Musicians protest ‘Oliver!’

Alicia Robinson

Local musicians say they will stage a protest tonight at the Orange

County Performing Arts Center’s opening night of “Oliver!,” which

uses computer-generated music.

The production’s music is supplied by the Sinfonia, which uses

computers and piano-style keyboards, as well as 10 traveling

musicians. It’s not the first time the Performing Arts Center has

used this type of digitally programmed music, but Orange County

Musicians’ Assn. President Frank Amoss said he hopes it’s the last

because the machine takes jobs away from musicians.

“The only reason for the virtual orchestra is to replace live

musicians,” he said. “We’re here to preserve the art that musicians

have been dedicated to for hundreds of years and have dedicated their

lives to.”

In this production, the Sinfonia is filling the posts of 17 or 18

Orange County musicians who would have been hired for the show’s

two-week run, Amoss said.

But cost issues are causing more and more touring shows to use

computer-based music to enhance live musicians, and the alternative

might sometimes be no production, said Todd Bentjen, the performing

arts center vice president of marketing and communications.

“If the alternative is that this tour didn’t happen, which is

probably the other likely scenario, there would be a lot more people

out of work, and audiences wouldn’t have the opportunity to enjoy

this production,” he said. “It’s a very complex decision that needs

to be looked at from a lot of different angles.”

Two shows at the Orange County Performing Arts Center --

“Oklahoma” in June and “Seussical the Musical” in 2002 -- have used

the Sinfonia, and no one complained about it, Bentjen said.

“We have had some people calling in response to some of the [news]

articles that have happened, and they say that they’re really there

for the whole experience,” he said. “It’s not so much whether there

are five, 10 or 20 musicians, but how they leave the theater

feeling.”

Jeff Lazarus, chief executive of Realtime Music Solutions, the

maker of Sinfonia, said it’s been unfairly characterized by

musicians’ unions. The Sinfonia is an instrument played by a musician

who reacts to the conductor and what’s happening on stage, he said.

“It’s not the same thing as a full, traditional orchestra,” he

said. “The fallacy of what these unions are trying to suggest is

somehow without the use of Sinfonia there’d be 30 pieces in the

orchestra.”

Tickets to tonight’s show in the 3,000-seat auditorium have sold

well, though the show wasn’t sold out by Monday afternoon, Bentjen

said.

Protests against computer-generated music have been staged in

Nashville, Los Angeles and New York City, but Amoss said he’s unsure

what the effect of his protest will be.

“Most of the tickets have probably already been bought,” he said.

“All we can do is make the audience aware of this, and hopefully

they’ll tell the performing arts center, ‘Don’t do this again’ or ‘We

don’t want prerecorded musicians in our shows.’”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].