Return of the Gentle Persuaders

Only the gloomiest philistine would question the spirit of the State Department's cultural exchange program--its value is eloquently stated in pictures of Leonard Bernstein drawing admiring crowds in Moscow and Louis Armstrong flashing teeth and trumpet for fascinated Africans. Yet last year the program was suspended for a thorough reappraisal, and after six months of hearings, it was clear that the program's practices had not always lived up to its promises. Last week, with a new and far better charter, the "reconstituted" program was under way again as the first of 14 music and dance groups selected for the season headed abroad.

Fulbright Country. Performers who go abroad for the Government are supposed to be the "most representative" cultural attractions a $2,500,000 budget can hire, and the vast array of U.S. talent leaves any choice open to argument. Until this year, the State Department seemed almost to look for trouble. A Foreign Service officer decided the broad policies, such as "send jazz to Africa," and then individual performers were picked from serpentine lists provided by the American National Theater and Academy, which picked up a fee of $110,000 a year for managing things.

ANTA's auditioning left much to be desired. Benny Goodman was chosen as the first jazzman to tour Russia when even the Russians knew he was strictly otstaly.* Then last year, the Schola Cantorum from the University of Arkansas was refused traveling money; the choir raised its own expenses and went off to win first prize in the Polyphonic Competition in Italy and was invited to the White House on its return. Senator J. William Fulbright promoted the cultural exchange program in the first place; and since the Schola Cantorum comes from the heart of Fulbright country, it was no surprise that the Senator's election-year scowls brought things to a sputtering halt.

Local Talent. The new program closely follows proposals made by Roy E. Larsen, chairman of Time Inc.'s Executive Committee and vice chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on International Educational and Cultural Affairs, and Glenn G. Wolfe, director of the State Department's Cultural Presentations Office. Broad policy decisions are now made by an expert Advisory Committee on the Arts under Larsen's chairmanship; it includes such people as Cleveland Orchestra Conductor George Szell, Juilliard President Peter Mennin, Producer and Director George Seaton, Alley Theatre Director Nina Vance, Sculptor Theodore Roszak, and Manhattan School of Music President John Brownlee. Panels of experts make the artistic choices and the State Department settles for arranging the tours.

The choice of groups for this year's tours is excellent. Jose Limon, who left last week for the Far East, has the most exciting modern dance group in America. Duke Ellington's band leaves this week for a 14-week tour of the Middle East--at just the season when it might be drawing its biggest audiences at home. Africa is getting two excellent chamber groups, the Dorian Quintet and the Claremont Quartet--a visit that may help dispel the notion that the U.S. considers Africa a continent of nothing but natural-born jazz lovers. Choirs from five colleges and universities and the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra are going abroad, and next spring Latin America will be treated to visits by two first-rate secular choral groups, the Robert Shaw Chorale and the Roger Wagner Chorale. All the performers have far easier schedules this year, to permit offstage meetings with the local talent for workshops and seminars.

Most of the musicians are paid union scale, and soloists usually work for less than their concert fee. Last spring Pianist Eugene Istomin volunteered a free month of his time for a four-nation tour that was among the year's most successful. This year Ellington is donating his time for the price of his telephone bill; hip to the Duke's grand manner, the State Department has wisely limited him to $100 worth of calls a day.

Rare Peek. Some complaints persist, though, and some are legitimate. The overseas jazz audience could support far more than one group a year, and the program has yet to choose a modern jazz trio or quartet that would interest aficionados educated by the Voice of America's excellent jazz program. The only opera company that has ever been sent abroad is the Santa Fe Opera, which was triumphant in Berlin and Belgrade two years ago with Douglas Moore's Ballad of Baby Doe--a rare and rewarding peek at the best of American opera.

But the new regime is clearly headed in the right direction. Its plans for the year even appeal to Representative John J. Rooney of Brooklyn, who casts a dark eye on everything that includes the cost of an ocean trip. Having heard the plans, Rooney astonished his colleagues by conceding that cultural exchange was "good and necessary--if handled properly and with moderation." In other words, no worse than whisky.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.