Sour note for an AIDS memorial.

When leaders of the Madison [Wis.] Symphony Orchestra sought donations to buy a pipe organ for their new concert hall last year, Bill Wartmann didn't take long to decide he could help. However, he didn't expect controversy. The longtime patron, along with his wife, Joyce, pledged $1 million over four years to buy and maintain the instrument. Rather than having the symphony recognize the gift by naming it the "Wartmann Organ," the 64-year-old donor submitted a 60-word dedication (inset) to "all creative people who have succumbed to AIDS" that would appear on the organ and in symphony programs in perpetuity. "The organ is like a soul; it is a human voice," explained Wartmann, who is bisexual. "I wanted this to be like water rushing over the stone of bigotry, hatred, and homophobia." Symphony executive director Richard Mackie said the board embraced Wartmann's cause but expected to craft "mutually agreeable" language. Symphony leaders said that when they told Wartmann his message was inappropriate and asked him to help them write a new one, he refused--and rescinded the gift. Wartmann, however, said he was never offered that option. Regardless, negotiations have ended, the symphony is short $1 mil lion, and both sides are disappointed. "We wanted this to be positive," Mackie said. "That's why we play music: to make people feel good and wonderful."

Let this organ be a voice for the people of the world who have struggled against AIDS and the wave of denial and dis-interest that has cost the lives of so many creative souls and cost others the soulful self-realization that might have come had they not shut their hearts and minds to this struggle for fear of being judged.

This organ is given, to the Madison Symphony Orchestra by William and Joyce Wartmann July 6th, 2000