admission. And it was exactly that. It was a sort of smorgasbord of samples of the pieces, what we're going to hear throughout the season. Which is great. You just show up to the Blaisdale, you give them your five bucks and you sit anywhere in the Blaisdale and have what? About 30 minutes, 40 minutes worth of music, maybe even an hour. Yeah, an hour of orchestra for five bucks, ladies and gentlemen. You know, and you can spontaneously do it after work, you know, grab your notes and go. I'm sad to say that we don't do that on a weekly basis. Well, sad, not really, because if we did, we'd be out of business again in no time. But it's a way of experiencing the orchestra for the first time for a lot of people. And that's one of the things that's a real priority for me is I know that the one thing we don't have to worry about with Hawaii Symphony Orchestra is the quality of the product. I mean, it is absolutely fabulous. That challenge is twofold. It has to do with bringing people into the auditorium to experience what Symphony Orchestra can do usually for the very, very first time. And in the case of my own generation, for example, you know, I've always given thanks for having my life, having followed the trajectory of rock and roll. It's been very satisfying for me. Music has developed in the popular sphere pretty much parallel with the development of my life. And I've always appreciated that. And had it not been for the accident of public radio, I wouldn't have found my way into classical music. And now we have classical music with rock. If I remember correctly, there have been several concerts where they have explored the music of well-known rock groups. And not to mention the Harry Potter film series, one of my favorites. Those performances are so full because the kids will watch the movie and suddenly they hear live music underneath the screen. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a way to introduce your kids to live music. It's not just the kids. There's a lot of adults, a lot of adults who, as I mentioned, have had a satisfying popular music life, but and so have haven't felt the need to explore beyond that. But if I can get the boomers into the into the hall with their kids, ideally, with the nostalgia of, you know, some great rock and roll. We've done Led Zeppelin. We've done Queen. Absolutely. In a few weeks we have Pink Floyd coming out, which is going to be quite fabulous. I have a few friends that are totally going to that. And what we do is we bring in a tribute band that has experience working with classical, with a symphony orchestra. And we're able to celebrate rock and roll with all the, you know, all the stuff, all the electronics that go with rock and roll and the light show. You know, it's going to be a part of the Pink Floyd thing. But added to that is going to be the immense palette of sound that is possible with a symphony orchestra, which a lot of folks, a lot of rockers, have never experienced. And rock and roll can be magical. You add that, add to that the magic of a symphony orchestra. And it's truly mind blowing. Especially live. Most people will listen to their records and they won't recognize that there's orchestral music behind the band. But when you see it and hear it at the same time, it is really dynamic because the sound comes up through your body, which is an amazing experience. And it's absolutely amazing. And it's working. We have people coming in for these concerts who then come back to hear the classical concerts. And throughout the last season and the go by audiences for everything have been growing and growing and growing. So we're on a winning streak here. The same with, you mentioned Harry Potter. Yo, Harry Potter, guys, I have been bringing people in for the first time children. Because as you say, we must build up the audience for those that are going to be still living in the next 50 to 75 years. And they have gone bananas. Well, I would think so. It's been absolutely magic. It's the same thing. You put on an extra show for the one coming up. We have added a third show for the one coming up, which is the prisoner of Azkaban for those of you who don't know, which is the third movie. Guys, I saw the first two. Your grandkids, your children will love you forever if you take them to this trustee. And did you know we have contract to do all of the Harry Potter first? All of the Harry Potter music. Oh, my goodness. And this is cool music, which when you hear it live, you get a greater sense of the beauty of the music which you take for granted when you watch the movie. And with the prisoner of Azkaban coming up, it's not just the orchestra. It's a whole choir to go with this because that's what the score requires. Absolutely. Wow. It is really going to be something. So is there a special deal for children or young people? There are all sorts of deals. If you if you call, do we have the website on the screen? Perhaps we do. Yeah. Hawaii Symphony Orchestra dot ORG. Go to our website and from there you can see all the different things we're doing the Pink Floyd and the Harry Potter and certainly the Masterwork series. And then you can look at, you know, how the seating works and all that, but give our office a call. We are really anxious for you to come and see these concerts. And we have discounts for veterans. We have discounts for teachers. We have discounts for children. Of course we do. We will work with you any way we can because we know that once you and especially your kids have experienced the magic that is a part of a symphony concert, they will become addicted and you will not get a moment's rest until you bring them back again and again and again. We see the magic that we see in our outreach. When we take and we do this throughout the season, we musicians are sent out in ensembles to schools around the area. And I've been out on several of these trips and I've seen kids second, third, fourth grade and beyond who are being introduced not simply to classical music. Because it's not really, you know, we don't push that down anybody's throat. But they're introduced to the idea of music being created for the first time. It doesn't, all music doesn't come out of an iPod. No. It is created by a human being along the line and not always electronically. And we introduce groups of schoolchildren to the idea of how a clarinet works and a clarinetist will explain how this instrument became their favorite, their first love and why it is they've now dedicated their life to it. And you can see the lightbulbs popping all around the room. Little heads going down. Two things I wanted to mention. Ladies and gentlemen, $15 is all it costs. If you have a young person who is in school, you let the orchestra box office know you have to show some kind of identification. They will put you in the system so you don't have to keep doing that. And on the Monday before a performance you can go down and buy a ticket for your youngster and for yourself. $15 each. You cannot beat that anywhere. Also, sir, there was one performance of Peter and the Wolf, the classic music that introduced the instruments in the orchestra. It was done one time. I'm wondering if we're ever going to have one of those again, because that is a classical piece from Leonard Bernstein. I remember watching him on TV. And is that something we can look forward to again sometime? I expect so. Did I narrate that one? I don't remember. I think perhaps I did. I mean, I've done it with this orchestra. And yeah, we love to do that sort of thing. As far as special programming for Kiki, boy, do we have something coming up. Symphony for the Birds. You know about this? Yeah. No, I don't know about it. I know what it is. But I don't know. We did this once last year. It was a very special thing that mushroomed. It was a great idea that turned into a fabulous idea. And essentially, it started with some grand money where we were able to commission the composition of original pieces, several original pieces, each of which were dedicated and descriptive of a particular Hawaiian bird that was either going extinct or had become extinct. It was a sad sort of a thing to begin with. But then once those pieces were composed, some animated films were brought into being that depicted these very same birds. And this all was put into a one-time concert. We actually did three of them last year for schoolchildren that were bussed in from all over. And it was performed at the Blaisdell and was a magical experience for everyone concerned. We're doing that again. It's once again, it's on our website. Take a look at Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.org. And that is going to be a fabulous experience. And we're going to be involving as many children as we can with that one as well. A lot of people don't know you have been working with Hawaiian musicians. I went to a concert a short time ago where you had original compositions performed and composed by Hawaiian musicians for the orchestra and can chair to you someone playing with them. There was a chant, a chanter. It was absolutely amazing is more of that plan. Oh, absolutely. And one of our great partners who courses the Hawaii Symphony for Youth. Honolulu Symphony for Youth, forgive me. And for the second time in a few weeks we're going to be doing what we call a side-by-side concert which is we have our orchestra and then with each of our musicians is one of the performers from one of the orchestras of the Symphony for Youth. And it's a side-by-side show literally where our musicians will play and their musicians will play and then we all play together where essentially as two orchestras are blended but it's a wonderful way to work with the up-and-coming musicians of tomorrow who, you know, many of whom will be joining in the fullness of time the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. Fantastic. We have a short time left. I'd like to tell people about the financial status of the orchestra, how they can help besides buying season tickets and if there's anything else you need or anything else that the public can do to continue to support its orchestra even if they don't have extra cash. Absolutely. Number one, we, as I mentioned earlier, we came into being in a very compressed period of time just because we didn't want to lose any more musicians than we absolutely had to. So we began under-capitalized and that's marked our existence in the seven years now that we've been in existence and we've been broke every year. This last year we've begun to turn a corner. We're a little less broke now than we were at the beginning of that year and I'm very, very pleased with that. We have really detected a rise in enthusiasm among the corporate sector and some of our donors. The standard math for a symphony orchestra is about a third of its revenue comes from ticket sales. The rest has to be brought in from somewhere, major donors or whatever and we're currently running about 45% that's coming in from ticket sales. That's excellent. It's very good but we are running on a really bare bones budget. It's half of what it was with the old orchestra 10 years ago. It cannot be cut any further and still be called a symphony orchestra. So that is one thing. I mean, obviously, we've always got a need for cash. As far as ticket buying is concerned, that's why I'm so enthusiastic for people to have our webpage on their browser or whatever it is because we just don't have the money to do massive advertising. We're doing fabulous things. That's where all the resources go. But you never take some of the responsibility right now of finding out what it is that we're doing. As far, now third, as far as helping us out as a volunteer, which a lot of people want to do, yes, please, we nearly all the help we can get. We have two ways you can do that. One is we have the Honolulu Hawaii Symphony Orchestra Associates, which is a group that's been in existence for many years and is a real vital force. They stage fundraisers for us. They organize parties backstage. They help us out during show nights themselves, fabulous group of people. It's an organization unto itself. It's a separate organization to the Symphony Orchestra. So it's kind of a club and it's like a 30 or $40 a year fee for that just with the administration as a club. But it's a really important organization as far as the symphony is concerned. Alternatively, give us a call or send us an email at our website because we can always use volunteers in the office. We have an absolute skeleton crew right now and we can always use volunteers. I'm a volunteer. I mean, it's the way it operates. We have a few dedicated professionals. We just took on a new development director, Shona Gutierrez and we have an excellent marketing manager and of course Jonathan Parrish is the executive director. But more and more and more, we're using volunteer help to turn this back into a, wait, it is a professional producing organization. We just got to make the whole enterprise a little more stable. Well, one of the fortunate things is in Hawaii, we've become used to being volunteers to get something which maybe in other states they have more funding for. So your volunteers here are less scattered and less likely to default on you. When they make a commitment, they consider it a commitment. And I encourage all of you to do this, volunteer for the orchestra, volunteer for the opera, offer people your time and energy. You'll probably get a ticket out of it, which that's sort of a good payment. And you will be doing something that will change your community, you directly. And we need all sorts of help. It's, we have people to play the instruments so we're covered there. But in order to increase the, the attractiveness of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra to major donors, which is increasingly a challenge for us, we can do that. We can do that by putting on terrific events that they can come and, you know, you can come and meet the artists and have a drink backstage. And we need support help for that. We need party people. My mission with Hawaii Public Radio with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra is to make it not boring, to make it fun. I want to knock out all the stereotypes of 19th century sobriety and powdered wigs and all the rest of it. That's not what we're about. We're about great music and the kind of transcendence that can come to an individual through participating in great music. And having a good time. You know, I like parties. I like parties and it's a great party at the Orchestra of Michael. I want to thank you. We're out of time. But ladies and gentlemen, please do what you can to help your cultural life in Hawaii continue. The orchestra, the opera, anywhere you know, give your time, give your energy and give a few dollars, it can't hurt. And check with them. Maybe they have a deal going on. So this has been the will of the people. Let there be music. And I say indeed, let there be music. Please join me in two weeks. I look forward to speaking with you again. Thank you, Michael. Thank you.