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Last season, a handwritten note came to the offices of New York artist manager Frank Salomon. Addressed on Valentine’s Day, it was indeed a sort of love letter. "It is difficult to put into words the profound richness that such beauty has made in our lives," wrote a 70-year-old subscriber to the People’s Symphony Concerts, which Salomon has managed since 1973. "For people like us, who had never been able to spend freely on tickets at box-office prices and who now, in retirement, live on modest pensions and social security, you have given us a precious gift." The subscriber, who wrote that she and her late husband had attended the concerts since they were 15 years old, were speaking for a century’s worth of audiences who have benefited from the city’s best classical-music bargain, with single-ticket prices that now range from $5 for its regular concerts to as high as $10.50 for seats at its more upscale events at Town Hall. If prices like these seem a throwback to a different era, so too does the People’s Symphony, now celebrating its 100th anniversary. Founded in 1900 by a German immigrant and aspiring conductor, Franz X. Arens, the series began true to its name, as an orchestral series aiming "to bring the best music to students and workers at minimum prices." Single seats cost as little as a dime; a five-concert subscription ranged from 25 cents to $1.25 (by comparison, a pound of fine chocolate was advertised in those early programs for $1, and a pair of custom-made shoes for $6). The original concert site was the hall at Cooper Union, an East Village art and design school founded on similar populist principles, granting free tuition to all students it accepted. Much has changed since those early days. Orchestra programs have long given way to solo recitals and chamber-music concerts; the primary location has moved uptown to Washington Irving High School; and the audience is predominantly students and retirees, rather than Arens’ own Lower East Side immigrant community. But as Salomon is quick to point out, much has not. "People’s Symphony Concerts have always relied on the generosity of the artists," he says. "We can’t afford the kind of fees they can get elsewhere." And though he neglects to mention it himself, the series still benefits from having a manager who believes in the cause. When Joseph Mann, Arens’ successor at the People’s Symphony Concerts, first approached Salomon about running the series, the artist manager had already established both the New York String Orchestra and the equally ticket-price–conscious Schneider Concerts at the New School with the violinist and conductor Alexander Schneider. He had also been involved with New Hampshire’s Marlboro Festival since 1959. "I feel that I’ve been very lucky in being associated with projects that make individual, if not unique, contributions to music and the public," says Salomon. "I’d gone to People’s Symphony concerts for years as an audience member, and they had engaged many of the artists I represented, so when Joseph Mann came to me it seemed natural." Though Salomon brings a different level of devotion to the series than Arens, who funded the initial series with his whole life savings ($2,400), his dedication fits a similar sense of loving duty. There is also a comparable confluence of interests: where Arens was able to be a conductor on his own series, Salomon, as an artist manager, has relationships with musicians unusual among presenters. "Sometimes I deal with the artists myself, sometimes I deal with other managers," he says. "Sometimes if an artist is playing a program somewhere else in the city, they can use us as an out-of-town tryout, without actually leaving town. There are many wonderful artists who are not so broadly known who welcome the opportunity. And there are better-known artists—and their managers—who know that playing on our series will not keep people from seeing them in other venues. We have a very loyal and appreciative subscription audience, and there aren’t too many places where you know you’re going to get 1,000–1,200 people in the hall, even if the weather is bad or if you’re not particularly well known." The list of well-knowns, though, is quite formidable. Claudio Arrau, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Murray Perahia, James Galway, Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio have all made People’s Symphony appearances. This season has featured the Juilliard, Guarneri, and Colorado String Quartets, as well as pianists Orli Shaham and Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and the new-music ensemble Eighth Blackbird. Salomon is not above using his knowledge of artist management to his series’ benefit. "If an orchestra is trying to raise money for a U.S. tour, a New York booking can be very important," he says. "We can present them at Town Hall, and even if we can’t pay them very much, they don’t have to pay for the hall themselves." He cites an appearance by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and violinist Robert McDuffie as a recent example. Although one of Salomon’s goals is to raise the level of the series’ current endowment (it currently rests at a respectable $2.5 million), the series is in good health as it heads into its second century, thanks to a devoted board of directors and a history of financial bequests both large and small. "Half of our subscription audience makes additional contributions," Salomon says proudly. "We’re not talking about large sums of money, but for our audience those amounts are substantial. And for us, they all add up." —Ken Smith
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