NEWS
Preview: Brett Mitchell leads Cleveland Orchestra Christmas from the podium and the keyboard
Published November 6, 2020 Updated November 18, 2020
UPDATE: Due the continued rise of positive cases of COVID-19 in Northeast Ohio, The Cleveland Orchestra has canceled these performances. Learn more.
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to lead their 2020 Christmas Concerts, marking the orchestra’s first live performances in Severance Hall since March.
Mr. Mitchell will lead the string and percussion sections of the orchestra in such holiday favorites as Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on “Greensleeves,” selections from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, and a world-premiere arrangement by Matthew Jackfert of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.” Mr. Mitchell will also lead a jazz trio from the piano to accompany Broadway star Capathia Jenkins in several selections throughout the program, including “Let It Snow,” “Grown-Up Christmas List,” and “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.”
Mr. Mitchell will lead a jazz trio from the piano to accompany Broadway star Capathia Jenkins in several selections throughout The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2020 Christmas Concerts. (Photo by Jeff Nelson)
More details from Cleveland.com:
Many performances are already sold-out to subscribers who held tickets before the COVID-19 pandemic. Several shows, however, still have limited seating for the general public, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Below are the performances with available tickets. All seven take place at 7:30 p.m. at Severance Hall.
Thursday and Friday, Dec. 10 and 11
Sunday, Dec. 13
Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 16 and 17
Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 22 and 23
Guests will be seated with members of their own household, and groups will be separated by empty chairs. All guests will be required to wear masks and submit to a temperature check and health questionnaire at the doors.
Just as the audience will be reduced, so will the forces on stage be smaller than usual. Former associate conductor Brett Mitchell will return to conduct a strings-and-percussion orchestra, with guest vocalist Capathia Jenkins. There will be no Cleveland Orchestra Chorus or other singers.
The program also will be somewhat tighter. Expect a visit from you-know-who but don’t wait for an intermission or an audience sing-along.
For more information and ticket availability, please visit the event page on The Cleveland Orchestra’s website.
Review: A "winning performance" with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
Violin soloist Karen Gomyo performs with guest conductor Brett Mitchell and the Fort Worth Symphony in concert at the Will Rogers Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Fort Worth. (Photo: Smiley N. Pool)
FORT WORTH — The Dallas Morning News has published a review (subscription required) of Brett Mitchell’s debut last night with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra:
Friday night’s concert was led by Brett Mitchell, a Seattle native trained in conducting at the University of Texas at Austin and currently music director of the Colorado Symphony. With 445 tickets sold, audience members were widely spaced in the 2,800-seat auditorium. A maximum of 35 musicians was well spaced onstage, with curtains raised to reveal the brick back wall…
String and percussion players were masked, causing no problems in Bernstein’s Serenade for solo violin, strings, harp and percussion. Strings projected better than I recalled from the Sept. 18 concert…
Gomyo and Mitchell collaborated on a winning performance, alert to the mix of textures, moods and even styles. (Stravinsky is a recurrent influence.) Gomyo dashed off virtuoso skitters, double-stops and high harmonics with panache, supplying unforced ardor elsewhere.
To read the complete review, please click here (subscription required).
Guest conductor Brett Mitchell speaks to the audience before the Fort Worth Symphony concert at the Will Rogers Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Fort Worth. (Photo: Smiley N. Pool)
Preview: Brett Mitchell conducts Bernstein and Mozart with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
Brett Mitchell and Karen Gomyo will perform Bernstein’s Serenade with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
FORT WORTH — The Dallas Morning News has published a roundup of upcoming classical music events in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including Brett Mitchell’s upcoming debut with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
Led by guest conductor Brett Mitchell, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will perform Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony and Bernstein’s Serenade, with violinist Karen Gomyo as soloist. Audiences will be capped at 800 (about 28% of the venue’s capacity), and masks will be required. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31 and 2 p.m. Nov. 1 at Will Rogers Auditorium, 3401 W. Lancaster Ave. Limited ticket availability, $25 to $85. 817-665-6000, fwsymphony.org.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Video Premiere: "The Shepherd on the Rock - Colorado Style!”
Soprano Angela Mitchell, clarinetist Jason Shafer, and pianist Brett Mitchell record Franz Schubert’s The Shepherd on the Rock in July 2020 in Golden, Colorado.
DENVER — Soprano Angela Mitchell, clarinetist Jason Shafer, and pianist Brett Mitchell have announced a Colorado-inspired version of Franz Schubert's The Shepherd on the Rock that will premiere on YouTube on Wednesday, October 14 at 6 p.m. Mountain.
All three artists will attend the virtual premiere and participate in a Live Chat with viewers.
Audio for the project was recorded at the Mitchell's’ home in July 2020, and outdoor filming was completed in Genesee, Colo. in August and September.
Watch the trailer below, and visit the watch page to view the premiere.
Brett Mitchell marks milestone anniversary of conducting debut with multimedia release
Brett Mitchell with the combined bands at Lynnwood High School after his conducting debut on October 12, 1995.
LYNNWOOD, Wash. - Brett Mitchell made his conducting debut 25 years ago today on October 12, 1995.
As a 16-year-old junior at Lynnwood High School in a northern suburb of Seattle, Mr. Mitchell created and then conducted the premiere performance of an arrangement of Bruce Healey’s music from Fantasmic!, a nighttime show at Disneyland and Walt Disney World that premiered in 1992.
Watch Lesley Moffat, Director of Bands and Orchestra at Lynnwood High School from 1992 to 2002, introduce Mr. Mitchell’s debut:
The Performance
For the first time ever, to commemorate this anniversary, Mr. Mitchell is releasing complete footage of his debut:
Capturing the Moment
Mitchell’s writer’s notebook from 1995-96
The journal entry describing Mitchell’s conducting debut
Mr. Mitchell captured the experience of his debut several days later in his writer’s notebook:
As all three bands set up together, I waited backstage. After a while, I had to go sit down on the stairs because my knees were shaking so badly! Then Mrs. Moffat introduced me: “Never in 8 years of teaching have I asked a student to conduct, but because your students have done their jobs and Brett is so capable, I’m very proud to turn the baton over to our own arranger, Brett Mitchell.”
When I walked onstage, everybody—even the band—was clapping. WOW! Then I went over to the left side of the podium, just like we rehearsed, and stood there until everybody (the band) was watching. Then I stepped up onto the podium, lifted my arms, and gave the pickup. Everything after that (not to give a cliché) was a blur… I gave the last note and held my arms up. As soon as my arms went down, the whole audience started applauding. I motioned for the band to stand up, and when I turned around to bow, the whole audience was standing!! A standing ovation! Man. Mrs. Moffat was crying and came to give me a hug… I won’t ever forget that.
Interview with Lesley Moffat (2020)
Nearly 30 years after becoming her student in 7th grade band, Mr. Mitchell recently sat down for a Zoom conversation with Mrs. Moffat, who was his band director at both Alderwood Middle School (1991-92) and Lynnwood High School (1993-97). In the conversation below, they discuss Mr. Mitchell’s 1995 conducting debut, Mrs. Moffat’s three-plus decades as an educator, and what music education looks like in times of COVID.
Brett Mitchell interviews Lesley Moffat, his middle and high school band director in the 1990s.
Meeting Bruce Healey
Bruce Healey and Brett Mitchell in Hollywood, CA (Sep 2019)
Nearly 25 years after arranging Fantasmic!, Mr. Mitchell met composer Bruce Healey—now retired from Disney—while in Southern California for his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2019.
A manuscript folio of Fantasmic! autographed by composer Bruce Healey
Video: Brett Mitchell explores Mahler 9 with the Colorado Symphony
Brett Mitchell and a virtual ensemble of Colorado Symphony musicians explore Mahler's Ninth Symphony.
DENVER — The Colorado Symphony and Music Director Brett Mitchell have released a new video exploring Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.
Mr. Mitchell and the orchestra were to have performed the work in May 2020, but those performances were canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Instead, Mr. Mitchell explores the work from the piano at home, and is joined virtually by members of the Colorado Symphony for demonstrations of three orchestral excerpts from Mahler’s final masterpiece.
Mr. Mitchell is also joined by his wife, soprano Angela Mitchell, for demonstrations from Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and the hymn Abide With Me.
The video originally premiered on Wednesday, September 9 on both YouTube and Facebook, and may now be viewed on both platforms on demand.
Gustav Mahler (1909)
Venue change for Brett Mitchell's Fort Worth Symphony debut
FORT WORTH — Due to the newly extended closure of Bass Performance Hall, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has announced that their fall subscription series will now take place at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium. The dates of Mr. Mitchell’s debut with the orchestra remain October 30-November 1, 2020, and the repertoire is unchanged:
BERNSTEIN - Serenade
Karen Gomyo, violin
MOZART - Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”
For more information, please visit the news release and event page on the Fort Worth Symphony’s website, or view the following stories:
CBS DFW: “Same Start Date, Different Location For Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s Fall Symphonic Series”
FOX 4 KDFW: “FWSO moves concerts to Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium”
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Fort Worth Symphony shifts concerts to Will Rogers after Bass Hall postpones reopening”
Fort Worth Magazine: “Bass Hall to Remain Closed Through December, Moving Symphony Concerts”
Broadway World: ”Bass Hall Management Decides to Extend Closure; Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's Fall Symphonic Series Moved”
Brett Mitchell's North Carolina Symphony debut to proceed with revised program
Brett Mitchell’s subscription debut with the North Carolina Symphony in May 2021 has been revised to include Joan Tower’s Chamber Dance and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Symphony has announced that Brett Mitchell’s previously announced debut with the orchestra will proceed as scheduled on May 14 and 15, 2021, but with an altered program due to COVID restrictions. The revised, no-intermission program will be:
JOAN TOWER - Chamber Dance
BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 5
These performances will be available both in-person and via online streaming.
For more information, please click here.
Brett Mitchell returns to Spain with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias
Brett Mitchell leads the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias at the Jovellanos Theater in Gijón, Spain in May 2019.
OVIEDO, Spain — Following his successful debut with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in May 2019, the orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to the podium during their Fall 2020 season, SERONDA.
Mr. Mitchell will lead a subscription program on December 3 and 4, 2020, featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Gershwin’s Concerto in F with pianist Lise de la Salle.
For more information, please click here.
Video: What A Conductor Can Teach Us About Teamwork
DENVER — On Monday, August 31, Brett Mitchell spoke live on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn with Jan Rutherford of Self-Reliant Leadership about resilience, adaptability, and reinvention in the symphonic world in the time of COVID. Replay the livestream via the links above, or watch and listen to the entire conversation below.
Video: Brett Mitchell leads Colorado Symphony in world-premiere collaboration with Colorado Ballet
Colorado Ballet dancers Sheridan Guerin and Alejandro Perez-Torres perform original choreography for George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, as recorded by the Colorado Symphony and Music Director Brett Mitchell.
DENVER — The Colorado Symphony and Music Director Brett Mitchell have released a video of their new, world-premiere collaboration with Colorado Ballet.
On Thursday, June 11, Mr. Mitchell and nine members of the Colorado Symphony’s string section convened in Boettcher Concert Hall for the first time since mid-March to record George Walker’s Lyric for Strings.
Mr. Walker—the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music—composed the work in 1946, but it spoke directly to choreographer Sandra Brown about the current American moment:
"I could feel and hear parts of the music that were just crying out to me about the pain and the sorrow that people are dealing with right now. It's our job as artists to take what we're feeling and present it to the community and empathize with the community."
The resulting work, Lyric for Life, first aired on Friday, July 3 as part of the Colorado Symphony’s Independence Eve program, and may now be viewed on demand.
Brett Mitchell's Fort Worth Symphony debut to proceed with revised program
Brett Mitchell’s subscription debut with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will proceed as scheduled with revised repertoire, now to include Bernstein’s Serenade with violinist Karen Gomyo.
Published July 30, 2020 Updated August 5, 2020
FORT WORTH — Several news outlets have published stories about the Fort Worth Symphony’s updated 2020-2021 season, which includes Brett Mitchell’s subscription debut in October, marking his first performances since the COVID-19 outbreak.
From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Fort Worth Symphony to resume live performances for upcoming season amid COVID-19”:
Live concerts by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) and guest performers will be back for this upcoming season, but with a few changes due to COVID-19.
Audience capacity will be significantly reduced to allow for social distancing…
There will be also a fourth Saturday matinee performance added to the Symphonic Series, which will remain at Bass Performance Hall.
All audience members will be required to wear a mask throughout the entirety of each concert and will not be able to enter any venue without one.
FWSO explained that there won’t be any intermissions or concessions, the concert programs will be distributed to patrons electronically, there will be hand sanitizing stations at every venue and the seating arrangements for every performance will allow for social distancing…
FWSO officials also told the Star-Telegram via email that “all patrons must fill out a COVID-19 health questionnaire prior to attending concert to ensure the safety of all guests, musicians and staff.”
For this upcoming season, there will only be 40 musicians on stage for performances at Bass Hall…
All strings, percussion and keyboardists will wear masks at all times, even during performances. Woodwinds and brass performers will have Plexiglas shields and will wear a mask when they are not playing.
From the Fort Worth Business Press, “Fort Worth Symphony announces live performances for 2020-2021 season”:
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) announced it will be performing live as planned this fall, but with a modified schedule and reduced audience capacity based on venue restrictions…
The symphony said in a news release that the organization has worked closely with venues and government health officials to ensure its live performances are safe for patrons, musicians, and staff.
“We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic is still here in Texas, unfortunately, which is why we modified our schedule to insure our patrons are safe and socially-distant while experiencing the power of live music,” says Keith Cerny, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
From D Magazine, “North Texas symphonies announce altered fall seasons”:
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra have announced reimagined fall 2020 seasons in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both orchestras will be back on stage and performing for live audiences in September, but seeing a symphony this fall will be a bit more complicated than it was pre-COVID. We’re looking at reduced capacities in the concert halls; smaller, distanced orchestral ensembles; and fewer performances. Even in the midst of a global crisis, the show goes on…
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will also be returning in September with a modified schedule and reduced audience capacity. Adhering to social distancing guidelines and current government mandates, Bass Performance Hall will allow up to 500 patrons at concerts throughout the 2020-2021 season.
The program for Mr. Mitchell’s debut with the orchestra—proceeding as scheduled from October 30 through November 1—has been revised as follows:
BERNSTEIN - Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium”
Karen Gomyo, violin
MOZART - Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”
For more information, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell on Billy Joel and Beethoven
Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata forms the chorus of Billy Joel’s “This Night”. (Graphic: Classic FM)
DENVER — Brett Mitchell has shared a reminiscence about Billy Joel and Beethoven with Colorado Public Radio as part of CPR Classical’s Beethoven 250 series:
When Brett Mitchell, Music Director of the Colorado Symphony, was a teenager, he watched the 1990s Beethoven biopic “Immortal Beloved” in the living room of his home in Seattle.
“And I asked my mother, ‘Why are they playing a Billy Joel song in the middle of a Beethoven movie?’” Mitchell recalls.
He was a Billy Joel fan as a teenager. He still is, he says.
That Beethoven “tune” in the movie was the Pathétique Sonata. To Mitchell, it sounded just like Joel’s song “This Night”. In fact, Joel credits “L.v. Beethoven” as co-writer of the song on his 1983 album An Innocent Man.
Read Why Beethoven Is Credited In This Billy Joel Song From ‘An Innocent Man’ at CPR Classical, and hear Mr. Mitchell’s full reminiscence below:
Video: Brett Mitchell commemorates Independence Day with new arrangement of 'Born on the Fourth of July'
DENVER — To commemorate Independence Day, Brett Mitchell has created a new arrangement of the theme from John Williams’s score for Oliver Stone’s 1989 film, Born on the Fourth of July.
Enjoy the complete performance above, or watch on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Mr. Mitchell previously released a video of his performance of ‘With Malice Toward None’ from Mr. Williams’s score for Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film, Lincoln.
Audio: Brett Mitchell on Kurt Masur and the power of Beethoven
Kurt Masur and Brett Mitchell after performing together at the Manhattan School of Music on March 12, 2004.
DENVER — Brett Mitchell has shared a reminiscence about his mentor Kurt Masur with Colorado Public Radio as part of CPR Classical’s Beethoven At 250 series:
Brett Mitchell, Music Director of the Colorado Symphony, worked and studied with the late, great German conductor Kurt Masur from 2004 to 2009.
Mitchell remembers a story Masur told him about the power of Beethoven’s music.
“He was driving through New York City, when he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic (1991-2002),” Mitchell said.
Masur was stopped at a red light and a man, who appeared to be homeless, knocked on his window.
“Masur rolled down the window and told the gentleman that he didn’t have any money,” Mitchell recounted from Masur. "'No, no no,'" the man said. 'Aren’t you the maestro?' Masur said that he was ... The gentleman said to Masur, 'I was in Central Park last summer for your performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and I just wanted you to know that it changed my life and I have never been the same.'"
Mitchell said he has always remembered that story because it had a profound effect on him.
“I remember really feeling, maybe for the first time, how powerful music can truly be,” Mitchell said. “How broad a section of humanity that his music could really reach.”
Read Beethoven At 250: What’s Your Beethoven Story? at CPR Classical, and hear Mr. Mitchell’s full reminiscence below:
Video: Brett Mitchell and Basil Vendryes discuss race in classical music
Brett Mitchell and Basil Vendryes recorded their conversation on Wednesday in Golden, CO.
DENVER — Brett Mitchell sits down with Basil Vendryes, Principal Violist of the Colorado Symphony, for a candid, extended conversation about race in classical music. Watch the complete conversation below.
World premiere video: Brett Mitchell and the Colorado Symphony explore Wagner's "Ring"
Brett Mitchell introduces the Colorado Symphony’s latest Virtual Music Hour: The Ring without Words.
DENVER — From May 22 to 24, as part of its ongoing Virtual Music Hour series, the Colorado Symphony will present never-before-seen video of its April 2018 performances of The Ring without Words, a selection of orchestral highlights from Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle as arranged by Lorin Maazel. Music Director Brett Mitchell explains how the project came to Denver:
“In my late twenties, I was very fortunate to be mentored by the great conductor Lorin Maazel. One of the many pieces we delved into during our time together was his arrangement of orchestral highlights from Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle, which Maazel affectionately titled The Ring without Words. When I accepted my position at the Colorado Symphony, I knew right away that I wanted to bring this incredible masterpiece to our audience, not just because of the greatness of Wagner’s music, but also because of my personal relationship with Maazel. When I reached out to Maestro’s widow to let her know we’d be doing this piece, I was stunned and incredibly moved when, a few weeks later, I received from her one of Maestro’s last batons with which to conduct the weekend’s performances. For so many reasons, it remains one of the most meaningful programs I’ve ever led, and one I’ll certainly carry with me for the rest of my life.”
Before presenting a complete performance of the piece, Mr. Mitchell and the orchestra shared with the audience various leitmotifs, compositional techniques, and plot points from Wagner's score:
Brett Mitchell leads the Colorado Symphony in demonstrations from Wagner’s The Ring without Words.
A complete video recording of the performance of The Ring without Words will be available from Friday, May 22 through Sunday, May 24 on the Virtual Music Hour homepage. For more information, please click here.
Video: Brett Mitchell discusses Beethoven with CPR Classical
DENVER — Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Colorado Public Radio Classical has begun a new series called Concerts@Home, in which morning host David Ginder sits down for a weekly video chat with classical performing artists in Colorado. The latest episode of this series features Brett Mitchell discussing the work he and the Colorado Symphony were to have closed their 2019-20 season with this weekend: Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.
“How can somebody who relies on hearing to do what they do, lose their hearing and still have the wherewithal and emotional need to continue creating, even though he knew he would never be able to hear any of these works? That, to me, is kind of incomprehensible.” Brett Mitchell
Watch the complete video above, or view it on CPR Classical’s Facebook page.
A Little Help From My Friends: The Colorado Symphony Can Thank The Beatles For Its Conductor
Brett Mitchell at the piano in the CPR Classical Performance Studio.
DENVER — Colorado Public Radio Classical has produced an audio story featuring Brett Mitchell discussing some of his earliest experiences with classical music, exploring works by the Beatles, Antonio Vivaldi, Bernard Herrmann, Samuel Barber, and Felix Mendelssohn:
Do you remember the first time you heard classical music? Brett Mitchell, Music Director of the Colorado Symphony, thinks for him, it may have been the Beatles! Yes, the Beatles.
Classical music is an important part of movies, television, and concealed in the DNA of some of the modern popular music we know and love.
“There are all sorts of ways to get yourself into the world of classical music and it doesn’t necessarily have to be that you’re listening to Mozart from the time you’re in the womb,” said Mitchell. “I came to classical music quite late but what I didn’t know was that even in listening to this great pop music from the 60’s, I was getting a great dose of classical music.”
Listen as Brett Mitchell explains why the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” has hints of Vivaldi. Paul McCartney’s then girlfriend can take some credit for that. Mitchell also teases out the classical influence on Bernard Herrmann’s score to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and more.
To listen to the complete story, please click here.
Interview: 'Brett Mitchell on Sharing His Passion for New Music with Broad Audiences'
Photo by Jeff Nelson
Brett Mitchell is the featured guest in the latest issue of The Muse in Music, an online interview series about new music hosted by composer Daniel Perttu. Over the course of the interview, Mr. Mitchell discussed his passion for working with living composers, how he brings contemporary music to the Denver audience as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony, and how he serves as an advocate for new music.
On his passion for working with living composers:
I became a conductor of contemporary music because I was a composer before I was a conductor. Actually, my undergraduate degree is in composition, and I started conducting out of necessity because I was writing pieces for larger forces…. It was really my fellow student composers who said, “I've written a bigger piece; now maybe I'll have Brett conduct it,” so I really started by conducting contemporary music, brand-new, fresh world premieres. This was what I did at the beginning of my conducting career, and it wasn't really until I was twenty when I first conducted something that hadn't literally just come out of the printer. I guess I conducted other small things in high school, but it was the Mozart Oboe Concerto that was the first big piece that I ever conducted that wasn't by a living composer. I say all of that to point out that for me, the baseline where I started was conducting contemporary music. It didn't really have anything to do at that point with delving into the past and interpreting the works of these great masters. That certainly came in time, but that's not how I got started in my career….
The joy of bringing music to life for me is to do the composer's music justice. I am really there first and foremost, in my opinion, to serve one person, and that's the composer, and then certainly the orchestra, and then I serve the audience. But, it's really all about the composer because if the composer hadn’t written any of these notes, none of us would have anything to do with our lives. So that's really why I love it as much as I do, and, ultimately, why I do it.
On how he brings contemporary music to the Denver audience:
For me, presenting new music is all about the context in which one presents it. I mean context is key. So, I'll give you a perfect example of my very first subscription concerts, where I saw this back in September 2017. I knew that I wanted to do Beethoven Five on that program because that was the first full symphony that I ever conducted. And then I thought, how do I work some contemporary American music into this program, so that from the very outset I am setting this audience up to know when they come visit us in the concert hall what they're going to get. Yes, of course they will hear the greatest classical masterpieces, but they will also hear music that's being written by our friends and our neighbors, our compatriots, because I think that while those great classic pieces from centuries ago stick around for obvious reasons, and they have, in many ways, universal things to say, composers writing today are writing specifically for today’s audience. In that first contact point that I had with our subscription audience, I wanted to set that expectation up. So, I looked at Beethoven Five, and I thought, what are the two things that make Beethoven Five tick? And one of them, for me, is the journey from darkness into light, starting with the C minor and ending with that glorious celebratory C major. So I thought, what would be a kind of contemporary American corollary to that idea of trial. I'm very good friends with Kevin Puts, and have been, for -- God, it's almost twenty years now, which is terrifying. Kevin has a wonderful piece called Millennium Canons that I've done quite frequently. We opened our concert with this great celebratory fanfare, which is a perfect way to open a concert, and a perfect way, as far as I'm concerned, to start a music directorship. It also shows the audience, because of the kind of language that Kevin uses as he writes, that just because you may not know a name or two of these living composers, I promise, I'm never going to throw anything your way that's going to make you wish that you had stayed home with a glass of wine tonight.
So that was item one. Item two in the Beethoven that makes it tick is that kind of insistent rhythmic drive. Of course, that applies mostly to the first movement, but I was thinking of what contemporary American case might be a good corollary to that. The first thing I think of when I think of contemporary American music even more than John Adams is Mason Bates, because of the amount of electronica that he includes in his pieces. We did a piece that he wrote called The B-Sides for Orchestra and Electronica. We had Mason come out and play the electronica part. So, the audience had some interaction with him, and I came out and I played Millennium Canons with the orchestra and Kevin’s piece. I welcomed the audience and introduced Mason; Mason came out; and we chatted for two or three minutes on stage before we played the piece. So again, as I say, context is key, and I think putting the audience in as direct contact as possible with these composers, seeing that these are real people writing music today, it's not some abstract thing. It works best when you approach it from multiple angles: explaining to the audience that yes, we're playing contemporary music, explaining why are we playing contemporary music, and why did these pieces go together….
So, there has to be some kind of link, and you have to be willing and able to share that link with your audience, so I do an awful lot of speaking from the podium to our audience, and almost always it's to prepare them for the contemporary piece that we're about to hear. I try to give a little bit of context, a little bit of background, a little bit of history in the programmatic piece, what is it actually about. I find it's much more helpful for the audience to hear things like that before a contemporary piece, more than even, you know, an old programmatic work like the Symphonie fantastique or whatever. I mean, not that there's not plenty to talk about with Symphonie fantastique, but it's such a known quantity, I mean it’s now 190 years old.
But that's not the case with contemporary music. So, it's really about letting the audience in and making sure that you're programming intelligently, that you're finding those links, that if they were all to sidle up next to each other at a bar, they'd have something to talk about. And then sharing that with the audience. Honestly, I think that conductors aren’t always good at that. We tend to be good at programming, because that's what we do for a living; we come up with these great programs that have all these great links and intricate interrelationships. We go to all that trouble, but then many of us don't even bother to talk to the audience. We came up with this great idea and then we say, no, we're just going to play these three pieces and not tell them why you would play those pieces together. And I think that's more than half the battle right there.
On how he serves as an advocate for new music:
When you have the priorities that I have, which are: how do you show an audience that the music of Beethoven and the music of Bates are not so different, that it's all part of a continuum, those are the kinds of programs that I enjoy conducting the most. When I'm able to do contemporary music on programs, I always feel like those are the kind of healthiest and most intriguing programs that we do…. I suppose it would be easy to throw your hands up after a while, and it would certainly be easier on my time management if I didn't bother programming contemporary music all the time, and just kept programming Beethoven and Brahms symphonies and all, but I didn't get into conducting because I wanted to conduct Brahms symphonies, I got into conducting because I was conducting contemporary music. I didn't even think of it as contemporary music. I mean, it was just music.
To read the complete interview, please click here.