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Points of View
"Manner of Jackson's Leaving Won't Dim His AchievementsThe Youngstown Symphony Society's announcement that Isaiah Jackson's relationship with the symphony has been, or soon will be, terminated is disheartening.In his decade as music director of the symphony, Jackson has transformed an assembly made up mostly of professional music educators and talented itinerant musicians into a sweet-sounding instrument of which this Valley may be proud.At each concert, from the moment Jackson strides across the stage at Powers Auditorium, the audience knows they will be treated to an intelligent and entertaining evening.Jackson, a graduate of Harvard University where he earned a degree in Russian studies, challenges the orchestra in rehearsal before presenting their performances to the people of Youngstown and Warren. His selections are neither hackneyed nor "popular" as some folks sneer when they remark on the summer programs of the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center.Whether he was developing a program for inner-city youth, a jazz concert for WKBN radio, a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr., or a special program for another ethnic group, Jackson's audiences always knew he had devoted considerable time and energy to the evening's selections.Among my fondest memories: the indoor performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture replete with fireworks, an uninhibited rendition of Brahms' First Symphony, Andre Watts accompanying the orchestra in a Liszt piano concerto, and hearing Jackson, from the stage, hail my enthusiasm for Tchaikovsky's Manfred tone poem.Ever the consummate musician, Jackson is also a teacher, an individual who uses the precious moments between concert pieces to enlighten and entertain the audience about the composer, his idiosyncrasies, and how he came to write the work Jackson was about to conduct. You would be hard-pressed to find these tidbits in any orchestra's playbills.Several years ago, I had the pleasure of working with him when we obtained rights from Austrian television to offer a regional broadcast at Christmas of the Vienna Symphony performing Beethoven's Ninth. The concert was staged at the infamous Mauthausen concentration camp outside Linz. Several survivors were in the audience.It was a grim and emotional scene. Jackson's sensitive words offered the perfect opening to this important evening. We vowed to work together in the future, possibly on a communitywide salute.I have lived in this community 36 years. In that time I have seen good people come and go -- Joe Hill, Oscar Altshuler, Jim Elder, Bishop James Malone, Rabbi Sam Meyer, Clyde Singer, Maestro Franz Bibo. We can't do anything when death takes a special person from our midst. And there's little we can do but congratulate the good guys when their talents are recognized and a promotion takes them from the area.It's truly sad, though, when rumor and confusion becloud someone's departure. Isaiah Jackson may reside in Cambridge, Mass., or Dayton, Ohio, but for at least another year he will remain one of our intellectual treasures."