11.   At its best, this historic organization has played with a glow and power that readily distinguished it from other American orchestras.

12.   Before the Milwaukee concerts in Havana, the closest thing to an American orchestra visiting here was a youth ensemble from New England a year or so ago.

13.   Blacks and Latinos are woefully underrepresented in American orchestras.

14.   A colleague of mine recently asked the New York spokesman of an important record company whether the music director of a major American orchestra was on its label.

15.   After emphasizing the positive, I got into my standard rap about the dismaying timidity of programming by many major American orchestras and ensembles.

16.   But he added that he was proud of his achievements as one of the few American conductors in charge of an American orchestra.

17.   But he shows no desire to change the direction of the New York String Orchestra, whose alumni fill the ranks of American orchestras and chamber ensembles.

18.   But that kind of deferential respect did not automatically come to him in his later years, certainly not from jaded, unionized American orchestra members.

19.   But the execution was at times careless, at least to listeners accustomed to the high technical standards of the best American orchestras.

20.   But you get to reinvent yourself in America, and the Dallas Symphony has forged a new identity as a healthy American orchestra.