Can you revive a city – even define a city – by investing in its arts at a time of fiscal uncertainty? That’s the question answered in the documentary “Music Makes a City: A Louisville Orchestra Story,” which premieres May 20 at The Brown Theatre.
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courtesy of THE LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA
Louisville Orchestra musician Karen Lord Powell is pictured with a sculpture of former Louisville Mayor Charles Farnsley, who helped found the orchestra. |
“This is a story of how a public and private investment in our cultural infrastructure pays off,” said executive producer Gill Holland. “It makes you think ... about what makes a city special and who makes a city special and why we choose to live here. It’s not just a film about the orchestra. It’s a film about the role of the arts in our lives.”
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Jerome Heiler and Owsley Brown III co-directed "Music Makes a City" |
The film tells the tale of how Louisville became the unlikely capital of new music in the 1950s, thanks to the determination of Louisville Mayor Charles Farnsley and founder-conductor Robert Whitney. Employing cultural ingenuity and clinging to aspirations to revive the River City after it had been ravished by the Great Depression and the 1937 Flood, Farnsley and Whitney led an adventurous project to commission new works from composers around the world, a project that grew and gained notice far beyond Kentucky. The film uses archival footage and photographs along with on-camera interviews from former Louisville leaders, veteran musicians and American composers.
“It’s an extraordinary story ... and like so many extraordinary stories it will only be remembered if the history is told and recorded,” said Owsley Brown III, who created the documentary with co-director Jerome Heiler, Holland, producer Robin Burke, co-producers Cornelia Calder and Anne Flatté. Will Oldham is the narrator.
“Lucky for us, we were able to meet with a lot of the people who were involved and let them tell the story in our film,” Brown said. “A number of the people we interviewed are now gone. Like many pieces of history, this too is a fragile one.”
Heiler, a collector of Louisville Orchestra recordings, suggested making the film to Brown because he was intrigued about a city that had become a clearinghouse of composers from around the world more than half a century ago.
“I couldn’t even imagine what Louisville must look like because they were putting out so many recordings of such obscure composers,” Heiler said. “It was something that the other orchestras should have been doing, but Louisville was doing it at such a scale that was utterly unthinkable even to the most endowed orchestra.”
History buffs and orchestra fans will want to see the documentary for obvious reasons. But Heiler and Brown also say the film is undeniably relevant to what’s occurring today and a must-see by anyone with a vested interest in the upcoming mayoral election.
“The film immerses itself in the culture of the time, the civic spirit of the time, the spirit of the people of the time, and anytime you do something like that, it invariably offers a kind of mirror for whatever is happening today,” Heiler said.
As seen in the documentary, Mayor Farnsley studied Confucius and embraced the Chinese philosopher’s belief that a city with a rich cultural heartbeat will attract power and wealth. Farnsley, along with a host of other local leaders, including Barry Bingham Sr., should be credited with igniting Louisville’s thriving arts scene and inspire the current city residents to show their support now more than ever, Brown said.
“Had those few people not acted, would all of us who came into this world after them be living in as vibrant of a world as we are today, specific to Louisville?” he said. “(The movie) speaks about the spirit of a city and it asks, ‘What are the hallmarks of great leadership? What makes for inspired leadership?’ ”
Brown hopes audiences will care about the history of the Louisville Orchestra and how it affected the city so all of us will feel inspired to act in ways that affect our world.
“Here’s a 90-minute history lesson that is attempting to be both broad in its scope and deep in its poetic intention,” he said. “If one can kind of give in a little bit to the idea of a history lesson, then they might be able to learn an awful lot and gain a different perspective on their hometown – and that would be a victory.”
If You Go
World Premiere of “Music Makes a City”
Thursday, May 20
5:30 p.m.: Baxter Avenue Theatre
7 p.m.: The Brown Theatre
Tickets: $20 Baxter; $40 Brown (includes champagne and hors d’oeuvres reception)
“Music Makes a City” After-Party
10 p.m.: Theater Square Marketplace
$60 per person
The film will be shown daily at Baxter Avenue Theatre during the month of May.
