VOX Femina Los Angeles is committed to standing and fighting for a world that affirms the worth and dignity of all people, regardless of race, gender, age, sexual identity, ethnic origin or religious persuasion. The expressed views of Dennis Prager are directly at odds with these values, and we are disappointed to see him welcomed into our local music community.
Mayor Ted Winterer, Santa Monica City Council:
I will not be attending and certainly have not encouraged anyone to attend.
Mayor Pro Tempore Gleam Davis, Santa Monica City Council:
I completely understand the frustration that you and others are feeling about the symphony's choice for a guest conductor. As others have mentioned and I have confirmed with the City Attorney's office, the City cannot take any action in connection with the symphony based on Mr. Prager's political and other statements. Of course, they are not representative of my or our city's progressive, inclusive values. I think that the appropriate response (and the one that you and others are taking) is to let the symphony know your feelings about having Mr. Prager as a guest conductor and not attending the performance. The First Amendment often means that we have to accept that others will say things or express values with which we disagree. This can be particularly true in the artistic arena. But while we cannot and should not silence those with whom we disagree, we certainly can refuse to support them.
Councilmember Kevin McKeown, Santa Monica City Council:
I personally will most certainly not be attending a concert featuring a bigoted hate-monger. The judgement (or lack of) shown in inviting Prager may affect future community support for the Symphony (whose concerts I have attended in the past).
As far as using the City’s funding to control who is on stage at a particular concert, I think Rick Cole put it very well in his statement to the Lookout:
“This City supports the arts,” said City Manager Rick Cole when asked by the Lookout if the symphony’s invitation to Prager posed difficulties. “It appears that Dennis Prager supports the arts. The City, in funding a season of musical performances, does not choose what music is played or who plays it at any particular concert."
“Ticket buyers are in a different position. They can choose to buy a ticket for a particular performance because they love Dennis Prager; they can choose not to do so because they loath Dennis Prager; or they can choose to attend or not attend based on the orchestra and the music and ignore the political views of the person waving the baton."
“But that is not the realm of a city to make those distinctions,” he wrote in an email.
“Reasonable people can argue for or against cities making arts grants --even arts grants to particular forms of art (folk vs. classical; performing vs. visual; community vs. institutional etc.) But the Constitution and courts keep us out of regulating content -- and the personalities or political views of performers."
“And even if you hate Dennis Prager, that is a good thing,” Cole said.
Carole Fabricant, Professor Emerita, UC Riverside:
As a Santa Monica music-lover and supporter of the arts, I was appalled to learn that the Santa Monica Symphony invited Dennis Prager as a guest conductor for its fundraiser in Disney Hall on August 16. What could you have been thinking when you made this stunningly wrong-headed decision?! Who did you imagine the audience would be for such a concert? Did you really believe that LA music-lovers, nothing if not a diverse and discerning group, would throng to hear a talentless bigot and blowhard perform in a role for which he is utterly incompetent?
The problem here is not that Prager is a conservative—which he has every right to be, and which should be nobody’s business but his own. The problem is that he is an extremist right-wing demagogue who regularly poisons the airwaves with his belligerent and inflammatory diatribes on a wide range of issues about which he knows nothing, thereby making his views other people’s business as well. His venomous opinions on subjects ranging from liberal voices on campus and anti-racist activists to Jews who are even mildly critical of Israel, and his regular practice of demonizing those he disagrees with in the most noxious terms, ought to send a clear signal to any reputable organization—and certainly to any artistic group—that they should steer well clear of this man and abjure even the slightest association with him.
We all know that exceptional talent can coexist with repugnant views, and that a great artist can at the same time be a sorry excuse for a human being. In the field of music, it would be nice if all composers and performers were like Toscanini or Daniel Barenboim: men whose enormous gifts are matched by a humane and tolerant outlook. But the fact is there have also been practitioners like Richard Wagner and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Herbert von Karajan: people with an outsized talent who’ve held repugnant racial attitudes and colluded with the Nazis. The moral issues this raises are complex and can’t be resolved by applying a simple political litmus test.
What separates the situation at hand from the above examples is that Prager is not a talented artist even by the wildest stretch of the imagination. Indeed, he is not an artist at all. He’s had no musical training and lacks even the most rudimentary qualifications for the task he has been invited to perform on August 16. In his case there is absolutely no talent one can point to that can be invoked as a partial counter-weight to his despicable opinions and writings.
Which raises the question: Why exactly was Prager invited to participate in the SMS concert? In the absence of any definitive answers, one can only speculate—and none of the speculations reflect well on the SMS. Perhaps the conductor Guido Lamell invited him as a personal favor because he knows and likes him, deeming him to be an admirable public figure. Or perhaps Prager can boast of friends (even worse, political allies) on the SMS Board of Directors. Or perhaps he pledged a large donation to the SMS if they agreed to allow him to guest-conduct—a kind of vanity project which the SMS Board went along with in order to secure the funds.
Or perhaps (I suspect this is the likeliest explanation) he is perceived as a local “celebrity” whose name recognition was thought to be capable of attracting potential concertgoers and donors. When I first came to the LA area from the East Coast many decades ago, I found the obsession here with celebrity quite ludicrous but always good for a few laughs. In more recent times, with the rise of the internet, social media, reality TV and right-wing talk radio, the idea of celebrity has acquired more sinister overtones, giving prominence to publicity hounds and demagogues skilled in the arts of verbal intimidation and demonization of others. If Prager is a ‘celebrity’ it is because he has profited from these new disturbing sources of popular recognition and (in certain increasingly bigoted circles) adulation.
I am not generally a person who advocates cultural boycotts, but I can assure you that if this farce of a fundraiser proceeds as planned, I will never again attend a concert by the Santa Monica Symphony and I will do everything I can to discourage others from doing so. With so many fine musical organizations throughout the southern California area worthy of support, there is no reason to patronize an orchestra that has shown such gross insensitivity toward its own musicians by choosing a guest conductor who regularly makes many of them (because of their racial or religious or sexual identities) the targets of his demagogic rants. Shame on you for so casually disrespecting your Symphony colleagues, not to mention for disrespecting the larger musical and artistic communities of which they are part.
André Cameron, violist, Gulbenkian Orquestra in Lisbon and La Scala in Milan:
I would like to introduce myself. My name is André Cameron and I am a violist. I was born in North Carolina but I have been playing in Europe for the past 40 years; first at La Scala in Milan and then in 1985 with the Gulbenkian Orquestra in Lisbon. I am writing you as a fellow musician. I have been reading about your upcoming concert with the controversial radio personality Dennis Prager. Why would you invite someone so controversial and who is not even a conductor to wave his arms in front of your orchestra? I have been following this on the internet and have read many comments about your choice. I have even written comments that seemed to have opened a Pandora´s box of right-wing conservatives that support Prager even though he is not a professional conductor. Most of our fellow musicians seem to agree, however, that such a controversial figure, that is not even a real conductor, should not be forced upon your musicians and the public. Prager is very eloquent but he has views that can only be called anti-gay – I do not want to use the word homophobic although that is my personal opinion. He also has views on race and religion that I find appalling. America is a free country and we have freedom of speech. He has the right to have his opinions. But Prager is a public figure and his career is dedicated to divulging a right-wing political agenda and philosophy. His is controversial and provocative. His is a music lover but he is NOT a maestro! Some of the right-wing people that have commented on my posts on the internet have asked why I am speaking out and what right do I have to “meddle”. I speak as a fellow musician. I speak as a Black man that was born in the Jim-Crow south. I speak as a gay man. I speak because I believe this is wrong! Do you not think that such a controversial figure would be offensive to at least some members of your orchestra? There are so many TALENTED YOUNG CONDUCTORS in America that need the opportunity to conduct in public. There are soloists that would play a benefit to raise money for a symphony orchestra. Without symphonies, where would soloists be? I defend Prager´s right to express his opinions publicly. He is, however, not a conductor. He does not believe that orchestras should lower their standards with regard to musicians. I say, you should not lower your musical standards just to give this man a chance to conduct. Do not WAIVE YOUR STANDARDS to let Prager conduct. The following is taken from an article by Dennis Prager. What does he himself say about waiving standards?
"Progressives do not seem to recognize that in life there is always tension between standards and compassion. Standards, by definition, cannot allow for compassion for every individual. If society were to show compassion to every individual, it would have no standards. Speeding laws are not waived for the unfortunate soul who has to catch an important flight. Orchestral standards are not waived for the musician who has devoted his or her life to studying an instrument, is a wonderful person and needs the job to support a family. It is either right to maintain the man-woman definition of our most important social institution, or is it not. We cannot base our decision on compassion for gays, whether the gay is our child, our sibling, our friend or anyone else."
I sincerely thank you for your time. I hope that you will take this into consideration.
Charles Sharp, Ph.D., CSU Fullerton School of Music faculty member:
I am writing to register my disgust with your decision to promote Dennis Prager as a conductor of this orchestra. Prager's fame is based on fomenting hate and intolerance, which, regardless of political orientation, is antithetical to community and togetherness. I will effectively boycott not only the Disney Hall concert but also all future performances of the symphony in light of their support of Prager and I will urge my colleagues and students to do the same. Using Prager as a means to attract an audience is the equivalent of giving him and his views credence and support. It is not a question of supporting divergent political views; your regular concerts do just this as music performances occasion diverse people to come together. It is a question of rejecting those views that seek to oppress and limit our ability to negotiate our differences. Promoting Prager, in effect, places the Santa Monica Symphony in an allegiance with intolerance and that makes your other work appear to be hypocritical or cynical. I urge the Santa Monica Symphony to rethink this decision and to continue to exemplify an inviting and open community that is demonstrated by the performances like your annual Martin Luther King Day concert.
Dr. Andrea Centazzo, composer, percussionist, and founder of ICTUS Records:
It's sickening reading that you invited a declared fascist like Dennis Prager to conduct your orchestra.
Beside the political aspect of it, I cannot understand how a common individual without any knowledge of the art of conducting can stand in front of 40 musicians just gesticulating incoherently pretending of conducting and making fun of the musician themselves and the audience.
I learned long time ago that classic music in USA is something less serious than in Europe, Asia and Australia but I never suspected that an orchestra could arrive at this childish level of ignorance and offensive behavior.
From now on not only I will not attend to your concerts anymore but I'll start a personal campaign with friends and acquaintances for doing the same.
If you goal is sustain the racist, fascist regime that is starting to infect the USA you should do it at your personal expenses not using a pure art like music.
Shame on you!