Arts & Entertainment
Lincoln symphony notes financial success
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Andy Manhart/Dally Nebraskan
By Trevor McArthur
Staff Reporter
While symphonies in some larger
cities have been struggling to keep
playing, the Lincoln Symphony Or
chestra has enjoyed smoothe sailing.
Recently, Oklahoma City has
joined the list of cities whose orches
tras have been disbanded, but those
involved with the Lincoln Symphony
Orchestra arc very positive about the
future of this town’s organization.
According to Marti Baumert, a
spokesperson at the symphony’s
management office, the number of
subscription season tickets sold has
increased. About 1,300 out of a pos
sible 1,500 seals were sold. She attrib
utes the growth to the symphony’s
ability to keep in touch with the
community’s needs.
Baumert said one problem with
many of symphonies that fail is an
attempt to grow too fast. By raising its
expectations too high, the symphony
falls short and gets into trouble.
“And they lose contact with their
community,’’ Baumert said. “They
decide to expand before they’ve done
their market research, so to speak.”
Also, the symphony is not as large
as some of the others which have
failed. Other symphonies had prob
lems with union demands and strikes.
In contrast, the Lincoln Symphony
has no full-time members and relics
heavily on music teachers and stu
dents. A few more come from the
Omaha Symphony Orchestra, which
docs employ full-time players, and
the Lincoln Chamber Orchestra, but
Baumert said the bulk of the orchestra
arc university faculty and students.
In fact, the musical director and
conductor for the symphony is Uni
versity of Ncbraska-Lincoln profes
sor Robert Em ile. Em i Ic is a professor
of strings and music theory, as well as
the conductor of the University Sym
phony Orchestra for the UNL School
of Music. He has served as a conduc
tor and music director before coming
to Nebraska for many various organi
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eras.
Baumert credits Emile with help
ing in the strong leadership which the
organization has and taking time to
know many people around town and
keeping in touch with the needs of the
community.
Richard Vierk, president of the
Lincoln Symphony Association,
agreed that the symphony is doing
better, although he said Lincoln’s
success needs to be put in perspective.
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'Those involved with the Lincoln Sym
phony Orchestra are very positive about
the future of this town's organization.'
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According to Vicrk, there arc three
categories of symphonies: national,
regional and metropolitan.
The New York Philharmonic and
the Chicago Symphony are examples
of ihc huge national symphonies with
multi-million dollar budgets. On the
other end of the spectrum, the Lincoln
Symphony fits into the metropolitan
category without full-time players
and a budget in the six-figure range.
Organizations in either of these two
categories tend to be doing well.
But regional symphonies some
times gel caught in the middle. They
must compete with national sympho
nies for players, but may not have a
much larger financial base than a
metropolitan symphony. According
to Vierk, most symphonies which
have problems arc regional.
Vierk said the relationship be
tween the UNL School of Music and
the Lincoln Symphony is symbiotic.
Professors are able to supplement
their incomes and have an artistic
release, making the UNL School of
Music more attractive, while the
symphony is able to get a better qual
ity of performer than they could oth
erwise afford.
Vierk also said the symphony can
get musicians who play for the
Omaha Symphony, a larger, regional
orchestra, when the players are not
obligated to Omaha.
“So we’re getting kind of the best
of all worlds, at a very reasonable
price,’'Vierk said. “That’sone reason
why we’re doing well, because we’re
able to benefit from them.”
See SYMPH on 16
MTV to select UNL students for same show
By Mark Hain
Stiff Reporter
Music Television’s manic game
show parody, “Remote Control,” will
attempt to broaden its geographical
scope 7 p.in. Monday in the City
Union Ballroom.
‘The audience of
the show is col
lege kids. What
better way to find
contestants than
go directly to the
colleges’
— Silten
-Mil
Although the show once catered
primarily to college students from the
east coast, University of Nebraska
Lincoln students between the ages of
18 and 24 can compete to win a spot
on the show.
“The audience of the show is col
lege kids,” said Lisa Silfen, an MTV
publicist. “ Wc just want to open it (the
show) up to as many people as we can.
What better way to find contestants
than to go directly to the colleges?”
The program, which first aired in
December 1987, has quickly become
a “very popular show for us,” Silfen
said. The popularity seems due, in
part, to the high energy level and fast
pace of the program.
The show combines sometimes
ridiculous questions, and even more
ridiculous answers from confounded
contestants, with a cast of bizarre
characters, including a verbally abu
sive co-host who insults the contest
ants. The show hooks its audience by
mocking the hyperactive excitement
level and melodramatic outbursts of
conventional game shows.
“MTV didn’t want to do just a
normal game show,” Silfen said.
“They wanted a parody of game
shows.”
According to MTV, the object of
the game is to “gain points and pos
session of the remote control box by
answering questions based on televi
sion and pop-culture trivia.
“The contestant with the highest
score is strapped to a Kraftmatic bed
in front of a wall of nine television
monitors. By identifying which mu
sic video is playing on each of the sets,
ihe contestant piles up prizes” sue has
VCRs and trips. Although many con
testants do well on the trivia section,
they lend lo trip up on the video
idcniification.
“It’s not difficult if you know tele
vision,” Silfen said. “People still have
a lot of fun playing the show.”
The bulk of those people “having
fun” however, arc students from the
East Coast. Although MTV claims lo
have no bias against the Midwest,
Silfen was nonetheless hard pressed
to recall if many Midwesterners had
participated in the show.
“I do know wc had a guy from
Michigan once,” she said.
The Midwest is finally starting to
get some recognition. UNL is one of
only three Midwestern colleges,
along with Wisconsin and Indiana,
which will be the siteof these contest
ant recruitments. Part of the reason
UNL was chosen was because MTV
recently established a pilot program
and internship on campus. According
to Cindy Bourne, the current MTV
campus representative, this is only
the first of a series of MTV-sponsored
activities on campus.
“The university agreed to partici
pate in this program basically because
they fell it would bring a lot in the way
of publicity,” Bourne said.
Bourne said the contest is limited
to the First 100 students who arrive.
The first part of the audition will be a
written trivia quiz, followed by a
personal interview in which “you
have one minute to impress the
judges,” Silfen said. The contestants
who make it past the first cut will play
a mock round of the game. The win
ners of the Final rounds will be on the
show.
“I was told that there would be four
people from here that could be on the
show," Bourne said, “but it could
change."
According to Silfen, once MTV
confirms its taping schedule around
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testants will be flown to New York
City for a shot at the big time.
Frequent viewers of “Remote
Control” may be under the impres
sion that all contestants must be a
certain type; namely, the type who
dance in lheirchairs,act really obnox
ious and scream “Yeah!”a lot. Notso,
according to Silfcn and Bourne.
“They’re not looking for a certain
type,” Bourne said. “It’s not just
looks or anything — you’ve got to
have some brains behind it.”
“We just want fun, cool people,
just someone who has a good atti
tude,” Silfcn said.
Even if prospective contestants are
unsure of their coolness quotient or
their altitude, both Bourne and Silfcn
gave advice for those students hoping
to be among the ones strapped into a
bed and insulted in front of mi 11 ions of
their peers.
“Just be yourselves — just be
wacky " Silfen said.