"Maestro" is the title of the new BBC reality series where, as Norman Lebrecht states it, "the winner among eight para-celebrities gets to conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra during the Last Night of the Proms, a ticket to world fame."
The contestants are made up of 2 rock stars, 2 newscasters, 3 actors (including David Soul of Starsky and Hutch!), and one comedian, each of whom gets 5 days of "total immersion" and some review sessions.
Interesting (with all that word often implies).
I'll be honest, I don't think the "conducting" part of conducting is the most difficult part. Many famous musicians have turned to conducting at some point in their careers, and successfully. Others have not been so successful, such as Dietrich Fisher-Diskau (as an aside, when he told Otto Klemperer that he'd be conducting a Schubert symphony the next week, Klemperer reportedly growled back, "And I'll be singing Winterreise.")
But those musicians who made a successful career in conducting were musicians with a thorough training and background before making the switch. Lebrecht says, "Consider Maestro on a relative scale of values. What if the BBC tried a talent show for new heart surgeons, with the winner performing a live angioplasty after five days’ boot camp and three weeks on the ward? Unthinkable, you’d say, it’s a matter of life and death. . . But music? Anyone can do music. You don’t have to give up childhood and six years in conservatory to sing Nessun Dorma or conduct Turandot. Four weeks of being taught how to fake it and you can fool the world. That’s what the BBC is putting over in Maestro: the principle that art is unimportant and the public are plain mugs."
What do you think?
Oops . . . didn't realize John Brough had blogged on this already. Here it is.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Auditioning 1
Nobody likes auditions.
I don’t think that’s too controversial a statement! Necessary evil? An important part of creating the best possible choir? Deliberate torture? All of the above?
Bill Eddins, conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, wrote on his blog about the auditioning process for a new principal trumpet for the orchestra. He took a fair amount of heat for this (and answered it well here), but it raises interesting questions.
And this is on my mind since I’m just finishing auditions for Pro Coro Canada, so . . . some thoughts about auditions and auditioning.
There are, of course, many un-auditioned choirs, and good reasons for having such choirs. I have to say, though, that with the exception of my church choirs (and it’s been some time since I was a church musician, essentially between 1970 and 1980), I’ve usually worked with auditioned choirs. Auditioning—evaluating both new and returning singers—is for me a necessary part in attaining (and keeping) a high-level choir.
I also understand auditioning isn’t an enjoyable process for either the auditioner (or the auditionee, especially when difficult choices have to be made).
However, we want our choirs to improve and need a way to evaluate singers, and the audition is one way to do that.
A more difficult question (and process) is whether a returning singer’s position in the choir is at risk in an audition?
For some time now—with the Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University, with Choral Arts, with the Seattle Symphony Chorale, and with Pro Coro Canada—I’ve had policies that a returning singer has to earn his or her spot at each re-audition. And I know I’ve occasionally had singers who simply wouldn’t audition because of that, even though they could certainly make it into the choir, a loss for both of us.
I understand the discomfort this engenders (in me, too), but without this possibility, choir membership can become stagnant (particularly in adult choirs—less of a problem in student choirs). And one also has to recognize that an individual singer’s skills, both vocally and musically, don’t stay the same. They can improve or decline. And in the case of a choir like Pro Coro, which is a professional choir of 24 voices (and we can’t increase the number of core singers for budgetary reasons even if, let’s say, I hear several outstanding new singers audition for a particular section), I’m responsible for the artistic quality of what we do—and must make decisions accordingly. Not easy!
Pro Coro has long had a policy of re-auditioning every year. With Choral Arts and the Seattle Symphony Chorale we did every other year (sops and tenors one year, altos and basses the next). I believe the Swedish Radio Choir does every third year (although every year after age 55, I believe), but that's unusual for a European professional choir, since most are unionized and once a singer gains tenure, it's very difficult to remove them.
More about the process in the next post.
I don’t think that’s too controversial a statement! Necessary evil? An important part of creating the best possible choir? Deliberate torture? All of the above?
Bill Eddins, conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, wrote on his blog about the auditioning process for a new principal trumpet for the orchestra. He took a fair amount of heat for this (and answered it well here), but it raises interesting questions.
And this is on my mind since I’m just finishing auditions for Pro Coro Canada, so . . . some thoughts about auditions and auditioning.
There are, of course, many un-auditioned choirs, and good reasons for having such choirs. I have to say, though, that with the exception of my church choirs (and it’s been some time since I was a church musician, essentially between 1970 and 1980), I’ve usually worked with auditioned choirs. Auditioning—evaluating both new and returning singers—is for me a necessary part in attaining (and keeping) a high-level choir.
I also understand auditioning isn’t an enjoyable process for either the auditioner (or the auditionee, especially when difficult choices have to be made).
However, we want our choirs to improve and need a way to evaluate singers, and the audition is one way to do that.
A more difficult question (and process) is whether a returning singer’s position in the choir is at risk in an audition?
For some time now—with the Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University, with Choral Arts, with the Seattle Symphony Chorale, and with Pro Coro Canada—I’ve had policies that a returning singer has to earn his or her spot at each re-audition. And I know I’ve occasionally had singers who simply wouldn’t audition because of that, even though they could certainly make it into the choir, a loss for both of us.
I understand the discomfort this engenders (in me, too), but without this possibility, choir membership can become stagnant (particularly in adult choirs—less of a problem in student choirs). And one also has to recognize that an individual singer’s skills, both vocally and musically, don’t stay the same. They can improve or decline. And in the case of a choir like Pro Coro, which is a professional choir of 24 voices (and we can’t increase the number of core singers for budgetary reasons even if, let’s say, I hear several outstanding new singers audition for a particular section), I’m responsible for the artistic quality of what we do—and must make decisions accordingly. Not easy!
Pro Coro has long had a policy of re-auditioning every year. With Choral Arts and the Seattle Symphony Chorale we did every other year (sops and tenors one year, altos and basses the next). I believe the Swedish Radio Choir does every third year (although every year after age 55, I believe), but that's unusual for a European professional choir, since most are unionized and once a singer gains tenure, it's very difficult to remove them.
More about the process in the next post.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Catching up
Sorry to have been silent for awhile . . . but life goes on!
I had less than a week home from Sweden before heading to Edmonton for auditions, a board meeting, and lots of planning meetings.
We just yesterday got back from Edmonton and are in the midst of the usual catch-up from travel--clothes to be washed, mail to take care of, errands to run, etc.
So, I'll gradually get some posts going.
Given auditions for Pro Coro Canada, I've been thinking about the whole auditioning process and will likely have a post or two about that. I also plan to write something about what it was like to work with the Swedish Radio Choir: what it's like and what I've taken away from that experience again this year.
The summer calendar is quickly filling up, even though I'm taking most of the summer "off" (no such thing exists!). Kathryn and I are off to Denver and the Chorus America conference June 10-15 (along with three other compatriots from Pro Coro). We'll likely get down to Eugene and the Oregon Bach Festival for a performance or two and visits with friends in late June/early July. My brother and his family will be out from Memphis for the month of July, so we'll have some time together. Our friend from Sweden, Eva Wedin, will come to visit for about 10 days at the end of July, and Catherine Kubash from Edmonton not too long after that for a few days as well. We'll head to Vancouver B.C. for some concerts at both Festival Vancouver and the Vancouver Early Music Festival.
My regular score study program also has to begin in earnest next Monday or I'll fall far behind! With Pro Coro I have Haydn's Harmoniemesse (parts should arrive next week and I need to begin marking parts--this will save an enormous amount of time--and I'll also mark the choral scores), Vaughan Williams' Mass in G Minor, a lot of new stuff for our "One World, Many Voices" program, and the Victoria Requiem. We also have two commissioned works, a substantial work by Allan Bevan for choir, soloist, narrator and chamber orchestra for Christmas, and a new work by Associate Conductor Trent Worthington for November. I probably won't see either score until the early fall, so all the more reason to make sure everything else is well-prepared already!
I also conduct Monteverdi's Orfeo in Edmonton in November as part of the Festival of Ideas, celebrating the University of Alberta's centenary, so continued score prep there, too. This should be a terrific production with a great cast (Colin Balzer, Suzie LeBlanc, Catherine Webster, Mireille Lebel, Bill Hite, Paul Grindlay and others) and wonderful period-instrument orchestra from all over. A number of the cast members and orchestra members will be in Vancouver for a production of Rameau's Pygmalion, along with Ellen Hargis, who will be stage director, so it's also a chance to meet and work on a few details of planning.
At any rate, even though it's technically a summer off, it'll be full!
More when I can.
I had less than a week home from Sweden before heading to Edmonton for auditions, a board meeting, and lots of planning meetings.
We just yesterday got back from Edmonton and are in the midst of the usual catch-up from travel--clothes to be washed, mail to take care of, errands to run, etc.
So, I'll gradually get some posts going.
Given auditions for Pro Coro Canada, I've been thinking about the whole auditioning process and will likely have a post or two about that. I also plan to write something about what it was like to work with the Swedish Radio Choir: what it's like and what I've taken away from that experience again this year.
The summer calendar is quickly filling up, even though I'm taking most of the summer "off" (no such thing exists!). Kathryn and I are off to Denver and the Chorus America conference June 10-15 (along with three other compatriots from Pro Coro). We'll likely get down to Eugene and the Oregon Bach Festival for a performance or two and visits with friends in late June/early July. My brother and his family will be out from Memphis for the month of July, so we'll have some time together. Our friend from Sweden, Eva Wedin, will come to visit for about 10 days at the end of July, and Catherine Kubash from Edmonton not too long after that for a few days as well. We'll head to Vancouver B.C. for some concerts at both Festival Vancouver and the Vancouver Early Music Festival.
My regular score study program also has to begin in earnest next Monday or I'll fall far behind! With Pro Coro I have Haydn's Harmoniemesse (parts should arrive next week and I need to begin marking parts--this will save an enormous amount of time--and I'll also mark the choral scores), Vaughan Williams' Mass in G Minor, a lot of new stuff for our "One World, Many Voices" program, and the Victoria Requiem. We also have two commissioned works, a substantial work by Allan Bevan for choir, soloist, narrator and chamber orchestra for Christmas, and a new work by Associate Conductor Trent Worthington for November. I probably won't see either score until the early fall, so all the more reason to make sure everything else is well-prepared already!
I also conduct Monteverdi's Orfeo in Edmonton in November as part of the Festival of Ideas, celebrating the University of Alberta's centenary, so continued score prep there, too. This should be a terrific production with a great cast (Colin Balzer, Suzie LeBlanc, Catherine Webster, Mireille Lebel, Bill Hite, Paul Grindlay and others) and wonderful period-instrument orchestra from all over. A number of the cast members and orchestra members will be in Vancouver for a production of Rameau's Pygmalion, along with Ellen Hargis, who will be stage director, so it's also a chance to meet and work on a few details of planning.
At any rate, even though it's technically a summer off, it'll be full!
More when I can.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Sweden – 14-15 May 2008
So, the last full day finally arrives. We met with Gary Graden for lunch—he’d just gotten back from Berlin, where he’d prepared the Radio Choir (Simon Halsey is their regular conductor) for a performance with Michael Gielen and the Berlin Philharmonic. He’d had a great time and said the choir is singing very well. It was good to see him one more time before leaving. A great friend.
At 3:30 I had my last rehearsal with RK, who were leaving the next day (same day as us) for the Netherlands and their concerts with Peter and the Nederlands Kamerkoor. This was to refresh the Pizzetti Requiem and Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri for them before they began rehearsals with NK (they are only doing the Verdi jointly—the Pizzetti they will do on their own, although with NK in the audience!). I think they’re well prepared, but of course, Peter has done the preparation of NK, so I hope the Verdi melds easily for them. All such great music!
We bid goodbye to singers, to Arne, Marita from the RKs administration (who was always so helpful), and to Mikael. A little sad to leave after working with the choir so much since January, but I have much to do and great projects to look forward to next year. Eva Wedin will visit us this summer in Tacoma, and it’ll be great fun to show her some of the Pacific Northwest.
Arne, me, and Mikael:
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Me and Eva:
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The evening was spent packing and the next morning washing linens and cleaning before the taxi arrived to take us to Arlanda airport.
And that ends this year’s Swedish adventure.
We can’t thank enough all of our friends here who make us feel so welcome, the great singers of RK, and most of all, Gunilla. What a spectacular time!
At 3:30 I had my last rehearsal with RK, who were leaving the next day (same day as us) for the Netherlands and their concerts with Peter and the Nederlands Kamerkoor. This was to refresh the Pizzetti Requiem and Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri for them before they began rehearsals with NK (they are only doing the Verdi jointly—the Pizzetti they will do on their own, although with NK in the audience!). I think they’re well prepared, but of course, Peter has done the preparation of NK, so I hope the Verdi melds easily for them. All such great music!
We bid goodbye to singers, to Arne, Marita from the RKs administration (who was always so helpful), and to Mikael. A little sad to leave after working with the choir so much since January, but I have much to do and great projects to look forward to next year. Eva Wedin will visit us this summer in Tacoma, and it’ll be great fun to show her some of the Pacific Northwest.
Arne, me, and Mikael:
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Me and Eva:
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The evening was spent packing and the next morning washing linens and cleaning before the taxi arrived to take us to Arlanda airport.
And that ends this year’s Swedish adventure.
We can’t thank enough all of our friends here who make us feel so welcome, the great singers of RK, and most of all, Gunilla. What a spectacular time!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Sweden – 12-13 May 2008
Monday it stayed sunny, but the temperatures dropped considerably, down to around 60 F/15 C. It was then a good day to go out to the Nordiska Museet (Nordic Museum) in a really impressive building with both permanent collections and temporary exhibits about Swedish history and life. Exhibits range from housing to clothes (lots of shoes, which didn’t interest my dad and me too much) to folk crafts. One temporary exhibit was on the Sami people (those formerly known as Lapplanders) and their lives—a very beautiful exhibit that shows that the Swedes weren’t much better than we were at dealing with native ethnic populations.
Tuesday we met Eva Wedin for lunch at Sturehof, a favorite restaurant that specializes in fish. Since Eva had been ill and wasn’t at the rehearsals for the Vårkonsert she hadn’t been able to meet my parents. We had a lovely time.
Eva and me:
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Eva and Kathryn:
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That evening we took the tunnelbana (subway) and a bus out to Birgit Hemberg’s new apartment, which is in the same building as her good friends, the Dimanders (Margareta and Bertil). Again, we had a lovely time and, as always at Birgit’s, wonderful food. Birgit was for many years the editor of Allt om mat (Everything about Food), Scandinavia’s leading food magazine. She also edited Bonniers Cookbook, which would be the equivalent of Joy of Cooking and a recent food lexicon—while she’s technically “retired,” it’s clear she’s not really!
Birgit, me, Dad, Margareta, Mom, & Bertil:
Birgit and the Dimanders have also established a foundation to keep Eskil Hemberg’s work in front of the public, and hold the Eskil Hemberg Days festival in Värmland, on their family farm, during the summer. They do an art exhibit during the festival and it may be that Kathryn will exhibit in 2009.
At any rate, we had a lovely time, not getting back home until nearly midnight. For my folks that meant a very short night, since they had a 6:45 AM flight. However, they got to the airport successfully and I think had a really wonderful two weeks in Sweden. It was great for us to have them there.
Tuesday we met Eva Wedin for lunch at Sturehof, a favorite restaurant that specializes in fish. Since Eva had been ill and wasn’t at the rehearsals for the Vårkonsert she hadn’t been able to meet my parents. We had a lovely time.
Eva and me:
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Eva and Kathryn:
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That evening we took the tunnelbana (subway) and a bus out to Birgit Hemberg’s new apartment, which is in the same building as her good friends, the Dimanders (Margareta and Bertil). Again, we had a lovely time and, as always at Birgit’s, wonderful food. Birgit was for many years the editor of Allt om mat (Everything about Food), Scandinavia’s leading food magazine. She also edited Bonniers Cookbook, which would be the equivalent of Joy of Cooking and a recent food lexicon—while she’s technically “retired,” it’s clear she’s not really!
Birgit, me, Dad, Margareta, Mom, & Bertil:
Birgit and the Dimanders have also established a foundation to keep Eskil Hemberg’s work in front of the public, and hold the Eskil Hemberg Days festival in Värmland, on their family farm, during the summer. They do an art exhibit during the festival and it may be that Kathryn will exhibit in 2009.
At any rate, we had a lovely time, not getting back home until nearly midnight. For my folks that meant a very short night, since they had a 6:45 AM flight. However, they got to the airport successfully and I think had a really wonderful two weeks in Sweden. It was great for us to have them there.
Sweden – 10-11 May 2008
The weekend following the concert had gorgeous weather with blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70s F/23 C. One of the things we most wanted to do with my folks was take a ferry trip out in the archipelago. The archipelago surrounding Stockholm is extraordinary, with small islands and big ones, most with summer homes built on them, even the smallest ones.
Saturday we decided to take the ferry to Vaxholm, the “capitol” of the archipelago, and not too long a trip—about an hour or so by one of the older steamboats. We made probably 6 or so stops along the way and they are efficient—most stops to drop off passengers and pick up a few more took just a couple minutes.
Vaxholm:
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Vaxholm itself is a lovely, small town with a fortress on the island just next door, established in 1558. We first had a relaxed lunch, sitting outside but under cover from the sun (which was quite warm), then wandered around the town a bit before heading back via a much faster boat with fewer stops.
The fortress seen from Vaxholm:
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Sunday we took the bus out on Djurgården to Waldermarsudde, which was the home of Prince Eugen (1865-1947). The prince was a very talented artist and the house reflected his interests and considerable taste. Built in 1903-04, it has gorgeous views, three floors (the top floor being his studio, designed to bring in maximum light year-round. His own paintings, paintings of friends in his circle, and furniture from all periods fill the house. He donated it and most of his collection to the Swedish state and it has been maintained as a museum (he also added a gallery building next to his home in 1913 to contain his growing collection), the first two floors of the house mostly as he left them, the other two floors and the gallery with whatever exhibit is current.
Again, the weather was beautiful, the tulips (of which there were many) around the house in full bloom, and we couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. This was my first time to the museum, but Kathryn had been here twice before, the first time with Gunilla in November 2002 (it’s one of Gunilla’s favorite places and one of her relatives was an artist in Prince Eugen’s circle—and there are several of his paintings there) and again last winter. She says it’s just as beautiful a setting then, so don’t miss it if you have the chance to visit.
Tulips:
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Sculpture outside (notice the “arrow” from the archer’s bow!):
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We had lunch there in the delightful café, which offers mostly traditional Swedish food. We also ran into Birgit Hemberg and her two sons (whom we hadn’t met) and their wives while there, a lucky coincidence since we were to go to dinner at her apartment the next evening, and hadn’t yet connected on directions!
Saturday we decided to take the ferry to Vaxholm, the “capitol” of the archipelago, and not too long a trip—about an hour or so by one of the older steamboats. We made probably 6 or so stops along the way and they are efficient—most stops to drop off passengers and pick up a few more took just a couple minutes.
Vaxholm:
.jpg)
Vaxholm itself is a lovely, small town with a fortress on the island just next door, established in 1558. We first had a relaxed lunch, sitting outside but under cover from the sun (which was quite warm), then wandered around the town a bit before heading back via a much faster boat with fewer stops.
The fortress seen from Vaxholm:
.jpg)
Sunday we took the bus out on Djurgården to Waldermarsudde, which was the home of Prince Eugen (1865-1947). The prince was a very talented artist and the house reflected his interests and considerable taste. Built in 1903-04, it has gorgeous views, three floors (the top floor being his studio, designed to bring in maximum light year-round. His own paintings, paintings of friends in his circle, and furniture from all periods fill the house. He donated it and most of his collection to the Swedish state and it has been maintained as a museum (he also added a gallery building next to his home in 1913 to contain his growing collection), the first two floors of the house mostly as he left them, the other two floors and the gallery with whatever exhibit is current.
Again, the weather was beautiful, the tulips (of which there were many) around the house in full bloom, and we couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. This was my first time to the museum, but Kathryn had been here twice before, the first time with Gunilla in November 2002 (it’s one of Gunilla’s favorite places and one of her relatives was an artist in Prince Eugen’s circle—and there are several of his paintings there) and again last winter. She says it’s just as beautiful a setting then, so don’t miss it if you have the chance to visit.
Tulips:
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Sculpture outside (notice the “arrow” from the archer’s bow!):
+copy.jpg)
We had lunch there in the delightful café, which offers mostly traditional Swedish food. We also ran into Birgit Hemberg and her two sons (whom we hadn’t met) and their wives while there, a lucky coincidence since we were to go to dinner at her apartment the next evening, and hadn’t yet connected on directions!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Sweden – 9 May 2008
Friday and the Vårkonsert finally arrived.
We met my folks for lunch at a favorite restaurant in Gamla Stan, then I headed back to the apartment for a bit more preparation and rest. Kath wandered for a bit with my folks before returning as well, since she wanted to go to the rehearsal to take some pictures.
We got to Berwaldhallen around a quarter to five to see the setup and confirm last minute things with Mikael, Johan, and Nils. Rehearsal was at 5:30—this is a typical schedule for RK, a one hour final rehearsal on the day, then one hour break (sandwiches and fruit provided), then the concert.
The concert was almost sold out, so there was a great crowd. The concert went by quickly for me, but was certainly great fun and went well. Wonderful people there as well: Maria Södersten sat with Kathryn and my parents, Birgit Hemberg and the Dimanders were sitting in the front row (they also gave a beautiful bouquet that was presented at the end of the concert), Christina Björk and her partner Erling (Christina is one of Gunilla’s best friends—we had brunch at their place last year), Ingrid Johansson (Bosse had a rehearsal), and of course, Eric Ericson and Monica.
At any rate, great fun and you can listen yourselves (at least for awhile—I don’t know how long these are kept online) here.
With Johan and Mikael:
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Nils and Johan at rehearsal:
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A couple shots with RK at rehearsal:
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We met my folks for lunch at a favorite restaurant in Gamla Stan, then I headed back to the apartment for a bit more preparation and rest. Kath wandered for a bit with my folks before returning as well, since she wanted to go to the rehearsal to take some pictures.
We got to Berwaldhallen around a quarter to five to see the setup and confirm last minute things with Mikael, Johan, and Nils. Rehearsal was at 5:30—this is a typical schedule for RK, a one hour final rehearsal on the day, then one hour break (sandwiches and fruit provided), then the concert.
The concert was almost sold out, so there was a great crowd. The concert went by quickly for me, but was certainly great fun and went well. Wonderful people there as well: Maria Södersten sat with Kathryn and my parents, Birgit Hemberg and the Dimanders were sitting in the front row (they also gave a beautiful bouquet that was presented at the end of the concert), Christina Björk and her partner Erling (Christina is one of Gunilla’s best friends—we had brunch at their place last year), Ingrid Johansson (Bosse had a rehearsal), and of course, Eric Ericson and Monica.
At any rate, great fun and you can listen yourselves (at least for awhile—I don’t know how long these are kept online) here.
With Johan and Mikael:
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Nils and Johan at rehearsal:
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A couple shots with RK at rehearsal:
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