JUNE 25, 1998
SONOMA COUNTY INDEPENDENT
The Indies

Celebrating the independent spirit of Sonoma County's arts and entertainment community

Edited by Greg Cahill

ONLY THROUGH ART can we get outside of ourselves and know another's view of the universe that is not the same as ours," said writer Marcel Proust, "and see landscapes that would otherwise have remained unknown to us like the landscapes of the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists."

In Sonoma County, we are blessed with an array of artists who unselfishly welcome us into their creative worlds. Yet most of them receive little or no material reward, their labor of love often known to but a small circle of friends.

This year, the Sonoma County Independent has chosen to celebrate the independent spirit of those artists. The first annual Indy Awards pays homage to outstanding contributions in the local arts and entertainment community. The recipients--selected by the newspaper's editorial board, including editors, staff writers, and contributors--range from the mainstream to the underground, from acclaimed painter Jack Stuppin and his philanthropic work to impresario Tom Gaffey, whose Petaluma punk emporium the Phoenix Theatre offers a safe haven for local teens while showcasing alternative music.

So, savor this guide to these masters of their own universes.

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Orderly Conduct
Nan Washburn
Conductor and music director, Orchestra Sonoma

ASK NAN WASHBURN if she's a woman on a mission, and the conductor and music director of the newly named Orchestra Sonoma (formerly the Rohnert Park Chamber Orchestra) makes a strong case for blending the old and the new, the familiar and the unfamiliar. "I love the standard repertoire and believe that anything sounds better when it's put into a new context," says Washburn, 42.

"So it is out of a love of that repertoire and a sense of wanting even more that I always make it a point to program works by contemporary women and minority composers. I'm just not content to listen to the same Beethoven year after year, no matter how much I love it. If it's put into a new context and perhaps alternated with a lot of other different kinds of things, I think that's a fresher approach."

In 1995, board members selected Washburn from a field of 29 applicants to replace conductor and founder J. Karla Lemon. As the conductor and music director of the Camellia Orchestra in Sacramento and co-founder in 1980 of the Women's Philharmonic in San Francisco, Washburn was hired to conduct the RPCO primarily because board members felt she was a good match.

True to form, her tenure as permanent musical director and conductor began with a flourish at a weekend of concerts appropriately entitled "New Beginnings," featuring work by Haydn, Gershwin, Stravinsky, and local contemporary composer Lou Harrison, whose "Suite for Violin, Piano, and Small Orchestra" was highlighted.

"Everybody has different musical tastes," Washburn says, "and I do stress a multicultural presentation. Lou Harrison is a very fine example of that. Here is this California composer whose piece is heavily influenced by Balinese gamelan music."

Washburn's commitment to contemporary composers, and especially women composers, came "out of necessity," she explains, when the then-budding flutist found herself running out of repertoire as a junior in college.

Meanwhile, she is committed to providing local audiences with a good sense of what she likes about music and performance. "Oh, it's not only that you have artistic challenges," she says, "but it's the emotional impact and the shared experience with the orchestra and the audience as
you surmount those challenges.

"It's a wonderful feeling."