PEORIA -- Who could have imagined that some of Peoria's affluent culture lovers would hit the streets in freezing weather on Valentine's Day evening to save a favorite conductor! Or that local TV news would cover it!
But that's what happened Feb. 14 as an ad hoc group gathered signatures on a petition to save the job of Peoria Symphony music director David Commanday. (For details on this fight see stories below and the Journal Star's stories and here).
I was one of the group.
It was freezing cold, and dark. The Peoria Civic Center had decided we could not ask for signatures inside the Civic Center. If one group gets to do it, everyone would want to, we were told -- well what's wrong with that?
(In fact that's probably a fight for another day. The CC is a public building. But I digress.)
So we were out on the dark,cold street. Would a symphony audience sign a petition under these or any circumstances? Yes! In fact they came looking for us.
Many were outraged at both the treatment of Commanday and the Civic Center's edict. But many did not know the full story on the situation.
Many have not gotten the word that the job Commanday has taken at a New Jersey youth symphony is not full time. That's because of misleading news coverage, which our group tried to correct in a news conference last week. But that fact was mostly ignored by the coverage.
Others said they believed Commanday was being let go because ticket sales have fallen.
That's not true either. Season ticket sales have dropped in Peoria as they have everywhere in the US, but we have no figures on total ticket sales in Peoria which appear to be stable from looking at the audience size.
There is much we don't know about the Commanday situation:
1. What are total ticket sales?
2. Where are the bylaws for the symphony board? We asked for them early last week, have yet to receive them. That document should spell out the powers of the board.
3. What was the vote at the meetings to oust Commanday? How many were present?
4. Was the ouster on the agenda before the meetings?
5. Why didn't the board interview Commanday in person -- we're told they did not?
6. How much tax money does the symphony get annually from the Illinois Arts Council? That makes the symphony board a quasi-public entity spending tax money.
7. How much "education" do not-for-profit board members receive before or while they serve on these important community boards? Do they understand their roles? Or do they look on these organizations as their own personal fiefdoms/businesses to do with as they see fit, to fire artists and musicians at their whim? (Sounds medieval doesn't it!)
This we know: people signing those petitions told us they're not going to renew their season tickets if Commanday goes.
And here's a disturbing thought: some people we have encountered appear terrified to take a stand. Is that because they fear retaliation from powerful board members? A job loss for example, or lack of support for their own charities? If so, that's an awful indictment of Peoria culture.
By now it's obvious that the symphony board has allowed a few of its powerful members who control the board to make a big mistake in ousting a popular music director. Will they back down? Can they say, with Obama, "I screwed up?" or will they persist and in the process threaten Peoria's strongest arts group with destruction?
-- Elaine Hopkins
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