I had an interesting phone interview with Bill Forman from the Colorado Springs Independent to preview my concert with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. It was a great discussion about music and the CSPO. He did stump me when he asked a great question about what I would add to my program if I were to add a contemporary piece of music. As I said in my blog yesterday, I intentionally did not put a contemporary piece of music on the program because that has been my area of focus for the past four years. My thinking was that the orchestra and administration would automatically assume that I could conduct contemporary music.
The question was tough on multiple levels. First, when you put a program together, you try to put together a satisfying program with all the included music. The best comparison is a meal – a great chef would try to put a meal that was satisfying on its own. Once the meal is planned, it’s tough to think of another dish you would add. That was the first challenge – what could I add to my already complete program? The next challenge was trying to think of a piece that would fit the rest of the program. This program is a very European program. An American piece would be perhaps to energetic and colorful. The Beethoven already provides that rhythmic energy. The Tchaikovsky is a romantic masterpiece with heart-on-the-sleeve emotional impact, so adding something of that nature might not work.
I felt like we would need something contemporary but European. The first thoughts that came to mind were Dutilleux and Aarvo Pärt. Part of the reason Pärt came up was because we are thinking of doing one of his pieces on an upcoming Opera Vista performance. So then the thought of rehearsal time came to mind. Dutilleux takes more rehearsal time than Pärt. I also thought that Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten was a good contrast. There is a solemn, almost sacred feel to that piece. It has a lot of dramatic tension but in a different way from the rest of the program.
So, when you read my answer to that question in the article, you now know why I came up with that idea.
First, I want to wish my dad the happiest of birthdays. He’s somehow been able to put up with me for 34 years of my life! Congratulations to the Florida State Seminoles for killing my Blue Devils’ 25-game win streak. FSU played a tough game.
So the reason for the title of this blog is that I’m soon off to Colorado Springs to work with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic for a week. Get your tickets now. I’m excited about the repertoire, the soloist, and the opportunity that the week presents. I’ll be conducting Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 4, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. It’s an interesting program. (To read my thoughts on the first movement of Beethoven 7, check out my previous blog.)
A lot goes into putting a program together, but even more goes into putting an audition program together. Most of you who know my work know that I am a champion of living composers and new music. I wanted a program that gave the orchestra and public an idea of the variety of music that I could do. I actually left contemporary music off the program because I figured it was already seen as an area of expertise. (I’ve been running an opera company that performs only contemporary music for the past 4 years, after all!)
I’ll talk more about the program over the next few days. The past few weeks have been busy because we’re trying to get the second half of Opera Vista’s season put together, and I’ve been preparing the pieces to conduct in Colorado. (Plus the whole New Year’s resolutions bit…) I leave for Colorado on January 16, so I’ll try to blog the entire trip. Oh, and I owe you all a bunch of pictures from my Asia trip. I’ll get those up with the Colorado Springs pics!
Sorry this post is a long one! I had to cover the past few days since I haven’t been able to write the past few days.
I had an incredible visit to Bangkok. I finally met the composer of The Silent Prince, Somtow Sucharitkul. I arrived in Bangkok directly after the Asia21 Young Leaders’ Summit in Jakarta. (I’m getting a chance to see a good part of Asia that I haven’t yet – talk about being blessed with travel). I arrived at the incredible Rembrandt Hotel. (After a lengthy wait in Immigration and Customs. My mom had sent some gifts for people in India, which I then had to explain to the customs guy – who was convinced for some reason that I had been in China recently).
Anyway, I arrived at the Rembrandt Hotel (thank you, Opera Siam). I walked in and they promptly told me that I would have to check in elsewhere. By elsewhere, they meant in the VIP lounge (again – thank you, Opera Siam). I don’t know why, but I still love nice hotels. Again, I’ve been lucky that most of the hotels people put me in when I conduct are nice hotels, and each time I walk in one, I smile. I hope I never lose that.
The first night I had dinner with Somtow, one of Somtow’s students, Darren (the stage director for Carmen), and Stefan (one of the singers). It was nice to finally meet Somtow. I felt like I had known him for years. (In some ways, I have – we collaborated on The Silent Prince, and the process lasted years, but it was nice to actually meet the person). I ended up back at the hotel and collapsed. I was exhausted.
The next day was sort of a free day for me. I ended up going to the Grand Palace in Bangkok. It was an amazing sight to see. I’ll post pictures of it below. I have to say I enjoyed seeing the aspects of Indian culture in the mix. On one huge wall was a pictorial representation of the Ramayana. (In fact, Rama is a title of the King of Thailand). I didn’t realize it was a Buddhist/Hindu monarchy. It was a cool experience.
The next morning started with an interview for Bangkok’s The Nation. It was a fun conversation. I finally had the opportunity (especially after decompressing) to discuss the experience of putting TSP on stage. What really struck me as I was discussing TSP with the Thai reporter was the enormity of the feat that Somtow pulled off. He wrote a new opera that brought the house down. After going through all the new operas submitted for the competition and all the new operas I see on a regular basis, the magnitude of writing a great new opera is truly incredible.
Somtow and I then met with Renuka Narayanan from the Indian Embassy in Thailand. Plainly put, she was a hoot! What a well-read and interesting person. Honestly, I was rather shocked that she was in the Indian foreign service. We had conversations about authors, philosophy, Somtow’s opera, and of course, India. She was a huge proponent of a tour of The Silent Prince as am I.
What Somtow was able to do is truly incredible. He wrote a very Asian themed opera with musical influences from traditional Carnatic music. The story was based on a (perhaps for Western audiences) obscure Buddhist folk tale. It used non-stereotypical voice types like the male soprano. The triumph was that it spoke to an audience thousands of miles away of predominately young professional Texans. It’s a testament to the power of music, of course, but there is a lot of music that doesn’t speak across so many cultures like that. I think more than anything it’s a testament to the work that Somtow put into writing this opera. It’s definitely one that I would do again at the drop of a hat. It showed Somtow’s mastery of the art form.
So, given how I felt about his opera, it was great to finally meet him. It was also amazing to see the incredible talent that he’s drawing to Bangkok and to see the hours he’s putting in to making opera an important art form in a city that has never had it as it’s tradition. Thailand has a treasure and a lot to be proud of in Somtow!
My final evening there, Somtow and I met one of my new friends from the Asia21 Summit, Kwang Asadej Kongsiri. It was a fun dinner of Thai food. It was also rather humorous to find out that in some distant fashion Somtow and Asadej are related to each other. Asadej claims to not be an opera fan, but I think we can convert him. We had a long discussion with him on funding possibilities for a tour of Somtow’s The Silent Prince through Asia. One cool idea from Renuka earlier was to perform it at Lumbini, Buddha’s birth place.
You can see all the pictures under the Photo Gallery tab on my website.
The reason for my stop in Jakarta was as a delegate to Asia Society’s Asia21 Young Leader’s Summit. I admit up front that I wasn’t 100% sure what it was all going to be about. A friend of mine, Paresh Patel, kept encouraging me to apply, and he swore that I would find it a truly life-changing experience, and he was right.
The Asia21 Summit brought together leaders under the age of 40 from throughout Asia. As I mentioned in the last video in my previous post, on day 1 I was seated next to a lady from Afghanistan. We had people from Australia, Tibet, China, North AND South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore… the list goes on. I heard some of the most amazing stories of human courage and resolve. There were incredible stories of empathy, compassion, and leadership. I can say that I left the conference completely moved, inspired, and feeling a lot more insignificant about the contributions I’ve made in my life.
There was one person who is the leading candidate for prime minister of free Tibet, Lobsang Sangay. He talked to us about how his father was a Buddhist monk who escaped with their family from Tibet when the Chinese took over. They escaped with three cows. Lobsang said that when they got to India, his father sold one of the cows just to be able to send him to a village school in India. (Lobsang later ended up at Harvard Law – talk about achievement).
As I said in a previous post, I ended up being seated next to a lady from Afghanistan on day 1, Nargis Nehan. She started an NGO in Afghanistan to fight for the rights of women and minorities. She told me that she had high hopes for Afghanistan. At the same summit was an active duty Colonel in the US Army, Col Michael Fenzel. He served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and also as Director for Transnational Threats at the National Security Council. He told stories about how he worked to keep his soldiers safe in Afghanistan while also promoting security and development for the country.
More stories to come – stories of Indian F-16 pilots, ex-child sex workers who overcame abuse and work with child-sex workers to help them dream again, Emmy award winning film-makers who penetrated Madrasas to figure out how children are convinced to become suicide bombers, to fighting drug companies over misbegotten patents to make sure third world countries can receive meds. There were some truly incredible people at this summit – I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Nobel Peace Prize winner in there somewhere.
I’m a bit exhausted, so I didn’t want to type it all – so I videoed some of my commentary. Here’s a bit on my arrival in Jakarta:
This morning, I woke up (after sleeping through the night!) and went to the Old Town (Kota Tua). I spent a portion of my life in Batavia, NY, which is one of the reasons I’m a Bills fan. Well, the reason for that odd segue is that I didn’t know that the word batavia is Dutch for ‘town.’ I stopped at an amazing cafe in the old town square called Batavia Cafe. The upper floor was actual made of teak. The entire cafe was amazing – it had that old school Casablanca air about it. I then decided to walk from there to the the fish market. Ok, this was probably not the most brilliantly thought out plan. Given my knowledge of Jakarta geography and Indonesian… well, put it this way – if I had $1 for every time I thought “wow, this is a bad idea,” I could probably have financed OV’s next season.
I got to the fish market, which for those of you in Chennai is a lot like Luz bazaar crossed with a Beijing hutong. It was a long and winding neighborhood of stalls and vendors. I should have known, though, that people were rolling up their pants for a reason… At one point, they flooded the streets. I came out of the fish market with jeans wet up to my knees. Luckily I made it out – this was a rather maze-like neighborhood. My luck continued with finding a taxi.
I then took the cab to see the Istiqlal Mosque. What a HUGE mosque! Lakewood church might need another building to catch up. The cab driver was cool – he turned it into a tour of Jakarta. (Didier, it reminded me of when we were in Talinn, Estonia on tour and we got the takso driver to give us a tour). I finally ended up at the hotel in time to clean up for the start of the Asia21 Summit.
I know I have to post parts 2 and 3 of a previous blog, but since I’m actually in Singapore, I thought I’d write a few things now. I’m on the start of a long journey through Asia. Most of it was last minute, but luckily I was able to incorporate some of the things that I wanted to do. The primary reason for the trip from a personal perspective was getting to India to see family. One of the drawbacks to living so far away (US vs India) is that you see your family so rarely. It’s been around 5 years since I’ve been, and as my dad keeps pointing out – nobody is getting any younger. (Myself included!)
The trip is going to be a crazy one. I left Houston on Nov 30 and arrived in Moscow on Dec 1. I was in Moscow about 2 hours then took a 9 hour flight to Singapore. I arrived in Singapore on Dec 2 at 5:00AM. It was about 23 hours of travel time just to get to Singapore. I leave Singapore around 1:40 in the afternoon to head to Kuala Lumpur where I change planes and go to Jakarta – where I arrive at 5:30PM.
My arrival in Singapore:
Here is a glimpse of why I love Singapore’s Changi Airport:
And the awesome food court:
And why jet-lag is no fun:
Alright, time to grab some food and get ready to hit the next flight.
I have been meaning to post this for days, but it seemed as though the second I got back to Houston, I was thrown back into the day to day of Opera Vista. Part of it is that there is always a bit of a let down after a big concert. When you get to do a big piece like Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, you put a lot of emotional energy into it. Once the concert is done, it’s tough not to feel a bit empty. (Given that I’m up to my ears designing the stage direction and putting Line Tjornhoj’s Anorexia Sacra together, I don’t have much time to wallow!)
Thursday, Feb 25, 2010
The last two full days in Yakima were a true blur. Thursday started with a tour of Mighty Tieton, which is an amazing set of warehouse lofts built in Tieton. They also converted an adjoining warehouse into studios for artists. We had the opportunity to see some of Trimpin’s sound sculptures, and I have to admit that I don”t think Lauren and I wanted to leave. Ann Orminski was a wonderful tour guide. I really thought that Tieton had some great potential for artists.
We then went to the Rotary Lunch, and I was excited to see that there were so many people who took a keen interest in contributing to the community. We finished the Rotary lunch and piled into the car with Neal Lessenger who drove us through the canyon to Ellensburg to see Washington Central. That was followed by the drive back, and a quick pit stop to watch the Duke/Tulsa game. (Thankfully, they won, so I was in a good mood for rehearsal, which started 30 minutes after the game finished).
Rehearsal went very well. I was pleased by the work that the orchestra had put in since the Tuesday rehearsal. They really stepped up and pushed themselves in the direction I had been hoping for.
Video 15 – Waltz from Bernstein’s Fancy Free
Friday, Feb 26, 2010
This was another really busy day. It started with a real estate tour of Yakima. Lauren and I really loved what they had done with the lofts. I thought they were really beautiful. (And they’re across the street from the symphony office!) We went from the real estate tour to lunch with the Yakima Symphony Chorus folks. It was great meeting Dr. Scott Peterson and the rest of the chorus supporters. It was again one of those times where I realized all the potential that this organization has. No matter who wins the YSO job, there is so much potential for that orchestra to really do great things for the community.
We had a little bit of time off in the afternoon, so I had some time to figure out what I was going to work on in the rehearsal. I then headed over to the Capitol Theater at 5:00PM to meet with YSO board member Natalie Martinkus since she had not had a chance to meet me earlier. (This was one of the most encouraging parts of this audition – there were so many board members who cleared parts of the schedule to find times to meet with me. There was a definite focus on really getting to know my ideas and my vision for the orchestra). After meeting with Natalie, I went directly to the orchestra committee meeting (while Lauren went wine tasting with Natalie). I really admire the effort put behind making the orchestra committee such a functional organization. It was made up of board members, staff members, and orchestra members. It served as an avenue of communication between each of the three stakeholders.
We then had our final rehearsal. One of the things I had in the back of my mind for this rehearsal was really doing as much as we could to be ready for the concert on Friday night. I had a rehearsal on Saturday morning, but I was worried about doing too much on Saturday morning. The Beethoven is really an endurance trial, so I wanted to leave Saturday morning’s rehearsal with something in the tank for that evening.
Video 16 – First Read Through of Beethoven Seventh, movement 2
Saturday, February 27, 2010
It’s game day! I tried to make the dress rehearsal as easy as possible. I wanted to make sure we had the energy to really nail it that night. They then arranged an orchestra lunch for after the rehearsal, so the orchestra could then ask me questions. I was asked such questions as, “What is your vision for the orchestra?” and “What is your favorite Star Wars movie?” (Empire is of course the only answer).
One of my habits has always been a quick nap the afternoon of a concert. (More often than not, I don’t actually sleep, but the pieces run through my head). I then take a ridiculously long shower, and I drink a cup of coffee. Then, I’m ready to go. We threw my tux in a suitcase around 5:45 and headed over to the theater at 6:00PM. I got changed and then went out to meet the YSO audience. I was asked to do a pre-concert talk, but as opposed to really preparing anything, they told me to be ready to answer questions from the audience – and answer questions I did! I was truly impressed. Just as with the search committee and the board, the audience asked excellent questions, and there was definitely a focus on building the orchestra. I really felt that there was some great energy and focus to build the orchestra.
Then, we had the concert. I was extremely proud of the performance – the orchestra really put everything they had into it. Kara Hunnicutt played wonderfully, and the orchestra matched that on the Respighi. I think the audience truly enjoyed the Revueltas. And then… there was the Beethoven. I was extremely proud of what the orchestra did. It had all the energy and fire that I could have hoped for. The amazing thing is that there is still room to build. That was just a start, so the future of the YSO is very bright!
Of course we hadn’t packed, so after the concert, the public reception, and the private reception we finally got some sleep at 1:00AM… and then were up at 6:00AM since we weren’t packed yet!
I kept meaning to post something yesterday, but things were crazy busy, so today, you get a post about yesterday and the day before.
2 Days Ago:
On Tuesday, I had my first rehearsal with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. Amid all the interviews, receptions, and publicity spots, one of the challenges is keeping in mind that the most important reason I’m here in Yakima is to actually conduct the orchestra. (In the end, if I’m hired, that’s what they’re going to pay me to do after all.) One of the biggest challenges is that you have no idea what to expect. It’s a bit like being asked to coach a basketball team you’ve never seen play. I usually start by going through a game plan of a rehearsal in my head (and 90% of the time, it never goes as I envision it!)
Video 12 – Rehearsal Prep
Brooke Creswell, the outgoing music director of the orchestra, introduced me to the orchestra at 6:00PM, and then it was time to get going. I had previously decided that the first half of the rehearsal would be Bernstein’s Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free and Revueltas’ Janitzio. There was a practical reason for the rehearsal order – the Beethoven doesn’t use trombones, tuba, etc., so by doing those pieces in the first half of the rehearsal, the extra brass and percussion could leave.
The orchestra had never played the Bernstein or the Revueltas, so it really was a reading of the music. Taking that into account, we made a good start on the work. As you can hear in the following video, we need to work on the off beats during the trumpet solo. One of the challenges of this hall is that on stage, you can’t really hear the brass well, but from the video, you can tell that the brass do project fairly well. I will need to correct my own thinking on that in the next rehearsal.
Video 13 – Bernstein’s Galop from Fancy Free
In the next rehearsal, I am going to focus primarily on string sound. The hall is bass shy (in other words, the cellos and basses don’t project as well), so the strings have to work harder to really produce a balanced and warm sound. It can be done, but it’s something that we will have to constantly focus on.
All in all, I was truly pleased with the first rehearsal. I think there is a lot of potential, and as we get through the music more and more, we’re really going to make great progress.
Yesterday:
Yesterday was a long day. In the morning I was on KiT radio with Noel Moxley, the executive director of the orchestra. I then had a few hours off before we went to lunch with the endowment oversight committee and some of the bigger donors to the orchestra. Roger, the second trombone player, picked us up and gave us a really neat tour of the area. I got some keen insight into the agriculture industry that drives the valley. I also got a cool lecture on hops growing and production.
Video 14 – How we grow hops (Thanks to Roger Finch)
After our tour, I met the endowment oversight committee and some of the major donors for lunch. We went to a place called Tony’s, which is run by a guy from Austin. (Small world!) I’ll give serious props to Richard Rodriguez because he runs a great restaurant.
I then had about an hour and a half before moving on to the next event – the board interview. There is always a fear that the atmosphere around these board interviews will be one of really bright lights and constant questions – Sayeed-style from Lost, but this really was a wonderful discussion. (I mean, it ended with me discussing fixed cost allocation with the board treasurer, Charley Hanses, so you know it was fun!) One of the things I need to do is pour through the current financial report, but I think that will have to wait until I get back to Houston on Sunday.
This was another long day, but from here on out, they’re all going to be pretty long. I started with a piano rehearsal with Kara Hunnicutt, the soloist for my concert on Saturday. We’re doing Respighi’s Adagio con Variazioni. I have to admit that when it was assigned, I didn’t know the piece! I knew of it, but I had never heard it – what would we do without iTunes?
I thought the piano rehearsal went quite well. Kara doesn’t do the piece the same way twice, so the music is really an organic entity when she plays it. (Tempi might be a bit different, slightly different rubato each time, etc.) The nice thing was that even though she changed quite a bit as she played through the piece, it was very easy to figure out where she was going.
Video 10 – Piano rehearsal with Kara Hunnicutt (Thanks to Lauren for being the camera person!)
In the evening, the outgoing Music Director, Brooke Creswell took us to the youth orchestra rehearsal. I thought there was a good foundation for the young musicians of Yakima. One of the things I need to figure out is what the relationship is between the Yakima Symphony Orchestra and the youth symphony. There is a lot of potential in the youth orchestra for really developing a younger generation of musicians.
One of the primary reasons I came up to Yakima a day and a half before all the official Music Director audition process started was to try to get to know the town on my own. As most of you who follow my blog know, I constantly talk about how important it is for orchestras to dig their roots into the community to promote their long-term health. To that end, I think it’s important to get to know the town where you could potentially be in charge of programming. One of the challenges to the music director audition process is that there are so many interviews, meetings and parties scheduled that sometimes it’s really tough to get a true sense of the town – you’re constantly being shuffled from one event to the next. On day 2, I decided to just walk around the town.
Video 3 – The concert hall (Of course it’s the first place I checked out!)
You probably need an explanation of the Olive Garden reference. When my parents go out to eat, 95% of the time, they go to the Olive Garden. (Ravioli di portobello, lunch portion!) They don’t even have to look at the menus! So, we joke that if they ever end up in a town without an Olive Garden, they wouldn’t be able to go out to eat!
As I kept walking, I finally started getting a feel of the town. As you saw in the concert hall video, there was a cool little seating area with sculpture right in front. Well, there seem to be random bits of art all over town. (There is even a cool, but from what I understand controversial, granite sculpture in front of the old train depot.) I saw a number of cool little details around the town that I found interesting.
Video 4 – An Artsy Side Street
I continued down the same little side street and saw this.
Video 5 – The Side of a Thai Restaurant
So I kept walking down E. Yakima Ave. and turned right at another major street and saw this. I have to throw this shout out to fellow Houstonian and Opera Vista board member, Chris Mahaffey. (The man brews his own beer!)
Video 6 – Shout out to Chris Mahaffey
No, I haven’t secretly taken up a job with the Yakima, WA tourist bureau, but when a town is surrounded by hops and vineyards, it seems a pretty cool place to visit. You could basically walk around town and do wine tastings all day. Makes you wonder how people tear themselves away from that to come to the concerts!
Finally, I saw this and had a repertoire suggestion for the YSO that I couldn’t resist. Whether it’s me or someone else who gets the job, they seriously should do this.
