Episode 36 Talking South Carolina Podcast Interview with CEO Michael Smith and Gail Harrison Corvette of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra & Charleston Symphony O Orchestra League Charleston, SC

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – Hey guys. Thanks for joining me this morning on this gorgeous day. Much unlike the first of our week.

Michael Smith – It’s our pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Yeah, sure. Thank you Angela.”

Angela Barrett – “Guys, I have, Gail. Is it Corvette? Like Corvette car?”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Yes, like the car.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, nice. It was the president of Charleston Symphony Orchestra League. And I also have Michael Smith, who is the CEO. The director. Oh, my goodness of a lot of things. Of the institutional advance advancement Sims and how do you say that.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – All of that.

Angela Barrett – “All of Fonsi I told y’all before we started, I didn’t know a whole lot about music. I don’t even know our font. Tell me what that is.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – It’s her name.

Angela Barrett – “This is our font. Okay. See, I was thinking that that was an institution. Sorry. So, see, there we go. So tell me about the Charleston Symphony.”

Michael Smith – “Sure. I’ll start. Gail. So the Charleston Symphony is one of South Carolina’s largest, professional performing arts organization. And we perform, large scale orchestral concerts with a big symphony orchestra of about, 70 or 80 musicians on stage at the Juilliard Center downtown. So, our flagship series, our masterworks and pops, our masterworks is really the great classical music, of the last 400 years.”

Michael Smith – “And today, so you’re thinking anywhere from Bach to Mahler, Strauss, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and then all the way up to today where we celebrate composers that are living today and many of whom live and work in our community, like Edward Hartford, who’s on faculty, at the College of Charleston, we also perform chamber music, which is smaller groups of instruments, like a string quartet or a brass quintet, which provides really intimate and, kind of close interaction with musicians in all over the community and people’s homes.”

Michael Smith – “And we do some in pubs and breweries. And so it’s a way for us to really get out into the community with a smaller group. And then I guess lastly, we also have a very robust education program. We believe that a complete education involves music education. And so the symphony, our overall budget’s a little over $5 million, of which we invest more than $500,000 in our education programs for students all over the low country and in the tri county area.”

Michael Smith – About half of which are title one schools. So that’s the sort of scope of the organization for sure.

Angela Barrett – “So now, the the symphony itself has been around for how long?”

Michael Smith – Next year will be our 90th season.

Angela Barrett – “Wow. That’s amazing. And so all of the people in the symphony local, they come from all over. How is that? How does that work?”

Michael Smith – “We have a pretty unique model. We have 24 what we call core musicians. And I sort of I sort of joke about this, but it’s like Noah’s Ark. We have pairs of each instrument, so we have two trumpets, two trombones, two, you know, bassoons and oboes. And that serves ultimately as the sort of, artistic leadership of our organization.”

Michael Smith – “Now, many orchestras, like, think a large city like New York or Chicago. They might have 100 core musicians, so just 24 here. But it allows us some flexibility. And there are fabulous musicians all over the country. And we’re providing opportunities for them to come here to Charleston. So we’ve got the 24 musicians that are live in Charleston, work in Charleston.”

Michael Smith – “It is their full time job to play for the Charleston Symphony. But when we want to play a Tchaikovsky symphony, for example, we’re going to bring in probably 50 or 60 musicians from primarily the East Coast, but sometimes all over the country that come in and we call them our guest musicians, and they come in and, work with us for the week.”

Michael Smith – “And then they’re really freelancers and, create really wonderful opportunities for them to come to our great city.”

Angela Barrett – “That’s pretty cool. Now, how many of the that your large productions, when you have to bring in all those people, how many of those a year do you do?”

Michael Smith – “We have eight masterworks of which we perform, each one of them twice on Friday night and Saturday night at the Juilliard Center. Our performance season is really from September 1st, say, through, beginning of Spoleto with some may, we do eight masterworks and four pops. And so the how many performances of each one is varies, but at least one.”

Michael Smith – So 12 major productions a year.

Angela Barrett – Okay. Explain to me the difference in the masterworks and the pops.

Michael Smith – “So masterworks is your sort of, we’ll call it really classical music. So. Tchaikovsky. Yeah. Pops is a little bit of a catch all term, but it’s it’s our way of sort of, being less formal, less serious. It’s a chance to really engage a much broader audience. So we might do, this this weekend we’ve got the music of from James Bond movies, but we also have, you know, Frank Sinatra.”

Michael Smith – “Next year we have, a Cirque show coming in where we’ll have classical music, but there’s going to be acrobats and dancers and jugglers and things sort of flying above the orchestra during that time. So it’s a way for us to do some really innovative programing where, either it’s for families or not necessarily. It’s just a way to have, you know, if, if maybe Tchaikovsky, you don’t know that you love Tchaikovsky.”

Michael Smith – “It’s a way to kind of come experience it for our first time in a really, non-threatening way and put it that way.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – And if I might brag on the Charleston Symphony for a moment. They made their Carnegie Hall debut just a few weeks ago.

Angela Barrett – “Wow. Nice. Well, congratulate nations. That’s a pretty big, accomplishment there. That is, nice. The other question that I had for you, as far as the smaller performances, I know you said restaurants and bars and people’s private homes. I’m assuming weddings. And this is usually maybe a 2 or 3 person kind of thing, or.”

Michael Smith – “I wouldn’t call it. And that’s not it’s not weddings. I mean, and they could be in, in churches, homes, restaurants, other places. There’s really serious, music written for these smaller groups. So whether it’s, you know, Brahms or Mozart or Haydn, this really serious repertoire for a let’s, for example, string quartet. And so putting a string quartet at the Juilliard Center, which seats 1700 people with so few musicians on the stage, it doesn’t you don’t really feel connected to the performers in that way.”

Michael Smith – “So finding smaller venues and where you can fit, say, I don’t know, one of the one of our great partners is the Charleston Library Society. And so we’ve performed there for, let’s say, 150 or 200 people at a time. And you’re really up close to the musicians hearing really great music. It’s a completely different experience than the symphony.”

Michael Smith – “The symphony is this sort of really powerful, visceral. You could sort of feel it in your bones. Yeah, the chamber music in these smaller settings, it’s really intimate and up close, and you can almost feel like you can reach out and turn the pages of music for musicians. It’s that sort of really close setting. And so they’re both really unique in their own, in their own right.”

Angela Barrett – “Nice, nice, nice. Now, Gail, you’re the president of the, Charleston Symphony Orchestra League. Tell me what you guys do. And I know it’s very affiliated with the Charleston Symphony, but tell me. Tell me what you guys do.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “It is the CSO. Well, is a multi-talented group of more than 300 dedicated volunteers whose purpose is to support the Charleston Symphony, encourage talented young musicians, and inspire classical music lovers for generations to come. The CSO well has consistently been the largest institutional donor to the CSO, having donated nearly $5.5 million since the year 2000. We also provide scholarships for music students and the Charleston Symphony musicians, and last year we gave $42,000.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “And in this endeavor, we just auditioned 79 school age students for scholarships a couple of weeks ago. And we’ll be announcing those very soon. We also advocate for music education and funding for the arts in the low country, and we’ve been at this for more than half a century.”

Angela Barrett – “Lee. Yeah, that’s, that’s, really nice and much needed. Because.”

Michael Smith – “Can I make a comment? I think that this is important, that Gail, neither one of us really mentioned both of our organizations, our 501 C3 nonprofit organizations. And so, the symphony’s I think I mentioned is a budget currently of just over $5 million. But over the last 20 plus years, our philanthropy goal has been, around $2 million, of which the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League, through their fundraisers and various efforts, they’ve been giving about 10% of our overall fundraising goal through their efforts.”

Michael Smith – “So we’re two nonprofits, two separate five and one C3. But the support that the league has given us has been tremendous as to the overall success of the symphony, but I thought it was just worth mentioning. We are nonprofit organizations.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s good to know. And much appreciated. I know to Charleston and, to the people who, participate with you guys, the, you know, did you have anything else you were going to say? Because I was going to go back to the education part of this, but I didn’t. Or I can.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Talk about our music scholarships now, if you’d.”

Angela Barrett – Like. Absolutely.

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Sure. Since the year 2000, we’ve awarded $690,000 in music scholarships. And we have, we try to support the educational opportunities for the children and youth in the greater Charleston community. And, we have three separate programs for youth and students. One is a college scholarship program that’s available to graduating seniors for use in their first year of college, and they’re up to five potential scholarships of 2500 each that support them during their freshman year graduating high school students majoring in music, instrumental or vocal performance, composition, conducting, are eligible for this, and the highest award is $5,000, which we have named for the former conductor of the Charleston Symphony, the David and Karen”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Stahl Memorial Scholarship, is to the student who receives the highest score in that program, and then we give up to $500 for members of the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra or Charleston Youth Sinfonietta, which are run by the Charleston Symphony, to further their private music studies so music lessons can get expensive for these kids. So we have matching funds that we give to provide support for private music lessons.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “And the last one for the kids is scholarships and educational grants for summer study. So there are music camps like the Brevard Music Festival, where they can be supported and applicants can be as young as ten years of age. Wow. We get this scholarship because we believe it’s really important to start them young, to foster the love of music.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Yeah, the the last thing we do with our Charleston Symphony musicians for their summer studies is they apply to us and we can help fund if they go to a music festival. One of my favorite scholarships that we ever gave was our oboe player wanted to learn how to make the reeds better, so she took a course and had a little reed making business for oboe players.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – In addition. And she did a program for the Charleston Symphony League at one of our big luncheons to tell us how that study worked. So it’s just really exciting.

Michael Smith – “I might rag on you for just a moment, Gail. So these scholarship programs have been one of the questions you started off by asking us was about impact. Many of these scholarship recipients have the list of accolades. When I think about it, Gail is actually unbelievably impressive of these scholarship recipients over the last 20 years, plus years.”

Michael Smith – “Of course, one stands out. And that’s Jonathan Hayward, who just this, was it maybe two years ago now, Gail was named director of the Baltimore Symphony, and he’s come home to conduct the Charleston Symphony. But this is a student who, really didn’t grow up in a musical family and sort of found a cello and started studying cello with member of the symphony.”

Michael Smith – “He was coming to rehearsals, of the Charleston Symphony. I always wondered when he was going to class, but he would always come to the during the school day, and he’s now, he’s got this amazing, prolific career of both music director of the Baltimore Symphony, conducting organizations like the LA Phil and Seattle Symphony and others, and, also recently named the conductor of Mostly Mozart Festival.”

Michael Smith – “So these scholarships, we can actually track the success of the people that have received these. And it’s been, I think, something to be really, really proud of.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, that is amazing. Especially the story, like you said, of the student who, came back and, all he’s accomplished.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Yes. We’ve got one of our scholarship winners who’s the principal violinist for the Pittsburgh Symphony. Her name is Shannon Fitzhenry. And another, Nick Bentz, is getting his PhD in composition and has had several, of his pieces composed. And he’s a world class violinist in his own right and came back this December to give a concert to benefit the Symphony League, because he’s so grateful for the support that we’ve given him when he was just getting started.”

Angela Barrett – “So I want to go back to something. You mentioned, you said the Youth Symphony. So tell me more about that.”

Michael Smith – “Youth Symphony is one of our core education programs. And so that is a chance to, have these young musicians have a place to come together and play in a symphony orchestra, which cuts all strings in winds and brass. It is meant to enhance or supplement what their music education in schools. And so it’s an extracurricular activity.”

Michael Smith – “And the good thing about this is they get training with our professional musicians on a weekly basis for 30 weeks a year. So they’re getting really, really significant experience. And we have two orchestras. One is for some of the younger students that are just starting out. And so, and then and then we have an older, which is more a high school aged group, where they get this really intense training and, and really, it’s whether they want to become professional musicians or not, the skills and experiences of studying music in this setting.”

Michael Smith – “Have again, it’s it’s wonderful to see sort of track where they go to college and what they do and what they end up doing with their lives. And it’s it’s again, quite, quite impactful. So we’ve got about 130 kids, 150 kids from all three counties participating in this from about sixth grade through 12th grade.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “And Michael, how many of the CSIRO musicians performed at Carnegie Hall?”

Michael Smith – “That’s it. Yeah. So we when we went to Carnegie Hall, this is obviously this is just recently as on February, we didn’t just bring the Charleston Symphony, we brought the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra and the College of Charleston Orchestra. So we had 65 youth Symphony students that got the performance of a lifetime at Carnegie Hall. And then also the College of Charleston Orchestra came.”

Michael Smith – So we really brought all of Charleston with us.

Angela Barrett – Yeah. South. So I oh.

Michael Smith – “And that’s, they’ll never forget it.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. No. Oh. Goose bumps. That’s pretty neat. No. You know, how do you raise all the the money for these scholarships and to help the the symphony?”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Good question. Angela. Blood, sweat and tears. I’d say.”

Angela Barrett – And it’s a it.

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Is it is a joy to raise money for the Charleston Symphony. Because every time I go into that concert hall, I am moved. And to know that my contributions for volunteering made a difference. One of our volunteers recently said to me, you know, I can’t really personally give $60,000 to the Charleston Symphony, but I can give my time and my contacts and my effort to do the Kiawah tour of homes, which raised $60,000 last fall.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “So we have some signature events that we do. I want to highlight two that are coming up this spring. One is our Rap City raffle, where tickets are on sale now for anyone. Wherever you live, you can buy a raffle ticket by going to our website, CSL Ink Dawg, and the prize is related to music. We are so excited about this connection to our mission and what we’re raffling off.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “For years we raffled off a car and we’re raffling off music. So there’s a trip to Rome for 2 to 2025. Rome Chamber Music Festival, which will be held June 16th through 19. The raffle includes five hotel nights. We’ve already made the hotel reservation for you, where the musicians and the music director are staying. One of our symphony orchestra board members will be there.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Escort. We have premium festival tickets for all four nights. An invitation to an opening reception for the evening of July 16th, which nobody who just goes off the street to buy a ticket can really get into a private meet and greet with the founder and artistic director, Robert McDuffie, and a travel stipend. So we will give you the funds to buy your airfare for if you want to go from.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “And it should cover basic airfare, meals and other travel expenses. So if you’re planning a European vacation, tack this on.”

Angela Barrett – “It’s absolutely wow, that is me.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – I’ve been so.

Angela Barrett – Excited.

Gail Harrison Corvette – About that. Yes.

Angela Barrett – Yeah.

Gail Harrison Corvette – And we’ll be drawing the prize for that at the end of our pop up house tour. Would you like me to share that with you now?

Angela Barrett – Absolutely. Okay.

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Historically we did, 43 designers show houses, and this year we’re trying something different. So it’s. We have, we’ll be touring, setting up a tour of a historic, beautifully renovated home in the center of Charleston’s historic French Quarter. In addition to house tours Wednesday to Saturday for two weekends. And that will be announced, we have an opening night soiree, which will be held French bistro style in the, Dock Street Theater.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “So this house is a stunner. It’s 50 660ft² with five en suite bedrooms in the main house, a two bedroom apartment on the ground floor where we’ll have an art gallery where the art will be curated. And for sale, with a small portion going to the Symphony League and a small studio that’s behind the kitchen and bath. So please follow us on social media for our hints that are coming out about the great reveal of what and where the pop out pop up house tour is.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I can’t wait to hear about that. As a real estate agent, I’m certainly interested in that, so I’ll keep my ears open. So now, Gail, tell me what what’s your background in music? How did you did you just fall in love with it? You stumble in there and fall in love, or you always had an edge?”

Angela Barrett – “Or do you have an education about, music?”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “I’d say it’s in my genes. My mother was a music major, and she was a church choir director, and it was kind of required that we were in the church choir, and that rang the hand bells. And, I have always been singing for my whole life, a lot of duets with my mom. I sung in choirs.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “I sang in, the Pollio Chorale in Washington, D.C., I sang in the Oratorio Society in New York City. So I got to sing in Carnegie Hall 30 times or so in the ten years of the New York. And then I moved to Charleston, and one of the first things I did was seek out the big chorus in Charleston, and that’s the Charleston Symphony Orchestra chorus.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “And I’ve been singing in that for the 16 years that I’ve lived in Charleston. And during one of the rehearsals, one of the alto stood up and said, I’m a volunteer for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League, and we need docents at this house. So I volunteered, and now I’m the president. So I’ve been involved in the Symphony League about 15 years, because the first designer show house I did was about nine months after I moved to Charleston, which it was my husband’s hometown.”

Angela Barrett – “Nice. So, Michael, let’s talk about you. Give me your history and and how you fell in love with music and when it started and all that good stuff.”

Michael Smith – “Yeah, that’s a great question. So much like, well, I had a musical family, so my father was a tenor, a singer, and he had a full ride to Juilliard when he was young, and his parents said, no. And so he end up at. Yep, they said, we’re going to go get a real degree. So he went and got a degree in, biochemistry at U Pitt instead.”

Michael Smith – “However, probably perpetually resentful of of his parents for this, but continued to sing throughout his life and play piano. And so I grew up listening to him sing and play piano. That’s my, you know, sort of earliest musical memories are hearing my dad now played Tchaikovsky piano Concerto at home for fun.”

Angela Barrett – Right.

Michael Smith – “And so I’ve never forced but always encouraged, that my siblings to play. And so actually my, my brother was a musician. He’s five years older than me. He’s plays in an orchestra in Mexico, and I followed in his footsteps. I played trumpet, and ultimately I went to, major in music. I went to Manhattan School of Music and, with a degree in trumpet performance.”

Michael Smith – “And then in 2006, took the audition for the Charleston Symphony and was lucky enough to win it. And then, long story. I guess this is a long story, but, you know, life takes funny turns going from playing the trumpet to, what I’m currently doing. It music’s always been, you know, sort of central in my life. So when I stand up on stage and talk about the impact of music education and our youth symphony programs or some of the things that girl was talking about, these scholarship programs, these really do make it make a difference.”

Michael Smith – “And so I’m a product of it and grateful for it. So these are really personal to me when I, you know, stand up and talk about these programs. So yeah, music’s been a part of my life since as long as I can possibly remember. And so, you know, Gail, you said something that I just love. You said it’s a joy to raise money for the Charleston Symphony.”

Michael Smith – “And I feel the same way. I just I feel very lucky to be able to be a part of an organization that is so beloved by our community. And for something that’s, you know, near and dear to me, there’s so much in the world that can divide us. Music’s that one thing that really brings us together. And that’s what I’m in.”

Michael Smith – That’s for the love of all that’s happening.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. I mean, you know, like myself and I said this in the beginning, I don’t know anything about music other than I like it. Yeah. But it is, like you said, it is the one language of thought with lots of bands, and, you know, it in doing this, and we all agree, is the one language that will bring everybody together no matter where you are.”

Angela Barrett – And I love that.

Michael Smith – “It’s these are things that’s important to me, is you mentioned this and it’s like, I don’t know too much about classical music. You really don’t have to to enjoy it. It’s really, you know, I have a friend, Quentin Baxter, as a drummer in town, percussionist, and he’s a wine connoisseur. I don’t know anything about wine. And he’s like, really?”

Michael Smith – “It’s two categories. It’s either tasty or nasty. You starting out becoming. And I kind of feel that way about music. You either like it or you don’t. You. You don’t really have to know why you don’t. I mean, and it’s sort of like wine. The more you sort of dig in and you sort of learn about it, the more you can talk about it and enjoy it.”

Michael Smith – “But really, you either like it or you don’t. And it’s as simple as that. And I so I like to share that with people because I think it helps like sort of invite people in rather than say, well, I don’t know too much about it. I’m not part of the club. You don’t have to be in it. You either come in and you enjoy it or not.”

Michael Smith – “I honestly can’t think of any human being that would come in and listen to a Beethoven symphony and say, I don’t like that, or I’m not moved by that. They don’t have to say, why. You know, over time, maybe you figure that out, but I think people just come in and get the goosebumps and then figure out why later.”

Angela Barrett – “Right, right, right, right.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “And if you’ve seen a movie, if you’ve watched Bugs Bunny, you’ve experienced classical music. It is everywhere in our culture.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I was going to say the only part that I know is, is a former way, way, way former ballerina I did dance, so there was a lot of it. But sometimes on my birthday where I was dancing to because I was too busy counting, you know, three, 3 to 4, you know, for.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “My favorite warm up when I took advanced ballet for non majors at Indiana University, was we would do the warm up every time to Pachelbel’s Canon in D, which is still one of my favorite pieces of classical music, because it takes me right back there to that wonderful experience I had. Yeah, that’s the other power of music, right.”

Angela Barrett – “And and now we’ve talked about, the impact that both of you guys, the league as well as the symphony have, in Charleston to everyone, but especially to the youth. And and again, for those that might be listening, I know that as a ballerina, to become a, professional musician is quite a commitment. There is not a lot of free time in the very beginnings, at least from this side of it.”

Angela Barrett – “On the ballet side of it, there was not an I was not a professional. This was just, you know, college and high school school, you know, grammar school, whatever. But it’s quite the commitment. But there’s also discipline, as we said, it sets the tone for those youth later on in life. They have those disciplines because they had to do that with the music.”

Angela Barrett – Right.

Michael Smith – “Yeah. I love this conversation because, and I’m going to relate it to something that might speak to a broader audience. Sure. I’m being a professional musician at, in a particularly a symphonic musician, but really, any genre of music is quite akin to becoming a professional athlete. So the path of making it to the major league for, you know, baseball or the NFL or something like that, you’re looking at, you know, a fraction of a percent.”

Michael Smith – “I don’t know the exact stats, but it’s single digit percent of people that attempt this make it to the highest level. It is very similar in classical music. The difference is, you know, the the payout at the end is it’s a different reward. You know, the financial model of it. But so the, the what it takes to get there is a very, very similar path, that sort of dedication that’s sort of throwing your whole life at becoming a professional violinist or trumpet player.”

Michael Smith – “And, it is unbelievably gratifying. And when you when I think about the sort of percentage of people that are able to do it, it is really small, but what I love about it, whether your student or your child is playing, you know, a sport or music, it is that discipline, that commitment to being excellent at something that prepares you for pretty much whatever you want to do for life.”

Michael Smith – “Right. I just recall when I changed my career from being a professional musician to what I’m currently doing. It was a little uncomfortable conversation to call my trumpet teacher who invested so much time in me and say, hey, I’m actually, I’m going to put a suit on now and do something completely different. And his comments to me really uplifted me.”

Michael Smith – “He he said, I didn’t teach you how to play the trumpet. I taught you how to be successful. And so that was inspiring for me. But it just really made me think, you know, people don’t think of musicians like you said. They have to throw everything they have in order to be elite, without the pay off of a, of a professional athlete.”

Michael Smith – “But it’s the same pursuit and it’s yeah, it is that sort of small percentage that actually become professional musicians. But the, everything that goes into that is applicable in other areas of your life, maybe that’s sort of where I’m rambling towards.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. No, I, I totally agree, you know, people who, have had to learn or wanted to learn that discipline, whether it be music or dance or whatever the profession you wanted to choose and all the hours and time that is spent long before you sit down in that chair or hit that stage, people can’t fathom. I mean, they just can’t fathom.”

Angela Barrett – “And so it does. It sets you up really, for success, success later on in life. So encourage, you know, all parents of children find a way for them to be in some form of, you know, that kind of, recreation to, help your child because it’s fun when you’re young. It’s just later on, it clicks.”

Angela Barrett – “I need to put a little more in this, you know?”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “So the Charleston Symphony has a, and fellow program where we have students who want to be professional musicians, study with the Charleston Symphony. And one of our musicians also is studying neuroscience. And there’s been a connection between music and the brain.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, sure. Oh, hang on, I can’t hear you. Oh, okay. You’re back. I had to know what happened.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “And I tell everybody how they can join the Charleston band fixedly to help support this wonderful endeavor. And, the more money we raise, maybe the more the musicians can make. Back to earlier. Michael’s earlier.”

Angela Barrett – Point. Yeah.

Gail Harrison Corvette – “I mentioned earlier, we have more than 300 members. It’s easy to join. People can just go to our website. We started as something three years ago because we said, you know, we need younger people in the concert hall and we need younger volunteers. So we have a membership category called the dynamics, which is for our under 40 set under 40 ish.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “We don’t check ID and that’s $40 for a year of membership in the Charleston Symphony. And they put on fundraisers and they have happy hours every Thursday at the Harbor Club. And it’s a great social networking group for our young members. And they participate in every aspect of the Symphony League’s work on, including about a quarter of our board now is dynamics, too.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “23% of our membership are under 40. That’s for an individual member. 40 and over is, $70. And we have many of our members who have been members for more than 20 years. So once you join the symphony League, you really don’t ever leave. It’s kind of like Utah, California. And we also offer a household membership for two members in a household.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “And to for the first time, somebody joins the league. The symphony has been very generous in providing two complimentary tickets to a symphony concert of their choice during their first year, based on availability. Some of our, concerts sell out really fast, which is fantastic, like our holiday Pops concert is going from three concerts this year to four next year because it is a crowd favorite and people look forward to it.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “In this town. But it’s just so fun to be a member of this, the Symphony League, because like minded lovers of classical music or people who care about educating children, we kind of are a part of the CSO family. Sometimes we make meals for the symphony when they have a break during their concert schedule, which is grueling. Three days before the concerts, we have these award winning projects.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “I have the pleasure of going to the League of American Orchestras this summer to accept an award. It’s our second year in a row. We’ve won a national award from the League of American Orchestras, and this one is for our designer show house that we did last spring.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, that’s pretty cool now. And these events, both for the league and again for the symphony, go on the, prospective website and those events all the way there, and that’s how you can find out. It will all be.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Listed and we send a newsletter every other week that has kind of a chronology of what’s coming up. That includes the symphony concerts, as well as the Symphony Orchestra League events. We have a lot of members only events, including like a behind the scenes look to what the upcoming concert is called, coffee or wine with the maestro, depending on the time of day.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “If it’s in the morning, it’s coffee or but all our members are invited to that. And we went to zoom on Covid. It used to be in the CSL member meetings that we had once a month, and then Covid hit and so we went on zoom, and the Symphony liked this programing so much that now some of their top donors and season subscribers are also invited to this coffee and wine with the maestro.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “So for those of our members that are not big contributors to the symphony, because we’re all in different socioeconomic levels, they get this insider access to meet the musician. Last week we had a wonderful tea that was a fundraiser for us with Joann Falletta, who was a groundbreaking female conductor, and she was so inspiring.”

Angela Barrett – “That’s pretty neat. You you don’t see a lot of female conductors, do you?”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “You do not. And she was the first. She told a story about how she grew up in Queens and at age 11, went to Carnegie Hall and saw this world famous conductor. And she knew right then that that’s what she wanted to do. And then she said, it never dawned on me that girls couldn’t be conductors.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, good for her.”

Michael Smith – “Living in the orchestra world, I was thinking, it’s hard to even fathom this today, but I think the New York Philharmonic, a major symphony orchestra in America, I think it’s only been less than 100 years since there have been women in the in the New York Philharmonic. And there are other orchestras that are even worse than that. So made some great progress over the years.”

Michael Smith – “Still some progress to be made, but that’s unfathomable to me. But that’s less than 100 years ago.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, it’s kind of crazy. In fact, Joann.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Falletta told the story that when she went to her first music school, they would they and signed up for conducting. Course, they wouldn’t really let her in. They let her audit it. And if she did, okay, maybe they’d let her in the next one.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, wow.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – He was not deterred.

Angela Barrett – Yeah. No good for.

Gail Harrison Corvette – His won multiple Grammys. She’s on the list of the most notable conductors of all time. She’s phenomenal. And she came to Charleston recently.

Angela Barrett – “Oh. That’s nice. Yeah. Good for her. So what is next? I know you’ve got some big events coming up, but are there any. I mean, in five years, let’s say bang playing in five or we’re just trying to get through the next. What’s the game plan?”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “The Charleston Symphony’s on a wonderful trajectory. Michael, why don’t you tell us what’s on the game plan for next fall’s, season and the season tickets are being sold right now. They just went on sale.”

Michael Smith – “They are on sale. So, yeah, I think maybe I’ll start zoomed out. I actually think that even in a relatively small city of under a million people, we are in many ways redefining how a symphony orchestra serves its community. And so that’s a big sentence. But there are many major orchestras in major cities that are really struggling. I think we’ve found a model that really works for our city to deliver high quality symphonic music and education programs, and one of the keys that I made a big point of highlighting that we are a nonprofit, I try to remind everybody that nonprofit is a tax status, not a funding model.”

Michael Smith – “So. So, we’ve we managed to do this, and I’m really proud and a really financially sustainable way. So what that looks like going forward is how much the way I view this is how much more can we be for Charleston today than we were yesterday. And that’s through our programing, both on and off the stage and in our classrooms.”

Michael Smith – “And so next year, you know, girls sharing, we have a lineup that you would see at a major orchestra in a major city. We’ve got pianists like Emanuel Ax, who is one, you know, the living legend got James. And as a violinist, again, living, living legend and our, our sort of tagline is music for everyone. And it harkens back to, what I said before.”

Michael Smith – “I think everybody, if they would just walk in the door and, and it’s up to us to make that invitation. And so here’s my invitation. Walk in the door and I’m quite, positive that you will be transported and get those goosebumps. And so it’s just a matter of taking that first step. And so we’re, we’re going to keep sort of defying the trend.”

Michael Smith – “Classical music is really neat, right. And and our the just go pointing out this the trajectory of our organization, our audience is up 75% since before the pandemic. Many orchestras have not gotten back to PA from before the pandemic. And it’s because we have this view of and Bill said simply, just sort of connecting and reflecting our community through music.”

Michael Smith – “And so when I look at the future, what are the activities and events and subjects that we can explore through music that, that accomplish that? And so, again, our performance season is September through May and subscriptions are on sale for next year. Subscription gets you great seat discounts and some of those behind the scene access, things that that Gayle was describing earlier.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. How interesting. Nice. Yeah. So, we, definitely need to get online and get, all of that taking care of so we don’t miss anything. Right? Yes.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – And buy your raffle ticket yet?

Angela Barrett – This Friday.

Gail Harrison Corvette – I had ticket to our pop up house tour.

Angela Barrett – “Yes, quite the prize. Well, guys, thank you so much for being with me today. This has been a pleasure. I, not only got to talk to you, but I also learned a few things. So thank you very much for.”

Gail Harrison Corvette – “Thank you, Angela. It’s a pleasure to serve the Charleston Symphony.”

Angela Barrett – “Absolutely. Have a great day, guys.”

Michael Smith – Thank you to.