If you’re a conductor in quarantine and willing to question the meaning of music and your place in the world, then this is the interview for you! We talk with conductor Christopher Rountree about how and why he realized he wasn’t interested in the standard career path for orchestral conductors, why classical music education is about isolating the work from its context, and how we can elevate the goals of our performance.
You will learn:
- The higher goal of musical performance
- How Christopher approaches programming a series of concerts
- New ways of thinking about how pieces interact with each other on a classical program
- About the Fluxus movement in art and how we can question “What is Music?”
- How we’ve forgotten to appreciate the little things, until now
- How to redirect your rat-race energy during COVID-19 Self-Quarantine
- Conducting is the vehicle, music is the art, now go find the right people.
- Why you should be working with collaborators as often as possible
- What “Education” and “Community Engagement” really mean
Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @PodiumTimePod, and continue the conversation in our Facebook Group, the Podium Time Inner Circle. If you’d like to support the podcast monetarily and get bonus content, consider joining our Patreon community at Patreon.com/PodiumTimePod.
Transcript:
Note: this transcript was auto-generated using A.I. and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
Hello and welcome to podium time. Thank you so much for joining us today for this interview with Christopher Roundtree. Now, if you’re a conductor in quarantine and willing to question the meaning of music and your place in the world than this is the interview for you, we hit the important questions like what are we actually offering to our audiences? And what is the goal of classic music, or what should it be? We also cover how our world is changing in the ongoing covert 19 Corona virus car Racists and how classical music and the meaning it brings. Two people can become even more important before we get started. I wanted to share some exciting news about the podcast. If you’ve been listening for a while, then you’ve heard me say Our website named Plenty as podium time pa dot wordpress dot com. But it’s now time to start getting used to podium time pod dot com because we’ve finally been able to upgrade our website thanks to our generous patrons on Patri on. So we’re now at podium time pod dot com, and it’s been really hard for me to stop saying and typing it out with the DOT WordPress. Anyway, if you’d like to support the podcast monetarily, you can click the link in the description or head over to patri on dot com slash two Podium time pod, where you can sign up to get a podium time sticker exclusive Behind the scenes bonus content and the chance to join us for an interview again. That’s patron dot com slash podium time pod and support tear started just $1 per month, thanks again to all our supporters over there and removing dot wordpress dot com is just one of the many things that we’ve been able to get for the podcast because of that support. As always, you can also support the podcast just by sharing this episode on or our new website with a friend on Facebook. Twitter, instagram, lengthen email or just stick your phone out the window and play it for all your neighbors. And of course, thank you for supporting just by listening and subscribing and continuing. Teoh, join us here for our discussions. So thanks again for all that support. And please enjoy this interview with Christopher Rountree. Thanks so much for joining us. Would you just introduce yourself toe to us in our audience quick?
spk_1
Sure. I’m Christopher Rountree. I’m the artistic director and conductor of a new music ensemble in Los Angeles called Wild Up. Uh, yeah, I travel around the world and make mostly new work.
spk_0
Yeah, Yeah, definitely. And again, the I listened to your interview with with Tracy Freelander in the past, and then again recently and again, the thing that really stuck out to me was was that you want your crew to be about idea making instead of reproduction. And, you know, as conductors were mostly focused on that reproduction as classical musicians. And so, you know, I love everything. All the creative things that you’re doing with wild up
spk_1
you. Thanks. Yeah. You know where we’re trained to get something, right? Yeah. And I feel like particularly in school, there’s this intense emphasis on this tempo is the right tempo. Um and you know, this dotted 8/16 should be exactly this even. And this is why on and of course these notes or staccato, of course, these should not be. And and that matters to very few people. Yeah, but if you make something very moving, it will be seen. Yeah, you know, and and I think that if you make something that rattles the heart, it’s very hard to deny that even if you’re like it’s too fast or it’s too slow, I think I find that in rehearsal of players as well. They say at this tempo, it’s just working for everybody. But then the two obo players were just like, this is not possible on. Ultimately, you know one of our things when we’re in a rehearsal with orchestra, where negotiators. We’re trying to get everybody Teoh enjoy their role and to feel like they can contribute. But also, all of our job is to make a composite That is really for people that are not us. And so is the question about acknowledging everybody’s role in how they’re. Yeah, they’re enjoying their their part on how their part fits. But sometimes the temple being too fast for two people out of 80. It’s okay. Sometimes it’s OK. And there’s a question about how you can negotiate that on. Describe the goal because you’re probably gonna as a conductor. Well, this is We’ve not jumped ahead quite a lot, but you’ll probably hear about it. It’s not working for somebody and orchestrate, you’re likely to hear about Yeah, absolutely on. But the questions like, yes. So what is the overall goal? Yeah, on how do we How do we impart this to on audience and really give to them of ourselves? And if we’re focused outwardly instead of on self preservation, Um, suddenly the work becomes more alive because we’re intending to give it.
spk_0
Yeah, So do you think that that goal is or should be
spk_1
Well, you know, as I was saying, this about you brought a preservation before and for so long. Classical music has been about isolating the work they could even think about. We preserve something. Yeah, the frog in formaldehyde. That thing, it’s about it not decaying, but we really can’t access it like that. Frog is not really disgusting. It’s not a living frog, certainly, and I, and putting work behind glass in a way has been a lot of what classical music has been about for a few 100 years. And there are a number of systemic reasons for that, and one is wealth. Um, where it’s like, you know, uh, essentially wealthy people determining where classical music organizations, particularly United states, what direction they go. Um, and some of that wealth wanting to preserve ideals of a different time. Yeah, trying to say that very carefully. And, uh, and the question is, how do we How do we say that’s a really interesting goal, but there probably is a higher goal, which is like perhaps the higher goal is how do we elevate every single person in the world with music, including all music? Yeah, on because we’re classical musicians with blossoms. Yeah, yeah, so and I think once we once we reframe to look like Teoh have that outward look about how do we give this music to other people? Then suddenly it starts to take on a different life and certainly the goals of the people inside of the ensemble. Inside the orchestra, those goals start to get more altruistic and in a way less selfish. Unless cell phone. Now I think starting there suddenly a lot of the things start to fall in line. If we’re trying to give the work away and really think about giving, giving music, then perhaps we have to ask every question, which is like, Why do people want classical music now? And it’s OK if they don’t. Yeah, So what? Then we have to switch to try really hard to make it, want herbal to make it attractive, you know, on and suddenly just doing Brahms because Brown’s is no longer a good idea. Yeah, you know, like doing cekovsky. Because cekovsky is really nice. And I would be able program and its Trajkovski, Tchaikovsky and Tchaikovsky And, you know, like I remember saying once like, yeah, just like That’s classical music’s big idea that sells the most tickets is some famous guy plays Tchaikovsky, and then also we do Trickovski and Jakosky. Yeah, and it’s not a great idea, you know, unless we’re doing a show that’s like Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich. But like we’re doing like a show that is conceptually this. Maybe this joke has gone up there else, But like, But, you know, like like just because we like Jakosky with Jakosky doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Yeah, and in fact, just cause it sells tickets, it’s Actually it’s a very narrow audience that wants that a bigger question would be, What can we give that will be for the most number of people on. That’s not to say that all the programs need to be populist, because I need you so often. I love to make things that are really strange, and certainly that is a very specific subset. But it’s a different subset than the week before. That was cekovsky Check out scheme trick, you know, and then maybe the week after Strange is like work with a pop group and really actually worked with them to make something special instead of something derivative. And on one rehearsal? Yeah, no eso. Anyway, sorry. While those I like deep dive. Five minutes.
spk_0
Yeah. So? So when you’re I mean, I was about to ask about programming, but yeah, there’s so much toe ask. Maybe maybe I can pick one thing. Um, you know, if your if your programming your your you’re perfect one concerts, maybe to get the most people, maybe to make them the biggest statement. Maybe that this is you know what? What? Maybe not what you put on there, but what’s your approach to it?
spk_1
The perfect one. I don’t know what the perfect one concert is. Usually my approach. Maybe it’s easier to talk about a Siris of concerts. Yeah, Yeah. Or, you know, your perfect season. Maybe so there’s something about so I think so much about representation and work. OK, I feel it’s critically important to just think about who you’re including have been making the work. If all the pieces are by dead white guys like you failed, um, if they’re all by dead white guys and also some living white guys, you’ve also failed. Yeah. We need women and people of color in this work and we need people from art forms that are not art form to be in no case. Yeah, yeah, And I like the idea that some concerts will be solidly in line with people that want to go to contemporary art museums. Some would be solidly in line with people that love jazz music because, like, what is Stravinsky? It? It’s not also jazz. Yeah, if he late Stravinsky. Uh and then, of course, like Ellington Orchestra music. That’s a remarkable It’s good stone. Yeah, and like all sorts of also jazz composers, better writing music right now, also right for orchestra. Um, so So the idea that we’re touching different art forms and we’re including all sorts of people on not just like pale white dudes. And I guess wages are pale. Sorry. This is like like like you know, orchestra seasons are slowly evolving to include more and more people, and that is a perfect thing, and it needs to continue. So, first of all, so that’s always but always something I’m thinking about constantly, and I think it’s OK to talk about it. It’s hard to talk about, and I know I’m gonna say it all room, but it’s important that we talk about it and that it’s it’s one of the first gates that we move through is Are we programming ethically? Yeah, And then also is everything great? Is everything greatly are like, You know, perhaps there is a piece that nobody’s ever heard of last year to this piece by Sofia Gubaidulina. And she’s an amazing composer, kind of. And if you don’t know her works, this student of Shostakovich. Com. She’s still alive. I think she’s 88 years old. Andi. She’s somebody that, like, really pushed against three USSR and like like Trina was like snuck Schoenberg in on like, you know, she really, really special composer. But she read route sharing a lot of pieces that are outside of the idiom orchestral music. Okay, And she wrote a jazz overture for large jazz ensemble and four stroke, and it is so weird. And, uh, and like, has these bits so seventies. I mean, it’s like she has this beautiful, like 12 tone music and kind of would be moving toward, like, a would be sorry. How kind of them kind of music and then everybody all the violence of the base. There this booth. It’s like disco. Like this is music from a porno. And she wrote this in this other ensemble, like T bones. The orchestra. Okay, It’s absolutely remarkable that one of the great overtures on and you know, it only takes through three extra players. Yeah, essentially use with the orchestra. All the winds and 1/2 in half out and the jazz ensemble. Okay, you need some sacks, Bonds, But that piece, nobody knows that peace. It is totally remarkable. And it is one of the great overtures of late last century. Um, so, you know, putting that on a concert with almost any 20th century music changes the context. Yeah. Yeah. It is understood in pieces that when you put them side by side, they all start to mean different things, and they all start to get So I did that concert we did on the first half. Which divorce shocked nine. Um, and I had kind of we did have a conversation about that piece. That’s a piece that I haven’t felt comfortable doing for a while. Okay, It’s it’s incredible, but it’s so appropriated. Um, that being said, like divorce shock while he did appropriate these tunes for sure. He also the second movement became a spiritually after he wrote it. So it’s actually a dialogue with black culture, and he was an advocate for people of color. And he taught he was one of the only composers that was teaching. People covered right classical music on, But it’s really interesting, but we But I think the worst at night. And we have to have that dialogue with that piece. Yeah, and if we don’t have it, if that pieces in a vacuum were like This is so beautiful. Isn’t it beautiful? We’re missing one of the points, which is Oh, he took these melodies. It’s actually not okay, I don’t think. And but also pieces important. So to do that peace next to Sofia Gubaidulina was certainly taking jazz music being like, but she’s using it as it’s a protest piece. Okay, you know, it’s protesting her lineage of protesting Russia and then to do Ellington after that. Okay? And so it’s like Then there’s jazz music being jazz music. But also he’s like why I added an orchestra to this and there in that order, you know, so yeah, yeah. Contemplating the works and how they all resonate with one another. No, I mean also like, I love to do a bit of a nine, you know, like I’d like to do for you. Like Like, there’s certain pieces that are perfect pieces. Um, and that piece, because it’s about this idea of, like, we’re all here together in this room. Isn’t that the most important thing? That piece does all of the conversation in a way that it needs to dio Yeah, yeah, but there are almost no pieces that do that. I don’t think. Yeah, that turned out. Not by themselves. Especially now when classical music means so many things on, I think for so much of the world, it’s so unapproachable. And, um And the question is, how do we make it a powerful Yeah, I make it
spk_0
forever. One. Which Which Ellington piece did you do? We
spk_1
did. Ah. Black brandish.
spk_0
Okay? I don’t know. I know Three black kings.
spk_1
Yes, it is incredible. So good. Yeah, Yeah, e mean, he’s super special. He had that He had this big Carnegie Hall concert and he wrote on Black Rampage for that. OK, yeah. So and yeah, so I don’t know that suit purchase this season is like thinking about ethically things like the way that the way to make that everything knit together ethically and and then to think about ideas and how and how the structure of each concert deepens the understanding of each piece you like. You know, when you’re making a recipe like this is bad like this, Like you’re now that we’re all like under quarantine. Yeah, we like cooking becomes, like, in a way, the most important daily. Like what? What launches suddenly have this new meaning? I mean, something today was just really awful. Didn’t follow. I didn’t really stick to the recipe. And my partner, she was like, Oh, just just put lemon on it and I put lemon into the pan and all of it became deeper. It didn’t taste like lemon. It all opened, you know, And I think that’s what the right program does that we have. The works resonate with each other, and they echo off each other in a very special way. Subsequently, all actually change
spk_0
me. That makes you think about them in a different way. You know, if you just have to work at nine you may think of its place in the standard Western canon around Cekovsky and Beethoven and and all that stuff when you put it near pieces that explicitly reference the you know, the culture that it’s that it’s coming from that put the, you know that puts it in and not the maybe not that, not the old white guy museum Munns. But now you see it in in this other lens.
spk_1
Exactly. I remember being I auditioned for the Royal Academy of Music was speaking. My first audition ever was awful. It was so terrible. But I was like a rehearsed two pianos was the round. I was on there and I attempt videos and stuff, and I just really had no idea how to rich rehearsed two pianos like doing orchestral reduction. I didn’t know why. That was the thing that anybody should be doing on die anyway. But audition was awful, just so awful, and I walked out and I was just absolutely crestfallen on. Then I walked Teoh, I think the Natural History Museum in London and I was walking past some closed off a room on things beautiful room, and there is a little rope that closed the room off and I was just thinking in and there was some dough sent or someone with that kind of, you know, Badge was in there and all these kids were walking by and with the kids said What’s happening in here? And the kids? They’re like Leader. That’s kind of don’t ask questions about that. And this guy came over. The person with the batch came over. He said, You know what? Your in a museum and one thing you have to remember always ask questions. That’s why museum exists. I also just crushed from this audition, and so I just immediately exploding into tier. Is it being like, You know, that that’s why the museum exists is so that we can ask questions and And if we look at our institutions and think why the classical music institutions exist? But you see the largest ones and orchestras very often at the largest ones, then we must be a place where everybody goes to ask questions. Yeah, um, and and I feel like it that informs the way that we program we’ll have done our job. Certainly
spk_0
you mentioned collaborating with with art forms outside of our own. You talk about that a little bit or give some examples.
spk_1
Oh, sure, we’ll see. So last year I curated a festival for the L. A Philharmonic. 16 concerts spanning the entire season. Um, some of them were as big as a orchestral concert with 50 pieces happening all over the hall and, you know, a normal program happening inside ball. Okay, Some of them were a small as a base piece. That piece by Ben Patterson called Peace for upright bass, where you turn the base upside down happened right next to and you, like defeated gummy worms and stuff, then has an amazing basis. But thing is, all part of this festival called Fluxus and Fluxus is, ah, art movement. Kind of some of the beginnings of performance. Our way we think of it. Now we’re influxes. And generally the time period we think of Alexis is 1958 2 1968 And these air mostly people that were in John Cage’s class at the school. So you’ll go now is probably the most famous boxes spoke. There’s also a few other people. Ben Patterson, George Met Eunice was Mission Mr Fluxus, Alison Knowles, who has a few amazing pieces, but it’s just to fight things. Pieces once helped make a salad, which is the whole score. Make salad. That’s it. Like that’s it. Yeah, and she And she did that at Disney Hall. She she’s now in her in her eighties, and she did that for the entire audience that doesn’t know about 90 minutes. And she was a giant salad in a giant parachute on, then feeds into the whole audience, and she wears like this hermetically sealed pants thing and ways out into the salad and, like she brushes it with it is incredible. And we amplify the whole thing so you could hear everything that’s ever every yes and all the chopping. And there’s a huge team on stage that makes the keys. Um oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, So it’s a plexus. Um, was a really interesting way for the l A Phil to ask what’s music? Yeah, and certainly in the lineage of John Cage asking that question. But then going further field from Cage, actually, and people that that you know, for example, Yoko Ono. She did a piece when she had a 20 year old homicidal uncle cut, keys, everything. This And you know, she had this huge career, like 1/2 decade or more before she met Don Lemon. Um, and she just doing this nonstick Carnegie before that time and you go, she, uh she had to this peaceful copies where it looks on a page like like a poem. But it describes a bunch of actions. And when she was interviewed by an earlier she said the interview is such a year ago said, This looks like a poem and I think it’s gonna come in this space look like theater. But you say it’s music. How is it music? And she said, Well, what I’m imagining is people will hear the sound of the scissors cutting, and they will then hear the sound of my clothes falling to the ground as they cut my clothes off. And perhaps they’ll hear the sound of them than each gasping Aziz, they watch me now naked. Yeah, you know, and I know about these pieces like she has an idea about a concept of sound and certainly so much of what new music is. And what classic music is is about the theater of the spectacle Yeah, and she has a great concept about spectacle and about narrative, and even in the way that she describes the work. It’s incredibly theatrical. And what I love about these pieces, like flexes pieces is that a They, uh, when you describe them, the peace happens to your brain. Yeah, you know, it’s like I thought, experiment is like Einstein and thought experiment where you’re you, like you If you see the thing, play out in your mind and it might as well be playing out. Yeah, um and And so? So that was a big exploration into what is music that a major orchestra took along because they know that it’s their job to question what is music for their for their community and flex. This is a very easy one to talk about because it’s just so wacky, actually, and it’s just so zany that immediately that all the stories air that good, you know, like they’re like, there’s a piece we did on the festival called them Sonata for Melons and Gravity and like we don’t we, you know, like there’s no way Teoh title of classical music piece as a Z good, is that Yeah, Yes, it’s impossible. And the peace What we needed that peace 100 times with through watermelons off of Disney Hall off in this giant by 15 foot by 15 foot, plexi like bucket. And they exploded for hours. We amplified it all over the hall. And that piece, when you watch it as a piece by Ken Freedman, is a wonderful piece, but it’s a giant spectacle. But you only really want to see it about twice. And then you’re like, Wow, this is so upsetting. Actually, like everybody that performed on that piece, we all wanted to make donations to the alien. That unusual food bank. You were like, This is so wasteful. We tried to get really bad watermelons. Yeah, but then you have to cope with the fact that you’re destroying something. There’s a number of these flexes pieces where you destroy actually on instrument. Yeah, it’s a very famous when we destroy violence. Um, and to do that peace and Disney Hall was so crazy, you know, But it immediately makes you feel something deep. Yeah, and it’s so painful, actually. And I was standing backstage while that one of the Contra Masters did this piece where you crush a violin? Uh, by Nam June Paik. And, um, I want the whole extra crowd around the monitor. Uh, and and then he did it, and someone in the hall screamed as he was about to down play the violin and they screamed, Don’t do it! As he was going toward the ground and he crushed a violent everyone gasped. You could hear inaudible gas for the whole orchestra is like, there’s just incredible applause. Um, and that Nathan, who’s the violinist you wrote this amazing blogged about how, like, you know, his family has a sheep farm and he had to not be friend this cheap because they will go to slaughter. And he was like, I thought about this violin also. It was such a bad instrument. I helped so angry at it because he played on it before he destroyed it. It was so mad that it was very easy to dio, you know, all of his colleagues were like, You should never do that. It’s unacceptable, and but it makes us talk about makes us hear something, and it makes us feel something. And ultimately, if we distill why we love classical music. It’s because it makes us feel on things.
spk_0
One. Both Those examples. What comes to mind is that we we appreciate something so much once we lose it, I totally think Think about, yeah. You go outside going outside
spk_1
because this are Yeah. I mean, so we’re recording this. Um, I’ve been in quarantine for just two weeks. About you both, uh, or days.
spk_0
Yeah. Not not to. I started working from home at the beginning of this week.
spk_1
Okay. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I you know, my workout canceled, and I I was just in Milwaukee working on opera and at Florentine Opera and we worst for a month. And then they let us open and they canceled the run. Just really, really hard. Yeah, from And, uh and, you know, I flew home and kind of folic. Yeah. I have no idea what to dio. And it took a week to even figure out um what like? Well, so if groceries and the safety around groceries and, like, do we have enough things in the house? If that’s the absolute most important thing, like changes a lot. Yeah, and all of our like it doesn’t matter who’s hustling anymore. Yeah, like nobody there. Truly, there are. Nobody is winning. It’s just like who’s comfortable with a simple task of trying to get the right food and house if we can find it? No. And everything. A lot of things become more meaningful, actually, Um, like family because we’re meaningful, love becomes more meaningful. And I love all my friends. I don’t see them anywhere near enough ever. But we really want to see each other right now. Yeah. Um, and, uh, it’s interesting thing to think about how, uh, performing arts institutions will recover from and performing artists will recover from this. Um, because certainly there’s gonna be We have a kind of a year and 1/2 ahead of us of some kind of a different type of life. Maybe it all changes through in a month, but I think it’s highly unlikely, given what, you know, a number of articles, and so But even after that, you know, like, it was very easy to do. I don’t have a lot of performance work, but I have a lot of administrative work to do right now, and I could do all of it for my kitchen table I don’t have to leave the house for, and it’s just very interesting. Oh, the people that can make money from their kitchen table, They actually, perhaps are fine. Yeah. And so for the rest of us, that must leave. I’m Yeah, like I mean, where is meaning where is meeting in that? Needing to leave. And like, I really want to bring people together with music like that’s the goal is like, make something for people. And, uh, that’s so it’s so sad to think that at least for a while, it’s gonna be very hard to get people together. Yeah, and I think it’s going to feel it for a long time. Um, because we’ve all been leading towards having a digital life anyway, you know? And certainly. And this will increase that.
spk_0
Yeah. And I think I think with, you know, with suddenly being forced to live that to live that digital life in the best separated life, You know, what I see on the other side is people needing that human connection even, you know, I’m already we all know that we knew that way more than we I took for granted. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
spk_1
absolutely. And I Yeah, Yeah, I guess I’m feeling a little bit cynical about already this moment, and I’m not sure why. I know it’s not. It’s not helpful, you know? Yeah. I mean, just cause it’s also new. Yeah, but you’re saying like, this is a moment where we know we need each other more than before. So the our knowledge of that letting that inform my practice for the next decade, you know, probably is really
spk_0
important. Yeah. I mean, you were definitely not gonna forget this.
spk_1
Yeah, way have. Right, Exactly Way have to gather. We’re gonna have to gather so much more meaningful. E. It’s so much of a choice to say tonight, instead of staying home, I will gather with other people.
spk_0
I’m gonna make it, make the effort to go out. Yeah, and then appreciate just the fact of going out and meeting and meeting somebody else. Yeah, we’re trying to decide last night whether we should go to the store and get ice cream, and we decided that it wasn’t worth the risk of going to the grocery store, just but yeah, it’s like, you know, it makes you think is this is this worth it at this at this moment, what’s actually important? It’s not, You know, they asked. It doesn’t really matter.
spk_1
Yeah, I called my local beer bottle shop on and you can call in and say, Would you put a dozen and 1/2 hazy? I ps together from a on now, just hermetically walk them out to your car. I was like, right, You don’t go pick them off, which is this is really exciting on. And they said, Oh, we’re actually we’re kind of Tonight’s been really busy. So tomorrow we’re close, we gotta restock. But like, Tuesday, may I get you some beers on Tuesday? I was like, Oh, I have to wait till Tuesday to drink beer. Cool. I like that’s gonna feel like a really wonderful present, uh, to be like, oh, I got to help my help a local business. That’s a really small business I got. Uh, you know, I’ll get to live, try some secret things that these people are gonna put together for me. But we’ve been in such a moment where we could just do whatever we want to dio.
spk_0
Yeah, and suddenly everything that we can’t do is It’s just running even brighter.
spk_1
Yeah. And also, maybe we learned that it’s okay that we can if for me it’s like, Oh, I can’t a beard able Like I can wait till Tuesday. And that’s gonna be even more wonderful. Yeah, but it’s about intentions. It is mawr intentional. Even the receiving that. Like, I can’t get this. Yeah. Yeah. Is receiving that is like, Oh, Well, great. Okay, I can’t get that personally, it’s Yeah, it’s
spk_0
not the end of the world. I
spk_1
don’t need to go somewhere else and get my plan was to, like, do this fun thing with a local business. So I’m gonna do that. Yeah. You know, um, who knows? The future holds its It’s a very strange moment. I mean it. So many of my colleagues were talking about, like how they feel like they’ve been just churning and, like, Hungary and turkey. Tryingto, I’ve been saying, trying to win every every day is not is, like, really kind of scathing. Yeah, like everybody’s trying to do the best, you know, be the best and get the recognition and get the next gig and see who I mean. Truly. I never answers don’t watch your friends, but we all look at this. You are what our colleagues air getting that we don’t have. Or would you have? Yeah, and we probably notice what they get more than what we get, actually, right. And so I think, like, how do I position myself the best way? And what’s the next gig? And how shiny is it? And how much does it pay? And like all that BS, you know, and the idea that none of us truly nobody’s performing, there’s nobody like No, I don’t think anybody is winning at live streaming like it’s not. I don’t think that’s that could be a thing that some people desire to do. You know what your Jacob Collier has been winning at live streaming for a long time? You just like, won two Grammys, Relaxed room like OK, but these amazing. If you haven’t seen his channel, it’s remarkable. Okay, singing out? Yeah, it’s composer and singer, but like, Yeah, this isn’t nobody’s going now break into this digital arena and now have a big career because they broke into the visual and I don’t think Oh, certainly, we need to figure out how to communicate with each other online and make make meaningful conversations and make meaningful music online. Uh, I mean, I’m listening to so many records right now. Yeah, and I end. And so I feel like probably the work recording medium is away today. That Yeah, personally. But like, I don’t know where this was going, this was going some way. No, none of us can compete right now. Yeah, like if you have a day where you didn’t do anything creative or you did one thing creative that day, it is great. It’s perfect. It didn’t have any problems. And it’s not like, Oh, today I didn’t get a great gig. So for today I’ve been, like, respond all those emails furiously and, like, really try to get it. You know, it’s so thrilling to me that, like everyone can be at the same kind of level, which is like, what we dio. Yeah, what’s good right now? How do we How do we make positive things in the world for our immediate community, you know, and so much of what beautiful music making what music making should be is this practice of, like, just giving to the immediate spirit of people that are right there with you, you know? And now it’s like our friends via the Internet hands and our family.
spk_0
Yeah. And you know, our roommates, whoever we happen to live with Yeah, so so often were like, um, I need to do this, Any of you This I need this from this person. And yet we get stuck in the email, we get stuck in the, you know, I’ve gotta send in the application for this. I got to get the best videos for this. And now suddenly everybody’s kind of in the same playing field.
spk_1
Yeah, and that’s I think it’s really good, actually. Ever. Yeah, you know, And like, there are a lot of people that were trying to use that energy to make some positive change. But, like, I watched the number of friends banded together to make this solidarity fund for new Music USA. Yeah, you know, and like, three friends and they contacted each a few of us and they brought us on. Is people that would all asked our lists if they could get 500 bucks? And so we asked a few 100 people to get $500 all artists and people like that are leading an institution, for example, traders. And we had a few 100 people give 500 bucks. We had two big institutions, really one. Because you should match all that. Okay. And, you know, they’re like, within 10 days, we raised, like, 1/4 $1,000,000 that’s gonna go out to people making your music $500 at a time. Yeah, if you don’t get that, get that got canceled. Here’s 500 bucks. No, that’s awesome. And that opens on the 31st of March. But I’m sure will be open for a few months. We’re gonna give so many gifts away, like they were gonna get some so much help away on And like, you know, it was interesting thing to watch them band together truly within three days. Yeah, like, you know, New York and l a got called like, uh, you know, everyone’s supposed to quarantine on about Monday or Tuesday, and by Thursday, this was this plan was totally being executed. And I just watched my very busy friends. You’re usually because they’re just so hungry there. Just like I were gonna get all the best stuff you know, we’re gonna do the job. They all use the energy to dig deep and call everyone made you and say, how do we help people from And what a beautiful use for that, Like hungry, rat race energy. Like for all of us to kind of go Well, we’re usually trying to, like, figure out where we’re gonna find our gigs and how we’re in a position ourselves on. This is the way that you just give Onley. Yeah, Yeah. Um, And ask ask each other for help. Basically. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I wonder about what? The structure of pasta music going forward. If that’s something that’s a big part of what we are is helping people. Yeah,
spk_0
And I would hope I would hope that that’s a part of it anyway. And then maybe we’re just gonna figure it out a little bit more now. Yeah, yeah, because when you know when the orchestra’s shut down, the world doesn’t shut down because of that. You know, if the grocery stores shut down those air, those essential Yeah, but, you know, orchestras aren’t literally essential. So what do they mean? And? And you know what? What can we bring to make them to prove that there worthwhile.
spk_1
Yeah. I don’t know what my next concert is, but I am. I I forget. What is that? What is the last thing that has been canceled? Like I can’t wait for the moment of conducting an orchestra, right? I think it’s just gonna feel like we’re all like, Yeah, it’s like it. I can’t wait for that special feeling again.
spk_0
Yeah, I think the first, the first couple rehearsals, the first couple of concerts you’re gonna be really special Onda again. Hopefully that can think
spk_1
in less for a little
spk_0
bit longer. Is you know, maybe we we’d start to appreciate the things that we’ve been taking for granted, which is just the fact that we get Teoh get together all the time every week. Yeah, and do this incredible thing that most people don’t ever get a chance to dio. That’s what was that like Maybe in high
spk_1
school, that’s that’s so right. I mean, in our field, there’s this, you know, so many jaded people, such it’s such a It’s this amazing that it’s mind boggling, really, that people can we could be in such a a space of positivity with music is a space of positivity. And but it was so easy to forget. Yeah, you know, there’s there’s especially in an orchestra, because it’s it’s such a political environment, and it’s such a very strange top down structure, you know, it’s just not. I mean, it’s just exactly opposite of, like Google, which is top down. But also there these big tears where everyone like us, strange cubicles and they can all like whatever food they want for free, and they can sleep wherever they want. It’s not. It’s not built T please everyone in it, you know, it’s like you get a different CEO every week. They tell you to do different things. They literally the CEO stands on a box and, like yells that everyone is not standing on a box. It’s a very strange plan, and so it No wonder people get jaded by the plan. But if we can remember that, that’s actually just a systematic and structural and actually being with people that is pure and making music with each other, that is pure. Yeah, I know if we can hold on to that as long as possible. That’s so exciting. I really contemplated how exciting that is right now.
spk_0
Yeah, well, and where were purely a, You know, there’s competition professionally, but were purely a collaborative. I feel we’re not, you know, some people compared to sports and and that kind of stuff, but it’s if there’s no this orchestra winds, this orchestra loses, it is 100%. These people are working together, and these people are enjoying the fruits of that collaboration. Yeah. So what were some of the really exciting projects that are not happening?
spk_1
So one of the ones that say there are a few things that are that are still happening, which is interesting. So that what we’re working. I have a few meetings next week with this Francisco Conservatory. Okay. And I was supposed to the concert with them the end of April and with a few weeks of rehearsal before, and that’s gonna turn to and into additional project. Okay. Where every single musician in the extra eyes, working on essentially a recording project. So Yeah, so we’re figuring that out. So them that’s turned into something that bigger and like I love the way that the institution can pivot so quickly on DSO Many big institutions were like, Oh, we’re not having a concert. So we, you know, we
spk_0
don’t know what to do.
spk_1
Yeah, for just financially, there’s no way to respond and make it kind of makes sense. But this is an organization that like, Oh, how do we get something that feels final to our students, Like some of some of our students, this is their final. They’re gonna graduate. And this was the end of their studies here, Um, and we need to give them something final and whole on. And so we’re working on basically all these different recordings that they’ll all be part of from their living rooms. So on. And that’s what we’ll see when we all only and that’s all that. But that’s that’s something that I’m excited about. I was just doing tragedy. Carmen in Milwaukee Way didn’t do that. Run. There’s a wonderful, wonderful cast, and, um, and it’s a It’s such a beautiful piece into that piece to do Carmen, basically in 90 minutes in a very small theater, where on the voices can be really gargantuan and this work the masters quite small, its final. It’s a very fun piece. So, Yeah, I miss doing that. Who knows this happening? I have a few things that have not been cancelled yet. Also so fingers crossed about those. Houston Symphony has some things in June young people’s concerts where last year there was a big composer initiative for young Houston composers being paired each with a refugee and then also some different. And the each trio was filled out with somebody from a different medium. Okay, so someone stops us. Yeah, all the composer would write stories of each refugee, and they would write them One road, a valet, one made a film, etcetera, etcetera, doing all of those pieces as kids. Concerts for these different communities all over Houston in June, fingers crossed, So yeah. Yeah. Hoping that, uh and, uh, trying to think what else? In wild up. You know, we’re still looking for for the end of 2020 and into 2021 0 yeah. And we’re doing a big project about the music of Julius Eastman composer. Who, American Both died in the nineties. Minimalist. And his pieces are absolutely remarkable. Andi, he died homeless. So a lot of gravel works a lot of the works were lost on. But he is somebody who had this amazing of prolific time studying and reading music and buffalo and then making music in SoHo, um, downtown scene music. And then also he was singing at Lincoln Center. He’s on this Peter Mackel. He’s the piece. It songs for a Mad King. Yeah, here in actual Davies getting That’s Eastman seen on the famous recorded. But he was this amazing composer, and he toured with MEREDITH, mom, conductors, eso He was kind of on this uptown and downtown scene, and he wrote all these pieces where essentially every they’re all improvised pieces. So he has the structure. But everyone in the band is basically encouraged to be responding to one another, and there’s very, very tight knickers. They’re only sets of tight rules, but also they Somehow they give lots of agency to performers so the performers can make choices, says pieces where everyone is making choices all the time. About what? Their plan. Yeah, and have a seat. Right field. Yeah, because of the harmonic content on and kind of rhythmic content. So returning servicemen pieces and with a few shows in L. A and in New York, but I think it’s gonna be It’s gonna be kind of quiet. Summer. Yeah, on then and then it picks up in the fall.
spk_0
It’s gonna be a score study summer, I think
spk_1
maybe so I when I have time off, I try to put a few new pieces on my plate. But I usually going through so much music. Yeah, we really didn’t do any nuts and bolts here at all, but I’m sure you have plenty of that on your on. Your began isn’t sure you like for me. I’m just going through so much music all the time. And I feel like I’m there’s never a time when I’m not cramming. Yeah, yeah, there’s a question about, like what? I’m trying very honest about that. I knew that my career is that we’re hearing this. That’s going to be really good. Well, only
spk_0
sure your employers that that is
spk_1
that’s not unique. Yeah, So because of that, what it means is when you have big projects really thinking about them like I did very, uh, Sinfonia last year. Okay. And the pieces welfare pieces ever. It’s huge. It’s his Beethoven nine. You know, it’s like it was with the L A. Phil. So I was just like his hometown band for me. So it’s like, you know, like you get to go at bat once with the things that you grew up in New York, and you’re like, I have to go. So, uh, and I work with them very often, but it’s rare that I get to do a big symphonic work with on. So I doing the barrier of them is remarkable. Roomful of teeth saying they’re just just incredibly, of roomful of teething. The barrio. Yeah. Oh, that’s incredible. I mean, it was the first rehearsal. They had just done it with New York and who was conducting a beach off was conducting. And I remember they, uh, the first rehearsal I said, Oh, you know, why don’t we just go through? We can kind of mark these things and do this now. Yeah, I put my arms up and I said, I should probably give you We should give you the first quarter like we don’t need it. Yeah, I got cool. Just silence. And it’s just like, Oh, it was perfect. How are you? You know, But they all have pitched they’ll, General? Yeah, there is, uh, anyway, but so So when I was doing that piece every thinking about six weeks ahead, and I put a couple score study sessions in ahead of time. And then, you know, the week of I had the I mean before first words. I never sleep anyway, so I mean, essentially, because that’s our performance, right? Yeah. We’re opening night. We should be out of state. Yeah, that’s it. There’s a famous director that I forget. I forget theatre director. And when his place was open, he would be writing the next play. Really? So he wouldn’t do rehearsals all the way up. He, like, be with the actors backstage, and then he would not watch opening. He would just leave. I’d be writing the next piece has a ritual on. I feel like an away. Our job needs to be that all the work in the room, we make what the room feels like. Well, you know, we’ve studied the peace. We’ve had our performance, which is the first rehearsal, and then we give the concert. It’s like, great, you know, like, basically I mean, I feel like that’s the weekend vacation.
spk_0
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you’re actually doing the concert. That’s
spk_1
yeah. Yeah. I mean, unless unless there’s strange circumstances or the program is incredibly difficult. Yeah. Um, you know, um, yes, hopefully a little bit of study time this summer. T put some things ahead.
spk_0
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. The one of the things I’m trying to encourage people to do is Teoh use, you know, because we’re all like, Okay. God, I gotta learn this occurred during this. I gotta live this. You got these rehearsals? You know, we’re all cramming for everything all the time. And I’m trying to encourage people to use use this open time
spk_1
suddenly have month. Just go be ahead. Yeah, I have to write a little bit of music as well. I’m displaying incredibly slow and not very prolific, So I really Yeah, and you’re a composer is Well, I mean as my fifth job. So it’s on. So I like that, you know, because I’m I’m like, whatever stage of my conducting career, when I’m where I’m working a bit. And while that is working a bit, but I’m I only read about one PC year on DSO because I’m much further behind as a component. It’s just a big chip on my shoulder about it. And so I am really obsessive. Yeah. And also slow eso. So it’s just Yes, I’m writing a piano piece for the Martha Graham dance company. Okay, on. Yeah, that was gonna be doing June, but I think we’ll push it to evolve. Certainly I think they needed in the fall. So But this is a short piece and for old work with their resurrecting that doesn’t have a score. Okay, so? So that that’s happening. Just solo sell a peon solo piano. Yeah, I’m prepared. This it Right now it looks like prepared piano with blocks. Locks like inactivated time. Basically covered in in blue attack. Okay. Yeah. On then, there’s certain octaves that are all open. So kind of has a cowl feeling. OK, a little bit. E If I If I do it right. Yeah. So and that’s playing with residents and non residents. So, like, these are all staccato. And these are all pits. Pits, basically, Yeah, on then. Certain registers could be grateful. What’s the What’s the ballet? It’s actually a solo. It’s called. It’s called Immediate Tragedy on its a piece that that Graham initially had a score from cowl it actually, but it was lost. Okay, on. And it’s loosely based about the Spanish Civil War. But it was, Yeah, it was a It was a piece where there was never video and Martha, she was hurts dancing. But at some point, you know, essentially the only way that they documented pieces. Not in that era when she was doing this piece work was was mostly film. Then, for whatever reason, a lot of the film was lost. And then they just got this box. Someone someone wrote Martha Dance Company and said, Uh, hey, so my grip, my grandfather was dating somebody Ingraham and they let him sit in the front row and take photos of this dance concert and whatever here. Yeah. Would you like the box of both? And Janet, who is amazing? Amazing. A dancer who run runs Martha Graham Dance Company. Janet was like, absolutely, absolutely Yeah, yeah. So she’s piecing together this this this choreography eso kind of historical. It’s
spk_0
like you have no idea of what? What, how important what’s in there
spk_1
was actually this will. The dance will be will be alive again. Yeah, I think also separately, someone found they had done this. Grant never did. The lobby notation. Yeah, you know, language. So that somebody had watched one of the rehearsals from the top down above the Russell, and they drew her pattern on the ground. Eso they have it from this angle and from this angle, okay. From the side and from the top. And so they’re having piecing together the dance energy. She you know, she went across the floor of many times. Yeah. This gesture looks like we’re going across the board that said that to be the one where she goes across the world.
spk_0
Are you Are you using the choreography too, right. Her Justin area?
spk_1
Yeah. So I have all the photos. Okay, Mom and I have the consideration. I don’t know a lot of what I think you know Graham did historically and certainly with what I watched them do is I’ve been a collaborator for about 1/2 decade. What I watched them do with some new pieces that they’ve made with Pantanal, Waits and others is they make a lot of the work separately. So they have the music and it’s inspiring. And I have the language that dance language, and it’s, you know, it’s It’s, uh, they both live separately and then sometimes overlap. I see. Yeah, and so So we’ll see. So we’re kind of co making this young. And Janet’s portion is historical. No, an experiential from her lineage, growing up with the company and then mine is kind of thinking about cowl And how Cal would have approached this and then responding a little bit to the Spanish Civil War. Although, I don’t know that is really my place to respond to that. So in a way, I have to make some more abstract. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that’s awesome. Yeah. So the summer project, that’s what happened.
spk_0
Yeah. How long is it? Is it? Is it? Is it like a big piece or is it
spk_1
not sure? Just just seven minutes. Okay. This is a little one. Yeah, So we’re We’re working on some bigger projects. They have. Graham has a few pieces that were in a similar shape. Where there’s for a couple, there’s a review that exists, but nothing else. There’s no OK, is no so friends remaking saw the little pieces right Now, Um, we’re asking young American composers to write for that show, So that’s yeah, So that’s that’s the project in the next kind of two years. It’s, you know, having collaborators. This is something I There’s so many things that I feel like we could have gone into that could have been the one thing. Yeah, but like, um, like, having collaborators for conductors is the most valuable thing me and we never get. You know, we never have anybody on a gig who is truly at our level in terms of structure and sister systemic power. So you’re literally they give us a box. I don’t give anybody else a box to stand right and so that there is this big problem where we have nobody on our organizational structure level. And because of that, we have to search for collaborators as much as we can. Yeah, and when you when you find one that really gel with, like, hold that person, dear, because we all as we get better at art form, we get more pain is yeah and either jelling with somebody’s opinion that’s much different than years is so good and or finding people that fit in your team and really can be feel like, uh, you know, like, simpatico is critical. And certainly I found that with Graham So there there is incredible company
spk_0
is the What’s the medium that that you that you think you are potentially others mesh with the best? Most Is it is it dance or is it you know, film visual arts?
spk_1
Oh, way All gotta find our our groupings. You know, like I realized I was in conducting school and I realized I was in art school kid and I had just really I didn’t know. And then I went from getting underground in education and Trumbo on a metronome. Claire and I went into conducting school and immediately realized like, Oh, this is not I love all these people. These aren’t my people like this is not a complete, you know, fish out of water. And and I remember I was taking all the additions and I got into some assistant auditions and everything, and it was just like, Wow, this is so not for me at all. Like this is not my This is not the route. And I didn’t know what to do. And at some point, I I was ago. Well, if those aren’t my people, like, can conducting can still be in the vehicle with classical music. Could still be that the art form. But I justify my people. Yeah, and when I find them, we’re gonna make a bunch of cool stuff together. Awesome on. Then we can just do that. It was that simple, you know? Yeah. And moving back to L. A. I meeting everybody from cowards and realizing that I was more of it in an experimental musician that I waas somebody that’s interested in, like, the historical range of Beethoven, Tempe And, like, you know, exactly the type of weight that in Beethoven seven in the Allegro of the first movement. Like exactly how much weight should be on the first and third, uh, like like like I’m interested in that. But I don’t think that that is theater type of idea. That really excites me. Um, you know, um and and so then I started to find kind of one person at a time, and certainly I found some in dance between with Graham, um, and then a lot of people in the kind of like avant pop world where I’ve made some work on day. People that kind of interestingly, are like pariahs in pop music. Um, and like, yeah, so that’s like that’s been a place to find people and certainly in visual arts, and for whatever reason, when wild look was starting, you know, visual our institutions where the institutions of one of the higher s no. Yeah, until orchestras and conservatory’s started to,
spk_0
that kind of figured it out.
spk_1
Yeah, way had this residency at the Hammer Museum, which is attached to U C L. A. Okay, kid, you temporary museum. And they just said, Hey, do you want to live in the museum and just do work every day for six months, okay, and do do whatever you want. Here’s some money. Yeah, And that was before easy. We were all like, graduate students are just out of school, and we just made tons of work there, and then visual, our institutions started to, like, really pick us up. And it’s interesting to watch how people innovate like that. Yeah, Like like visual institutions. 10 or 15 years ago, they all renamed their education programs or many of them. Yeah, on they basically started calling them public engagement. It was like, Oh, now and then orchestras all were like, Oh, what does that mean? Because now all have this public engagement portion of their work, cause they really because they realize that’s very important. Yeah, you know, and probably what’s gonna happen next 10 years? It’s like they all relabel it. Education. It just now means something to hold. Yeah, yeah, you know which it means. Like, education is How do we tell people about how great this is like when you have a secret? But nobody can know it because you speak a different language. Yeah. How can we get similar language so we can relate the secret of this work, you know? Wow. Okay, these are all Well, you
spk_0
know, everything you’ve talked about makes makes it all makes so much sense, Like, you know, when you when you when you take it out and look at it. But in our training and in the culture that we’re also steeped in in the classical music or help like, you know, we see this path ahead, and that’s like the only path. And maybe there’s one branch off in here. You know, maybe you become a teacher over here, but it’s like, you know, once you explain what’s possible, it’s like, Oh, yeah, of course. Uh, yeah, there’s there’s so much. There’s so much we can dio. We don’t have to put on a concert in a concert hall right now today because that’s what we’ve done for 200 years. Yeah, What’s what? What’s been your favorite performance venue?
spk_1
Um oh Scott. So many, Um, we just did it. Julius Eastman Show at the National Gallery in D. C. Then we did a piece of his called feminine That’s 80 minutes long. It’s one movement, and, uh, and it involves the entire group. The 1st 3 minutes is all of us shaking sleigh bells at any tempo. It was 20 of us shaking sleigh bells. I did that like shake weights is now reshaped. Wins Wait. It’s like saying normal sleigh bells, we anyway, So we all shape the sleigh bells and then one by one, each person peels off except for me, because there’s no conductor in this piece. So I think I just shake sleigh bells for 80 minutes is but one by one. Everybody moves to their instrument, and they all start playing the same blick and they played. And one person. He is the 1st 1 that gets his instrument. He plays that late for 80 minutes in the same rhythmic pattern like this is just the same 13 feet pattern on that everybody starts with. There’s always rules, and they weave in and out of that. But to do that piece, the National Gallery is that shining rotunda. Eucharistic actually is a disaster. It’s like you wash, Yeah, but this piece literally just it is awash. That’s what it is. Yeah, so we did This piece that just is that is this huge wave of sound. For 80 minutes, that was that was a good one. I’ve done six sandboxes in San Francisco, um, and sandbox sandboxes, their alternate space under Davies whole. Okay with Mexico Symphony. So it’s their space that has video on every surface. There’s like a wall of video is cheap, gargantuan, entire wall. That’s video. And they have the constellation Meyer Meyer consolation system so you can change the acoustic every piece. Oh, cool. Fantastic. It’s really special. So we thought bunch of pieces in there that were that za memorable place to make a show because it’s so technologically. Yeah, like, capable. And also it’s like they do something normal classical music programming there. But they usually bring me in to do the weird stuff. So, like gets you a lot of premieres there has been with them, are memorable. Yeah, because the whole Frank Zappa concert it was just crazy and a roster did not fit on the stage at all. Whoever drew the stage plot, it just did not fit. That’s what we just spilled into the audience. And we have yeah, for people. And I, like I, like, relocated and relocated them in the middle of the show were like, We have champagne over by the heart So if you would just leave your seat. I know it looks really good right now, but it’s terrible cause I have to sit on it. It’s no longer good, but there’s free champagne there. Yeah, yeah, so that was fun. Um, I really feel like it’s like player in that whole lot on DSO. It’s fun to, like, be able to throw for things are very expensive building. Yeah, it’s really exciting. Uh um, yeah, but it’s also considering. Then you thinking about Yeah, like, just truly what will work here? Um, and like part the reason why that Ellington view by doing and the Boardwalk show works. We did it at Berkeley. A Cal Berkeley was with Berkeley Symphony. And the reason why it worked is that space also as a constellation system. But it’s a gargantuan concert hall. So we you know, the idea of having to orchestras on that stage like having a humongous group, people. It works really well because the stage is built for theatres built with the actual productions with sets and stuff on. And perhaps having something that’s very small wouldn’t work as well there. Yeah, So even what? We’re in a concert hall thinking about what fits here.
spk_0
The ah, you mentioned, you know, technology and and you know you can you can enhance, You know, I know. I think classical music really needs Teoh. Get a hold on the fact that technology exists because, you know, most, most orchestras have not gone past the bird. Sounds in crispy G. Yeah,
spk_1
I mean, exactly. Yeah, it’s actually tricky, and I it’s it’s truly everywhere, like there wasn’t No, it’s It’s everywhere. So the question is, how do we How do we work on that? And one of the ways that we can do, of course, is to really learn as much as we can. Every time we approach a piece like that, it’s also to bring pizzas, you know, in A it’s like when you program when you’re programming for multiple seasons for the same institution, you try to think about what’s gonna build the group, because I think we should think about think about that with technology as well. One of the pieces that are plug and play that are very easy. What other pieces where you just need Teoh by the peace. There’s nothing extra. Its just put microphones in private, near on one of the pieces where you have to build all the objects there, and it’s incredibly complex and how you have to build the team to do all of those. And if we if we learn about that, you know the kind of lineage and also stepwise motion of that difficulty, we can we can. And this is, of course, just for just for pieces that are electro acoustic in their nature, not not multimedia. which is a whole other thing. Like, Do we have to build a good to build a good video? Yeah, and to project a good video is a completely different art
spk_0
form. But, you know, orchestras have have movies all the time. A lot of most of them. Yes, the big guys were set up for
spk_1
video, at least, but it’s interesting how we go like, Well, this is pops. So we have different people that know how to do that. And then if we try to do that in a subscription concert, we’re in a special event. For whatever reason, you’ve like rebuild that, you know, And usually you get people that are that are not, as my parents, not quite as adept at it’s either They fully know how to do this, and this is great. Or it’s not as good as the Pops book book idea because they’ve done it much less versus Pops is like Kyle. So many orchestras re pops in a way. That’s kind of like, can you know, it’s like this thing is built already. You plug it into your into your institution. It will work when we heard just yeah, which is the issue is that, like, if you’re gonna make a lot of money like that, it makes sense. And we need to do something about balance, our budgets. Right. And if pops they’re gonna do it, that’s great. But also, should we do be doing anything on one rehearsal ever? Yeah. I don’t know. I’ve got a couple. You know, I did some quick kids concerts with lfl, and we did. We did it like all of John Adams kids concert. So cool. Yeah, but we did it on one rehearsal, and that was our orchestra is, like, one of the greatest interest. They’re so good. And John Adams is just very hard. Yeah, and it’s not. There’s so much other new music that we could have done it. One rehearsal, even I miss him. Andrew Norman pieces. They’re amazing. Andrews composer residents. They would have been so much easier to put together, which is they’re not Hockett, you know, they’re there. They’re not dealing with essentially what the like pollinator. Yeah, like, you know, we’re like like, uh, like yeah, essentially, like permanent Mineola. Whatever we call out is like he me all of factory and then you move on to the pulse of the he Meola and then you move back is like That’s so much harder than almost any other new music. It’s also why we like his music. Someone, because really compels us to be listening to each other, like in a pocket. You know, it’s
spk_0
almost like playing in a band. It’s like everyone just feel the group for a little bit
spk_1
except for a while if 87 feeling it’s like a different so hard, so to do that concert, you know? But I forget how many kids concerts we did. Five or six? Probably not. Not that many, but certainly a number Bye concert. Two way have. But that could have been worse itude. Yeah, on and like, but it’s it’s truly it’s like it Pops is supposed to make money, and that’s the goal. Then we have to really think about like how you utilize that, you know, you have to think about which which music will probably basically, yeah, so we can do it and do it at a really high level.
spk_0
Yeah, and hopefully it’s hopefully get the chance to make it more than just about the money.
spk_1
Yeah, yeah, And when the questions Heidi, right? Exactly. And I mean truly is like like back to the future. Like I remember it was one of the first scenes that I ever conducted was one of the scenes from back to the future. And I remember I was just like, the first time. I just, like, remember, just crying. You know that that’s the reason why I’m a musician. Heard that is a little kid, you know, our John Williams air concert, anybody any of those big soundtracks explores and doing that was like Well, actually, this is the music of our time. Like this area, this is actually the hit, you know. And there’s a reason why we all know this and want here. Yeah, to picture is because the orchestra was a huge part of the season. Six out of this movie, actually,
spk_0
Yeah, I work. I work in the the box office here at the Colorado Symphony, and and there are a couple of movies we do every year. We do home alone right after Thanksgiving, every year. Then you know, nightmare before Christmas and all these things. And what one of the Asher’s came up and was chatting with us. And he was like, Hey, you know, when you guys going to stop doing home alone every Saturday after Thanksgiving or every black Friday, we would do it. Yeah, And I was like when it stopped selling out, man, when
spk_1
will you stop coming, Teoh? Yeah, Yeah. You got to stop coming to this. Yeah. Still working. Yeah, well, so yeah, I think we cover a lot, right? So much. Yeah. Thank you so much for this. Thank you, God. Thank you. Thanks for asking me to dio
spk_0
e. I think it was Tito to millions. Yeah. Yeah. Tito gave us your name. And again, I’d been hearing your name for a couple of years through through various channels, and I was like, Oh, yes. No. Awesome. Good. Yeah, Well, way have two more questions. Okay, good. And you’ve got if you’ve got a second,
spk_1
that sounds great. Let me clear it. One text back.
spk_0
Yeah, The 1st 1 may have been answered already, but
spk_1
because the Alaska So what is sort
spk_0
of a hidden gem of music that you particularly enjoy and think deserves more time in the spotlight, not only just in our ears, but on the
spk_1
stage. Like? Like like a piece of music.
spk_0
Yeah. It could be a
spk_1
new piece of music or an old piece of music that just has been lost. Wow. Well, so I feel like giving a couple answers to this. I might just list some composers that I’m really interested in right now. Please do. Um OK, so I didn’t I didn’t list Caroline Shaw yet. Everything Caroline puts out I listened to. Although she’s not a hidden gem, she’s like, Yeah, she was
spk_0
on Mozart in the jungle shoes she’s
spk_1
making. I have. But Caroline, What I love about her artistic practice is that she pays so much care with every single one of her sounds and how how musicians are gonna interface with it. Yeah. Yeah. And those The parts are lovable for the players. Also, like when you watch her on the internet, she’s, like, very concerned with, with exactly the right timing on her hard boiled eggs as it that is an art form, just like making great parts. Yeah. Um, so that’s Caroline, Julius Eastman. Certainly. I feel like everybody should know that catalogue. I mean, while that’s releasing a four volume SAT like Anthology of all works for many of his works, so certainly well, hopefully will help that. But if you don’t know, use men’s works for sure, taking a list I’m He made one record in his lifetime. Unjust Malays. Eso that that record is remarkable. Trying to think I would just work with the young composer named Shelly Washington. I feel like Shelley is one of the people next five years that she’s gonna make remarkable works. She’s awesome, are also awesome. Very sex player, etc. Uh, who gets what when it’s like the O to the shut outs, Do the shoutouts? Uh, so one of my good good friends and neighbors is Ted Hearne. Oh, and Ted Tens. Interesting because, you know, he’s somebody who, and he’s the first person that that really convinced me that every single piece of music is a political piece of music. OK, and they’re only are two types there is. They’re all political, but there’s the type that knows it’s a political piece, and there’s the type that does not know that it’s a political piece can come. And Ted wrote an amazing piece last year for the crossing, where um called the, uh, whole animals, and it is mostly animal noises on. Then it is. It is a Donald Trump quote is were so painful, but new minute piece. He also has a string or extra piece that I think is my favorite piece from the arts. Ted’s piece called a lot of mosaics. That means 2012 but pretty resent that it was one of the best string orchestra pieces, period Full stop like I and and it’s just a remarkable work. I put it there with, like, Lutoslawski. Oh, this piece. Here’s one loose Waske. What is it called? Preludes and fugues for 13 solo strings. You don’t know this piece. It’s so good. It’s so good for 13 string players, each each on their own part. But I would put tense peace with that piece for string orchestra. I’d put it up there with check Serenade with declares an Ox. This is the District extra version. Clearly, yeah, just cause, like conductor is need a job. Yeah, but also it’s so big. But so that’s a pretty Ted’s. A pretty special composer. Um, how is there something people? I mean, I feel like, you know, like discovering work and making new work is my is my love, you know. Um, so So this. I could go on for a long time. Yeah. So let’s just say that’s the That’s our first West. Yeah. Yeah, This is great. This is one a one
spk_0
version? Yes. And then our Our last question is, if you could erect a billboard that all conductors, musicians would see every day normally on the way to work. But since we’re not driving anywhere on the refrigerator as we’re going to make lunch what? What advice would you send out? Be
spk_1
nice to each other. Music is fun. Yeah, Yeah. Uh, I have a friend who has an office. Here it is. He manages some some hip hop artists and producers, and he has his sign outside of his office. He has to remind himself every day, just there’s no other markings on the office from mystery, Just as music is fun and it’s like, That’s just be nice to each other. Music is fun.
spk_0
Yeah. Yeah. Well, Chris, thank you so much for your Thank you so much for your time tonight. I’m working working people find out more about you or more about wild up working.
spk_1
So wildlife. Is that wild up dot warg and I’m at ram Stream music dot com. Perfect. Yeah. Thank you so much for having