SUBURBS MUTINY AT THE IRVING SYMPHONY

When the Irving Symphony Orchestra decided to let its conductor go. they lost more than a leader-they lost the whole orchestra.

“We had a vote by hand and we had sixty-one of sixty-nine in favor of moving out on our own.” says Phil Silvernail, a French horn player. “We tried to gel them to keep him. But they didn’t consult us at all.” Silver-nail had been with the orchestra for twenty years.

Bob Doan, the immediate past president of the Irving Symphony Orchestra Association, says, “We don’t think we fired him. We just didn’t renew his contract.” The dispute with conductor Yves L’Helgoual’ch (pronounced Lel-gwalsh) was mainly because the conductor wouldn’t play what the ISOA executive committee thought were popular tunes. “We played a range of standard literature-light classical, pops-and did free outside concerts,” says Sue Wilson, personnel manager of the old symphony and the new. “The [executive committee’s] words to me were that they wanted the orchestra to play more recognizable music. But they couldn’t name me any of what those pieces might be. So how were we supposed to know what that was?”

The orchestra members were miffed at the executive committee because they were not consulted about the committee’s problems with L’Helgoual’ch, who had waved the baton in Irving for nineteen years. “We were just disregarded,” says Wilson. But Doan says, “A personnel matter has to be between the employer and the employee. I can’t imagine any other business in which a personnel matter would be handled by consulting the employees.”

“We did not feel that we were employees of the board,” says Wilson. “If anything, we felt like the board should be the employees of the orchestra.” Meanwhile, the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving is planning to begin its season on Labor Day weekend, and the old Irving Symphony is waiting to see how many of its musicians return. Silvernail and Wilson say that a few might, but not enough to form even the core of an orchestra. But Doan remains optimistic. “I really believe that the members will come and play in our orchestra,” he says.