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Musical Culture in New York in the 1960S: Interviews with Clarinetists Who Auditioned for Leopold Stokowski and the American Symphony Orchestra

This treatise is an exploration of the distinctiveness of the American Symphony Orchestra. The American Symphony Orchestra was a unique organization that combined contemporary music and young musicians of diverse backgrounds with a famous conductor. Although Leopold Stokowski used a rather archaic method of auditioning, his inclusion of women and minorities in the orchestra was progressive and his championing of young musicians was legendary. The orchestra resided in New York, a city that already had a rich, albeit very different, symphonic tradition in 1962 when the American Symphony was founded. There were no women and only one African-American musician in the New York Philharmonic at that time, and most orchestras in the country were not yet using screens to audition potential candidates for open positions. This distinct set of circumstances can be seen as a cultural microcosm for the creation and development of the symphony orchestra, including the transformation of the audition process and the introduction of women and minorities to the symphony orchestra. At the heart of this microcosm are Leopold Stokowski and the musicians who dreamed to be a part of his orchestra. Two of the interviews for this treatise were convenience samples due to proximity, and the other six interviews were randomly selected from the list that Stokowski kept on every musician who auditioned for him. Interviews were conducted either in person or by phone, recorded and later transcribed. This treatise begins with a history of the development of the American Symphony and is followed by the history of the audition process in the United States. A brief overview of Stokowski's audition process for the American Symphony provides some insight and context for the interviews that follow. / A Treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: October 26, 2010. / Clarinet, 1960, New York, American Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski, Audition / Includes bibliographical references. / Frank Kowalsky, Professor Directing Treatise; Alice Ann Darrow, University Representative; Deborah Bish, Committee Member; Jeffrey Keesecker, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168115
ContributorsDetweiler, Julie L. Schumacher (authoraut), Kowalsky, Frank (professor directing treatise), Darrow, Alice Ann (university representative), Bish, Deborah (committee member), Keesecker, Jeffrey (committee member), College of Music (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
PublisherFlorida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource, computer, application/pdf

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