George
Steel, executive director of the Miller Theatre at Columbia University
for over three years, takes music to the people. With characteristic
verve and charisma, speaking in a recent interview, Steel said,
“We are of necessity engaged in pioneer activity; therefore, people
watch what we do. And it is thrilling. I’m amazed by it, too.”
Indeed,
Miller Theatre is one of the most exciting venues currently at Columbia
and the most unique presenter of music and programming in the city.
That is no small feat in a city such as New York. Steel introduces
audiences to composers who are contemporaneous and, in the case
of Ornette Coleman, composers who live right in New York City. Audiences
of all stripes come to Miller Theatre to find new music, early music,
unfamiliar names, and celebrated classics.
Said
Steel, “I want the Theatre’s programming to represent the intellectual
breadth of the university. There are things like particle accelerators
that don’t make very good shows, but it is my goal to have the programming,
particularly through ‘Theatre of Ideas,’ reach all areas of intellectual
curiosity at the university. Miller is a place where the university
shows itself to itself. How many wonderful things happen to one
department that another department never gets to know about? Further,
how many wonderful things go on at Columbia, this incredible hive
of activity, for which there is no glimpse given to the outside
public? Miller Theatre is a place where that kind of richness can
manifest itself.”
The
aim of “Theatre of Ideas” is to foster cross-disciplinary awareness
by sponsoring public discussion of diverse and current ideas; for
example, recent lectures by Edward Said and Noam Chomsky. “Poets
on Poets” is another series that Steel refers to as a blueprint
for the kind of link between university curriculum and Miller Theatre,
which he hopes to expand in the future. Alice Quinn, poetry editor
of The New Yorker and a professor of the Writing Division of the
School of the Arts, brings poets to speak to her classes and in
addition presents them at Miller Theatre.
This
breadth of programming — what should be called openness — is part
of why an artist such as Yo-Yo Ma would call George Steel and ask
to unveil his new Silk Road Project, produced in conjunction with
Carnegie Hall, at Miller during the 2000-2001 season before launching
the series at Carnegie Hall next season. Steel provides a place
where performers reach new audiences. Miller sets aside certain
events during the year, such as the Silk Road Project, to provide
Columbia University students free access to musical events. Artists
perform to an enthusiastic, energetic audience; students broaden
their musical experiences and tastes. More importantly, students
are not subjected to what Steel calls “some masochistic nineteenth-century-music-going
model.” And the energy of the audience is in large part why Yo-Yo
would say, “Wonderful things happen at Miller Theatre.”
However,
said Steel, “Columbia has no use for a miniature Carnegie Hall when
it has the real Carnegie Hall so few blocks away. Nor does it need
a miniature Lincoln Center. In order for it to have a performing
arts venue, [Miller Theatre] needs to provide something unique in
the whole city picture.” About new music, Steel said, eyes twinkling,
“People realize when it is music of their own time — that it is
ours. The asymmetry of noise versus patterned sound, the same sounds
one hears in everyday life, the composer hears and reacts to.”
Audiences
eagerly follow what Steel calls his “idiosyncratic set of tastes.”
While Miller presents new music and artists, such as John Zorn in
the upcoming 2001-2002 season, it also presents a series on “Early
Music.” Co-presented with St. Paul’s Chapel, the complete works
of Robert Parsons, who lived in the sixteenth century, were performed
this past season. Steel knows how to connect with audiences not
only as a programmer but also as a conductor. Steel conducted Parsons’
work and reconstructed parts that had been missing for 300 years.
“As a performer of early music,” he said, “one of the big issues
is just getting it.” So Steel made the scores, program notes, and
live recordings from performances at St. Paul’s Chapel available
to all and free on the Web.
Steel
continued, “The Parsons Project is a perfect blend of activities
for a university where there is scholarship and publishing and performance
— and access, which is the Miller Theatre ingredient.” You can learn
more about Miller Theatre and its programs, join the mailing list,
and view performance schedules by visiting Miller Theatre on-line
at www.millertheatre.com.
Steel
emphasized that there is much more Miller Theatre could do for young
composers; however, the budget is small. He continues to explore
options to present fresh voices, and is grateful to all alumni and
other benefactors for their generous support. Said Steel, “Without
the vital commitment on the part of some graduates, Miller Theatre
wouldn’t exist.”
