Music lessons
This weekend I was featured in the ongoing Courier-Journal series on lessons learned through work. My interview with Matt Frassica touches on a variety of challenges in the classical music business that have helped form my outlook on conducting and orchestra leadership.
Regarding orchestras:
I think orchestras have sometimes walled themselves off a little bit by saying, “This is what we do, and we don’t do other things.” We don’t have to be quite so self-limiting.
On becoming a conductor and, more essentially, a leader:
When you go through school you learn the mechanics and, hopefully, you learn about the repertoire. But as a conductor you don’t really learn how to be a leader in a larger sense of the word, whether it’s leading a performance or leading an organization. I try to build consensus and to encourage everybody I work with to buy into what we’re doing.
Tumblr shout-out!:
I really admire some of the [tech] companies for the way they do business. I think we could learn a lot from them. I love Tumblr, and I love the way they seem to be very approachable and inclusive and open. They’re very responsive to their users. I feel that orchestras can learn a lot from that.
On symphonic programming:
We do curate a tradition, but have started to realize that even though that’s one important thing we do, we also have to help establish new traditions and open our canon to new voices.
Responding to a living sound:
As a conductor it’s the sound of the orchestra that provides the greatest feedback. I’m searching for the right language or the right gesture that encourages a particular sound from the orchestra, and when the orchestra achieves that sound I immediately run back through all the steps I took to get there and find out what was it I did that helped to facilitate that.
