Amy Adams calls for Bach Festival transparency in Eugene Weekly op-ed

10/19/2017: Amy Adams calls for Bach Festival transparency in Eugene Weekly op-ed. The gist is that the secrecy is about protecting the administrators, and that they are willing to damage the festival to do that.  Read it all, this is just a snippet:

Berwick Hall, the new home of the Oregon Bach Festival, is an elegant building — small, modern, light-filled, with a performance hall that can seat up to 140, perfect for small-ensemble performances such as were given at the public reception on Oct. 8 celebrating the building’s opening. Windows abound — from virtually every desk in the office, light floods the space. That, sadly, is the only transparent thing about the festival these days.

The few scraps of information given to the public lead to more confusion than clarity: The festival renews artistic director Matthew Halls’ contract through 2020 and then abruptly fires him, issues an unconvincing press release and then claims that the relationship has “drawn to a close.” Both the university and Halls agree to not “disparage” the other party. Yet in that silence, both parties are discredited as the public struggles to guess at what has been concealed. That is how silence works — people fill it with whatever comes to mind.

… Confidentiality is not a virtue, it’s just a tool that ensures information stays with authorized people. And it can, like any tool, be misused. Because of confidentiality, the festival’s stakeholders are prevented from knowing if there was wrongdoing or ineptness or both. They are unable to prevent whatever happened from happening again, because they don’t have any relevant information. All that’s known is that the University of Oregon, in clinging to its self-imposed secrecy, may well be protecting someone’s interests, perhaps even its own. And it is doing so at the expense of the Oregon Bach Festival. …

10/17/2017: UO cuts Bach Festival Exec Director Janelle McCoy out of leadership role

But of course we’ll keep paying her and SVPAA Doug Blandy, and Johnson Hall will avoid having to do any honest soul-searching about why they keep making mistakes like this. I wonder what the next one is going be?

Bob Keefer has the latest in the Eugene Weekly:

A statement released this afternoon by dean of the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance confirms the names of the seven-person committee that is to direct the planning of the 2018 Oregon Bach Festival. Eugene Weekly reported the names based on a source on Oct. 9.

The statement also sets the date for the 2018 festival and confirms that some previously planned events, such as premieres of works by Richard Danielpour and Phillip Glass, will move forward.

Perhaps notably, it doesn’t mention the “guest curator” plan proposed by executive director Janelle McCoy in the immediate aftermath of the still-unexplained Aug. 24 firing of artistic director Matthew Halls. McCoy is not mentioned in today’s statement and has been virtually invisible in recent weeks.

Here is the full text of Dean Brad Foley’s statement:

Dear Friends of Oregon Bach Festival:

Following the grand opening of Berwick Hall earlier this month, all of us at Oregon Bach Festival are looking ahead to next season.

… To that end, I have assembled (and will chair) a highly-qualified artistic committeefrom the staff, faculty, and board to assist with planning for the 2018 Festival:

• Royce Saltzman, Director Emeritus and OBF Board member

• Michael Anderson, OBF Director of Artistic Administration

• Josh Gren, OBF Director of Marketing and Communications

• Steve Vacchi, Professor of Bassoon, OBF Orchestra member, and OBF Board member

• Sharon Paul, Professor of Choral Activities, Director of the UO Chamber Choir (an OBF ensemble)

• Peter Van de Graaff, KWAX Music Director, Program Director of the Beethoven Satellite Network, bass-baritone soloist

…

Brad Foley
Dean, University of Oregon School of Music & Dance

Quite a change from the lies in the Around the O post of Aug 27:

“We look forward to a wider range of programmatic choices, community events, and cross-departmental relationships with UO faculty, staff, and students – from the UNESCO Crossings Institute, the Department of Equity and Inclusion, and the UO museums, to traditional academic units such as the School of Music and Dance, food studies, classics, humanities, history, and planning, public policy and management. These partnerships,” says McCoy, “might include lectures, public seminars, classes, publications, interactive programming, and so on.”

Meanwhile the UO Public Records Office is still sitting on a number of records requests that might shed more light on Doug Blandy and Janelle McCoy’s roles in this fiasco – one now more than 5 weeks old:

10/10/2017	Documents	Keefer, Bob	Requesting/Reviewing Records
10/10/2017	Title IX Complaints	Winn, Abigail	Requesting/Reviewing Records
10/10/2017	Contract	Hille, Jackson	Records Provided
10/09/2017	Nike Royalty Payments	Schmidt, Brad	Requesting/Reviewing Records
10/09/2017	Contract	Wolf, Lyle	Records Provided
10/09/2017	Subpoenas	Iboshi, Kyle	No Responsive Records
10/09/2017	Subpoenas	Jacoby, Kenny	No Responsive Records
10/09/2017	Subpoenas	Schmidt, Brad	No Responsive Records
10/06/2017	Subpoenas	Fenno, Nathan	No Responsive Records
10/05/2017	Contract	Allerton, Robert	Records Provided
10/05/2017	Contract	Krakow, Morgan	Records Provided
10/04/2017	Contracts	Huntsman, John	Records Provided
10/04/2017	Salary Data	Miraglia, John	Requesting/Reviewing Records
10/03/2017	Contracts and compensation	Schmidt, Brad	Requesting/Reviewing Records
10/02/2017	Personnel	Gartrell, Garth	Records Provided
10/02/2017	Outstanding vendor checks	Minotti, Anthony	Records Provided
09/28/2017	Correspondence	Pitcher, Jack	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/28/2017	RFP	Swyers, Angie	Request Withdrawn
09/28/2017	Payments	Renzetti, Jackie	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/27/2017	Correspondence	Melchior, Jillian	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/27/2017	Correspondence	Fenno, Nathan	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/25/2017	Contract	Smith, Dan	Records Provided
09/25/2017	Purchase orders	Pilsbury, Matthew	Awaiting Payment
09/21/2017	Expenditures	Harbaugh, Bill	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/21/2017	RFP	Wikoff, Heather	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/21/2017	Correspondence	Volker, WIlliam	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/20/2017	RFPs, scoresheets, interview materials	Kennedy, Phil	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/20/2017	Contract	Daugherty, Connor	Records Provided
09/20/2017	Complaints	Keefer, Bob	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/18/2017	Contracts	Jacoby, Kenny	Records Provided

09/15/2017	Notices	Keefer, Bob	No Responsive Records
09/15/2017	Contract	Frerotte, Susan	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/14/2017	Correspondence	Harbaugh, Bill	Awaiting Payment
09/14/2017	Contract and correspondence	Keefer, Bob	Records Provided
09/14/2017	Expenditures	McQuay, Brian	Records Provided
09/14/2017	Correspondence	Butler, Jack	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/13/2017	Financial Records	Harbaugh, Bill	Records Provided
09/13/2017	Salary Data	Sawyer, Brandon	Records Provided
09/13/2017	Contract	Pitcher, Jack	No Responsive Records
09/13/2017	RFPs, scoresheet	Garner, Katie	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/13/2017	Correspondence	Moore, Jack	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/13/2017	Correspondence	Meek, Austin	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/13/2017	Contract	Sawyer, Brandon	Records Provided
09/12/2017	Proposals	Stevens, Kristen	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/12/2017	Contract	Galluzzo, Morgan	Records Provided
09/12/2017	Directory Information	Weiss, Jordan	Awaiting Payment
09/11/2017	RFPs, contract	McNeeley, Mathew	Requesting/Reviewing Records
09/11/2017	Communications	Hubbard, Saul	Requesting/Reviewing Record

9/27/2017: School of Music and Dance takes over Bach Festival & $600K annual loss

Seems like a good move to me, and the press release is more plausible than past efforts. Presumably the subsidy will be gradually phased out. In any case it’s smaller than that for every Duck team except football and men’s basketball. I do wonder what will happen to Executive Director Janelle McCoy, and of course what the public records will eventually reveal, and if the central players will really be able to keep themselves from making any more disparaging revelations about each other.

Updates:

An anonymous correspondent notes that by reporting Matthew Halls’ grits joke to Doug Blandy, Janelle McCoy gained certain legal protections from retaliation by UO, which might make it difficult for them to fire her.

Saul Hubbard has more in the RG here:

The UO agreed to pay Halls a $90,000 settlement two weeks ago, following his abrupt termination in August. That firing, just two months after the UO signed Halls to a new four-year contract and gave him a large raise. has still not been fully explained.

But the settlement agreement contains a mutual nondisparagement clause. “The university and festival leaders do not intend to revisit Halls’ separation,” the UO said in a written statement Wednesday.

Bob Keefer, who broke the story, has more in the EW here.

Absent from much of the public discussion on Wednesday was OBF executive director Janelle McCoy, who is believed to have recommended Halls’ firing. She was not quoted in the release. Foley said she will work under his direction to administer the 2018 festival.

The SOMD’s press release:

From: Music School Dean <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2017 3:37 PM
Subject: Press Release: Management of OBF moves to UO School of Music and Dance
Cc: Music School Dean <[email protected]>

TO: School of Music and Dance Faculty and Staff

Press Release

Management of the Oregon Bach Festival moves to UO School of Music and Dance

Demonstrating its commitment to the long-term success of the Oregon Bach Festival, the University of Oregon is moving festival management under the university’s School of Music and Dance to produce the 2018 festival, bolster administrative support and create stronger ties to the university’s academic mission.

“The University of Oregon is dedicated to ensuring that the Oregon Bach Festival continues to be an artistic treasure for the university, the region and beyond for many years to come,” said Jayanth Banavar, provost and senior vice president. “The president, members of the Friends of the Oregon Bach Festival board and I believe that moving the festival to the UO’s outstanding School of Music and Dance will strengthen and reinforce the OBF’s creative leadership, administrative infrastructure and academic alignment.”

The festival began in 1970 as a program of the school of music. It later became a semi-independent university affiliate that flourished under the leadership of co-founders Royce Saltzman, who joined the music faculty at the UO in 1964 and served as associate dean of the school of music for 12 years, and Helmuth Rilling.

Staged over three weeks in early summer, the Oregon Bach Festival is celebrated by audiences and critics for its mix of choral-orchestral masterworks, chamber music, family events, scholarly programs, and talks and lectures. Centered on the music of J.S. Bach, it also explores the generations of composers before and since with connections to his influence.

“Members of the Friends of the Oregon Bach Festival board are very supportive of this move,” said Brad Stangeland, president of the festival board. “We view it as an important step to examine festival operations and ensure a bright and sustainable future. Collectively, the board is impressed by the commitment of university leadership to perpetuate the artistry that we—as audiences, musicians and donors—have long cherished.”

Under the revised structure, the festival’s executive director will report to the dean of the School of Music and Dance, Brad Foley.

Following the departure of conductor Matthew Halls a few weeks ago, Foley will immediately seek input on artistic direction from the festival’s staff, board representatives, music school faculty, and community members. The university and festival leaders do not intend to revisit Halls’ separation.

“I will immediately conduct a thorough analysis of how the UO can enhance and strengthen the OBF’s operations,” said Foley, who is a member of the festival’s board and has served on the board of the Eugene Symphony Orchestra. “The OBF team is extremely dedicated to the festival’s legacy. We want to take advantage of their expertise during this time of transition.”

Though the festival has a strong network of supporters and patrons, Foley noted that the festival and others like it face significant headwinds as a result of demographic changes among classical music consumers and evolving audience tastes and expectations.

“By combining the Oregon Bach Festival with the School of Music and Dance, we see opportunities to involve even more students, faculty members and guest artists in the festival’s activities,” he said. “We’ll explore the potential for new collaborations that will strengthen the OBF’s educational activities, including the conducting master class, organ institute, vocal fellows and historic performance programs.”

Foley said he will work closely with festival staff, the board, music school faculty, outside musicians and conductors, donors, and audiences to ensure that the festival continues to deliver on its mission of celebrating the music, legacy and spirit of J.S. Bach for many years to come.

###