Although I don’t have a very favorable opinion of Mayor James H. Preston, I recently became aware of one bright spot in his legacy. It seems that Preston was an ardent advocate of what was then known as “municipal music,” that is, city investment in music for the enrichment and enjoyment of Baltimore’s citizens. In modern times, our city vies for prestige by attempting to woo corporations, but the early 1900s were a more plentiful era where Preston declared: “the people of Baltimore are entitled to municipal symphony orchestras, municipal opera, municipal organizations which provide for individual aesthetic development, just as they are entitled to municipal service in educations, sanitation, and public safety.”
Baltimore came to be known as the “Cradle of Municipal Music,” and newspapers as far away as the Oakland Tribune in California wrote in 1918 of the city’s “open air and community singing” at outdoor events with up to 50,000 people in attendance.
Preston’s support of music in Baltimore didn’t come out of the blue. Since the 1870s, summer in Baltimore meant weekly concerts in the city’s parks, performed by large bands led by bandleaders like Adam Itzel, who advertised in 1875 that he could “furnish a band of any amount of instruments, composed of the very BEST TALENT in our city, and having the latest and best music of the day.” In 1903, the city appointed bandleader C. Dorsey W
Mayor Preston’s advocacy of music was the impetus for the founding of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1916. His successor William F. Broening continued to support the symphony, and a ‘Colored’ Symphony was founded under the Broening administration. In part, the segregated symphony was likely founded to uphold segregation in Baltimore. Despite that, “Baltimore thus stood forth again as a musical
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra became a private institution in 1942. The Women’s Committee (now the Baltimore Symphony Associates) was founded to host fundraising events and benefit the BSOs education programs. In 1982, the Associates put out a cookbook, “Music To Your Mouth.”
The book is exceptional in its design scheme and artwork. The book’s editor, Linda Thomas, put a lot of thought into the themes of music and food.
The first section of the book contains recipes contributed by orchestra members. The two that I made were credited to Leri & Genia Slutsky. Leri was born in 1934 in Azerbaijan. He attended the prestigious Moscow Conservatory where he met Genia Gordina. They married in 1958. A few years after emigrating to the United States, in 1980, Leri landed the spot of
In 2000, Genia Slutsky talked to the Baltimore Sun about her love of gardening, leaving Russia, and working in the symphony together. When the family had left Russia, she said, they were seen as traitors. They returned to play a concert in Moscow in 1987. Genia reflected that in the years since the fall of communism, some people had become very rich but that “most people, especially doctors and teachers, had become very poor.”
Leri Slutsky passed away from lung cancer in 2006. Later that year, Genia reflected
Genia retired from the orchestra in 2011. One of Genia & Leri’s children, Boris Slutsky is still in Baltimore, where he teaches music at the Peabody Conservatory.
In addition to the schedule of concerts at the Meyerhoff, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra remains woven into Baltimore life with their OrchKids program and their thoughtful performances during times of hurt and sadness in the city. Summer concerts still take place in the same parks where they happened a hundred years ago, even if the crowds may not number in the tens of thousands. Many of us who live in the city still recognize Baltimore as a hub of music, even if it is no longer a nationally appreciated fact.
Recipes:
Pirozhki
- 1.5 lbs beef
- water
- carrots
- onion
- celery
- salt
- butter
- black pepper
- Pillsbury Country Style biscuits
Meat filling:
The instructions for this recipe said to boil the meat with carrot, onion, celery
For the biscuits, it said to roll them out to “1 1/2-2
Rozhki (Sweet Pipes)
- 8 oz farmers cheese
- 8 oz butter or margarine
- 2 cups flour
- .5 Teaspoon baking powder
- 1 Teaspoon vinegar
- 1 Cup chopped walnuts
- 8 oz raisins*
Cream together butter and cheese, mix in flour & baking powder, then stir in vinegar. Refrigerate dough for an hour. Separate dough and oll out on floured surface to 10″ circles, cut each into wedges (the recipe said 16 but that is way too thin for me to roll!) Place 1 tsp. of filling and roll. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until just browned. Roll in powdered sugar.
Recipes adapted from “Music to Your Mouth,” The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Cookbook, 1982
