To: The extremely talanted, dedicated and professional musicians of the NHMF.
For your reading pleasure attached please find a copy of a letter that I recently sent to Mr. Fogel and David concerning the criteria for reinstating of the musicians of the NHMF. (I’m sure that “tweedle dum and tweedle dee” will not forward it to you). It seems that the management of NHMF has rather heavy-handedly forced a group of talanted and dedicated musicians to jump through multiple flaming hoops of self-serving, subjective, and dubious criteria prepared by a “non-musician” who with David seems to have a personal agenda to totally dismantle this wonderful orchestra and create something totally different. These actions are totally insensitive and disrespectful to the professionalsof the orchestra, the previous music director (M. Polivnick), and the faithful supporters of NHMF.
As a passionate supporter of NHMF and its director and musicians over the last 10 years I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the gross, rude, and disrespectful way in which the management of the NHMF (especially Mr. Fogel and Mr. Graham) have treated you over the last few weeks. I find that it reflects a lack of common decency towards the very musicians who, with a brilliant director, have made the NHMF successful over the past 15 years. There are a lot of us “little people of no regard by the NHMF’s elite” who love you and support you in your cause.
I think that Marion Archibald said it best, “If David Graham and Henry Fogel wish to have a sandbox to play with new ideas in, the ETHICAL thing for them to do is build a sandbox somewhere else with a new name, and not to take our sandbox, …”
Your ever faithful supporter,
Ronald Ummel
Meredith
PS: I hope this works out and we can see and hear your wonderful performances next year.