美国国家公共电台 NPR Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra Confronts Controversy Over Right-Wing Guest Conductor

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

The Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra will have a guest conductor this week. Dennis Prager will conduct Haydn's Symphony No. 51 at an orchestra fundraiser. Dennis Prager's day job as a conservative talk show host, though, has some members of the orchestra up in arms or at least laying down their instruments. Some musicians have refused to perform, and four of them have signed a letter asking community members not to attend the concert, objecting that Prager's political views are at odds 1 with community and orchestra values. Santa Monica is a famously liberal town, and Prager is an outspoken 2 conservative who has said that, quote, "the news media in the West pose a far greater danger to Western civilization than Russia does." He's also defended free speech vociferously 3, including Kathy Griffin's photo stunt 4 where she held up a model of President Trump's severed 5 head. That was widely decried 6 by many fellow conservatives. Prager was invited to conduct the group by the Santa Monica Symphony's music director and conductor, Guido Lamell. He explained how his relationship with Prager developed.

GUIDO LAMELL: There's quite a background there. I've been a member of the LA Philharmonic for 39 years. And I think as far back as 30 years or maybe it was 25 years ago, I first heard Dennis Prager speaking on his - I think, one of his first programs, which was called Religion on the Line. You know, I found him very interesting. But the most important thing to me was that he was a - from the outset, he was a staunch supporter of classical music. And he would play excerpts 7 of classical music on his program and talk about the glories of Beethoven and things. And I was just amazed by that because, you know, I knew that he had a national audience. And I never heard anyone else on (laughter) national radio talking about classical music. We knew that he might be reaching an audience that classical arts don't always reach, OK? So now we cut to the present day. And as I say, going back two years ago, we thought it would be a lovely idea to give him an opportunity to conduct our orchestra. We felt that he would bring an audience that we don't usually reach, and that's what we were most excited about.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'd like to talk about the musicians, though. They wrote a letter characterizing Prager's views as deeply bigoted 8. What do you think of his views?

LAMELL: You know, I'm not even going to comment on it because it's - first of all, that's not what I'm about or what we're about. All I can tell you is that when I first proposed this to the orchestra, 90 percent of our orchestra was excited about this and wanted to be part of this program. And I also mentioned it to others, and some chose not to play.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I suppose my larger question is - do you think that in this political climate, someone's views can be separated from the art that they participate in? It seems that, at this particular moment, it is difficult for those two things to be separated.

LAMELL: Yes, I do. I absolutely think that very strongly because they are two entirely 9 different worlds. Political discourse 10 is one realm, and music is another realm. For me, music is an eternal flame. In fact, if I dare say this, I've kind of latched 11 onto an expression. I like to say music trumps 12 politics (laughter). I kind of like that line. That's how I approach it.

So look, here's also one thing I can offer. Dennis Prager came to this plan absolutely with the intention of not bringing the slightest mention of any political issues at all. This was all about the music, all about his passion in music.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Do you think the controversy 13 that this has kicked up is a sign of the times?

LAMELL: There's no question that our current day is so politically hypercharged, you know, that any person voicing an opinion in one - and not to mention, it so happens, of course - there are - today we have - it's actually a small number of hot-button issues, OK? And they are so hot that it's an actual kindling 14 stick at any moment. Things can flare 15 up. They can explode. It's - I'm very, very sad to see that in our society. And in a sense, I feel that music, today, is needed even more than it may have been a year ago. I believe that music can bring us back together.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Guido Lamell is the music director and conductor of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra. Thank you very much for joining us today.

LAMELL: Thanks so much, Lulu.