LEWISTON – Leaders of the Maine Music Society have canceled the remainder of the concert season and have dismissed Artistic Director Peter Frewen. The canceled concerts were scheduled for March and June.
Frewen, who started the society in 1991, said Tuesday he was unsure whether it would continue at all. But one board member says the board is working on steps to make sure the Music Society does indeed continue.
“I’m going through a whole bunch of emotions: sorrow, anger and a certain amount of relief,” Frewen said. “We had attempted to keep things quiet and orderly. It didn’t work.”
Instead, local venues were alerted, rehearsals were canceled and Frewen was asked to leave.
“I can’t explain it,” he said. “I’m not able to speak for the organization.”
Maine Music Society board members are “planning for the future and moving ahead,” said board member Helen Davidson. All the steps haven’t been worked out yet, but board members plan to meet with members of the Androscoggin Chorale this week to discuss the matter and the future, she said.
The Lewiston-Auburn based chorale appointed Frewen as music director in 1982, according to the music society’s Web site, www.mainemusicsociety.org, a post he still held before this dismissal. He became the first and only artistic director of the music society when it was formed in 1991. The nonprofit music society, based in Lewiston, supports the chorale and the Maine Chamber Ensemble.
The four canceled concerts include a March 26 performance at the Franco-American Heritage Center at St. Mary’s and a June 4 concert, also in the Franco center. The four concerts featured the Chamber Ensemble and the chorale in combined programs.
Richard Martin, program director for the Franco center said he was alerted last week that the shows had been canceled.
He was offered no explanation, he said.
“We’re sorry that we’ve lost the resident company,” Martin said.
The Franco center has pulled the society’s concerts from its Web site, although the dates and Frewen’s biography remain on the music society’s page. The music society’s other staffer, office manager Dell Gray, resigned last week, Davidson said.
Through the society, the ensemble and chorale have drawn individual and corporate sponsors. The society has also run the annual “Battle of the Blends” benefit concert and the Lewiston-Auburn Garden Tour, scheduled for its 12th annual event in June. Davidson said this year’s garden tour will be held July 15, as planned. It’s one of the society’s biggest annual fundraisers.
Davidson and Frewen said in separate interviews that money had become tight. And the society’s board began looking for more ways to tighten the budget, Frewen said.
“There were financial difficulties, as with any arts organization,” he said.
Frewen said the pressures from the board to cut costs took away his “artistic stimulation.”
Davidson said that she knew he’d probably been “frustrated” when the board made suggestions, such as the possibility of fewer concerts in a season.
In early February, Frewen submitted his resignation, effective in June. That changed last week.
Following one of several closed-door meetings, board members told him that his resignation would instead take effect on Tuesday, Feb. 28, Frewen said.
“After that, it’s all over,” he said. He called the members of the chorale and the chamber ensemble and told them not to attend a planned Thursday rehearsal.
“They are professionals and deserved to be told,” he said.
Whatever happens to the Maine Music Society, Frewen said he will continue his work with the Brunswick-based Oratorio Chorale.
“I make music,” he said. “That won’t stop.”
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