Polemic Is Not A Review

To the editors:

As Eugenia B. Schraa points out in her review (Arts, “Arts Do Not Prove Summers’ ‘Forte,’” Oct. 27), there may have been some elements of propaganda present in last weekend’s presentation of Forte!, sponsored by the Office of the President and the Office for the Arts. However by completely mocking the entire event Schraa fails to offer any constructive criticism and only manages to insult everyone involved, including the student performers. In her attempt to portray Forte! solely as a calculated move by University President Lawrence H. Summers, she speculates about the motives for student participation without actually asking anyone why they performed. Ultimately, she questions the artistic integrity of the performers, whom she derisively refers to as “wannabe artists” and accuses almost all of them of “pandering.” Everyone, that is, except for musicians, who for some reason are the only ones who would genuinely desire or need to perform in front of a sold out house in Sanders Theater.

Schraa’s article shows a complete lack of understanding of Forte! She misrepresents everything from how the performers were chosen to the Sanders ticketing policy, depicting it all as being controlled by Summers’ strings. This was not a review, so much as a personal rant against President Summers and the administration. Even those few sentences where she attempts artistic criticism without reference to Summers appear uninformed and lacking in substance. She casually dismisses student performances without any real explanation of her opinion.

While Schraa is free to have her own opinions about Summers and his support of the arts at Harvard, she should not conflate such issues with the artistic merits of the student performers. Moreover, if she is going to write a review it should avoid blanket statements and actually provide constructive discussion of the performance.

Carrie R. Bierman ’04

Alex I. Caloza ’04

Nov. 2, 2003