LETTERS

Critic Responds

Just a word, if I may, about the Dallas Symphony and the November issue of D. First, I wanted to express my enormous admiration for the clear, very readable way in which John Merwin untangled a mass and a mess of detail of personalities, without (in my view) misrepresenting anyone. The piece is a forceful case for the real city power to use that power for the DSO before it goes down for the final count.

Now I must risk being a bore, and turn to the statement on the publisher’s page about “critics who prattle on about artistic commitment.” Guilty as charged – prattle I do and will. Probably this has vexed more people more often than anything else I have done because they cannot truly understand what is at the root of my very grave concern. In all my writing on the symphony situation (and that includes reviews), I have asked first for artistic integrity, and I still firmly believe this basic lack more than anything else brought the symphony to its knees. A musician knows automatically what comprises this essential, while a layman deals more sympathetically with dollars and cents figures, or in the case of D, the concept of city power vis-a-vis the arts.

I perhaps would have remained silent this go ’round in the continuing and depressing saga of our orchestra had it not been for the handsome note at the end of your column concerning Larry Kelly. Everything you wrote of him was true, but I wish a connection had been drawn between Larry’s “high standards” and the symphony’s “low standards.” Kelly was Kelly and the opera grew and held respect because music came first in all his dealings-money, power or otherwise. Of course, standards go hand-in-hand with money, but music must be the major concern. All the money in the world cannot produce quality unless quality is understood and sought. If you want people to “believe,” you must first of all give them something worth believing in.

This is the same old and really only song I have been singing for eight years. The only applause given my rendition of it came from Larry and the musicians in the orchestra and in town. They understood what was at stake. D, it seems, only partially understands. The symphony association and the city at large understand not at all.

John Ardoin

Music Critic

The Dallas Morning News



St. Mark’s Enrollment

The article entitled, “Should Your Child Attend a Private School?” in the October issue of D states incorrectly several statistics concerning enrollment openings at St. Mark’s. We have never had occasion to take 17 second graders, the correct figure is more like three or four. The school does expand with new sections in the 5th and 7th grades, but that means enrolling about 16 new boys in the 5th and 7th grades, not 25 in the 5th grade and 50 in the 7th grade.

I trust this information will correct the record concerning St. Mark’s enrollment. Michael Teitelman Director of Admissions

(Ed: We’re glad to set the record straight. Our data were supplied by Ted Whatley, St. Mark’s headmaster.)

Sunday Painters Defended

I must object to your methods of reporting as read in your article “Sunday Painters” (October) translated from certain artists by Jozanne Rabyor. Ms. Rabyor has researched very little the article she has written, which definitely gives the wrong impressions of many people and organizations she considers to be intellectually and esthetically inferior, and catering to an equally mindless and impressionable clientele.



As vice president of the Richardson Civic Art Society, I would like to make a few facts known to your readers. The club was not organized by Ms. Rabyor’s “Sunday Painters” to foster sales of “decorator art.” It was created in 1965 by a charter membership of 15 to further the development and advancement of the creative arts in original works, education and appreciation.



Many of the RCAS members are professional artists, excellent teachers and accomplished amateurs. But one does not have to be an artist to belong to the society. Besides a few sidewalk shows during the year, the RCAS’s main functions include a reputable juried Regional Painting and Sculpture Show every Fall. From this show, which drew over 500 entries last year within a 100 mile radius of Dallas, the club from its own funds has established a purchase award to create a collection of art for the City of Richardson. RCAS also sponsors a children’s art competition in the spring with a scholarship being awarded to the winner, a high school senior. Numerous one-man shows from competent artists outside the club are sponsored at the Richardson Public Library.



Their interest in art usually leads them if not by former education to informing themselves on all art trends from local to national, even if many are not quite ready for New York museums. And let’s face it-ego involvement is not clouding the issue. Ego is just as important to the museum painter as to the local learner and practitioner.

Linda Leeger Stokes



Cheek to Cheek

In reference to your unprofessional attack on “The Working Press” and Ms. Betty Holloway, public relations director at the Fairmont Hotel, in your PR, as in PRess (November) issue, it might be well to get your facts straight before embarking on your slanderous career of yellow journalism.

Ms. Holloway does not pry reviews from critics with bribes, and if she “trots around attending to the whims and fancies” of her guests, she is merely doing her job, and a quite professional job at that. . .

You, the editors, individually, and your magazine, owe a public apology to Betty Holloway, a gracious lady who earns an occasional peck on the cheek by the sweat of her brow.

John D. Womack