As a Baltimorean born and bred, I have watched with enormous satisfaction as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has grown from a modest regional orchestra in the 1950s to the vaunted status it now holds as one of the United States' finest symphonic ensembles. The organization has always faced financial challenges, but none more pressing than the one in which it currently finds itself (“With abrupt summer cancellation, ‘West Side Story’ is the last BSO performance until fall,” June 7).
I'm not certain that the community is completely aware of how extraordinary the artistic progress made by the BSO over the decades has been. The ensemble is now peopled by dedicated musicians of the highest caliber who are understandably concerned about its future. They simply want to play music, and there is no question that many of them will be hunting for greener (and more stable) pastures if the current impasse continues. A lockout would be disastrous. I very much hope that those of us who live in Baltimore and its environs will join me in providing not just the moral but also the financial support the orchestra so desperately needs.
Christopher Rouse, Baltimore
The writer is a former composer-in-residence for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.