Not All Orchestra Stars Onstage
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has stars on stage and off, including members of the administrative staff who work behind the scenes to bring CSO concerts to the public.
A star on the rise is CSO artistic coordinator Naimah Bilal, named last week by the League of American Orchestras to its prestigious Orchestra Management Fellowship Program.
The League-sponsored program is the country’s premier training program for orchestra leaders. Bilal, 26, is one of five 2009 Fellows selected through a competitive process to work in a variety of administrative fields with three host orchestras (to be announced later this month). As a first step, she will work as orchestra manager for two months at this summer’s Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.
A native of Ft. Washington, Maryland, Bilal earned degrees in viola performance from Indiana University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She was an Artistic Administration, Education and Marketing Intern for the Cleveland Orchestra before coming to the CSO in the summer of 2006.
As artistic coordinator for the CSO, Bilal’s primary responsibilities involve “artist care,” she said. “What that entails is a great many things, but mostly handling arrangements for the artists, including hotels and flight arrangements.” She is contract administrator for the CSO, Cincinnati Pops and May Festival and personally assists CSO music director Paavo Järvi, Pops conductor Erich Kunzel and May Festival music director James Conlon, when he is in town.
“Literally, I am the first person the artist sees and often the last person the artist sees. I’m at the airport. I meet them and sometimes I drop them off, so it’s a very special and wonderful position.”
Bilal, for instance, will pick up Järvi when he returns to Cincinnati April 19 following the CSO’s two-week tour of Europe.
She is uncertain what direction she will go in the future, she said, since the fellowship program is flexible and designed to fit the particular aspirations and talents of each participant.
“What happens is the League itself asks you which facet of orchestra management you are most in need of exposure to and based on that, they determine which orchestras you are assigned to. In my two years with the CSO, I have been very attracted to the operations and artistic side. But I’m really hoping to utilize the fellowship to help me know exactly what I want to do -- what field I am cut out for.”
As for orchestra management versus performance, Bilal is comfortable playing a supporting role. How like a violist, one of the inner voices of the string section, rarely given a leading role like the violin or cello.
As do many violists, she began playing the violin – a fact largely determined by the violin’s smaller size and ease of handling.
“When I was in middle school, my youth orchestra instructor needed a violist for the viola section. It was more a question of utility than desire but, of course, I grew to love it over the years, and I can’t imagine having studied anything else.”
Bilal has contributed to the music scene in Cincinnati beyond her duties with the CSO. Two years ago, in conjunction with Elementz Hip-Hop Youth Arts Center in Over-the-Rhine, she founded a chamber music series, Chamber Music Remix, to perform in area schools. “Remix” means just that, for the goal of the project is to expand the reach of music education by fusing hip-hop with classical music.
Bilal is second-violinist of the Elementz Quartet, a group founded to take the project into the schools. The quartet is made up of CSO staff members and members of the community, including violinist Shelby Latin, violist Wendy Skoczen and cellist Chelsea Van de Drink. Skoczen is assistant principal librarian of the CSO. VandeDrink is a sound engineer for WGUC-FM.
“We piloted Chamber Music Remix at Harmony Community School (Roselawn). We produced two programs working with Jason Haap, an English instructor there,” said Bilal who hopes the program will continue after she leaves Cincinnati.
“Hip-hop is a tremendous untapped resource for music education,” she said. “There are people in the field, including Black Violin, that do tremendous work in the schools (Black Violin -- violinist Kevin Marcus Sylvester and violist Wilner Baptiste -- performed on the “Mayor’s 801 Plum” concert series last spring at City Hall).
Another is genre-busting Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), a classically trained violinist and composer who has performed with Philip Glass and choreographer/dancer Bill T. Jones.
“While it uses classical, traditional compositional techniques, what informs Roumain’s style is hip-hop,” said Bilal. (Roumain’s compositions include “Hip-Hop Studies and Etudes” and “Harlem Essay for Orchestra and Digital Audio Tape” premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1999. See his web site at www.dbrmusic.com).
Because hip-hop doesn’t have “the same kind of not always defined melodies” as classical music, Bilal worked with Patrick Stuart, a New York composer who arranges for hip-hop stars, to arrange pieces for Elementz.
“We used them to outline some of the same concepts you would in any music education setting: basically texture, rhythm, style, genre,” she said. “All these things we were able to utilize with great success.”
Bilal, who lives in Blue Ash, wishes there had been more time to devote to Chamber Music Remix during her stay in Cincinnati. “My schedule at the CSO doesn’t allow for much. They are very odd hours. They pretty much center around the symphony schedule, which itself is not typical. We all work Saturdays. We all sometimes work Sundays. But it’s very rewarding and I love what I do.”
As for playing the viola (or violin), except for Chamber Music Remix, she has not had much time either, she said. “I attend performances and hear my friends play.”
Her favorite viola repertoire – a scarce item until the 20th century – gravitates toward the English composers. “Some of my favorites are Vaughan Williams’ Suite for Viola and Orchestra, Britten’s ‘Lachrymae’ and Arnold Bax’s Sonata for Viola and Piano.”
“It’s been wonderful to be on the other side. There is where my passion lies, behind the scenes.”