Santa Fe’s Pro Musica orchestra has had a tumultuous ten months. To fully understand why, you need to consider its approach to surviving the pandemic, says Mark Tiarks.
Arts Professional provides a forum for opinion and comment on key issues affecting the sector. We welcome positive and insightful comments as well as critical ones, provided that they are expressed in constructive and polite terms. Please read our comments policy for more details: https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/artsprofessional-comments-policy.
When Santa Fe Pro Musica announced in May 2020 that Anne-Marie McDermott had been hired as its artistic director, the group’s co-founder, conductor, and music director Tom O’Connor said, “We took a moonshot, and we got lucky.”
One of the best-known arts organizations in Santa Fe, Pro Musica was founded 42 years ago by O’Connor and Carol Redman, its longtime principal flutist and associate music director. The group offers orchestra concerts at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, booked-in ensembles for a chamber music series at St. Francis Auditorium, and holy music at Loretto Chapel during Christmas and Easter. Pre-COVID, its annual operating budget was in the $1 million range.
In 2017, O’Connor told the board of his intention to step down, and conductors auditioned for the music director position during Pro Musica’s 2018 and 2019 concerts. Around the same time, the possibility of a different approach involving McDermott started to take shape...Keep reading on Santa Fe New Mexican.