conducting
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The gender question, part 1
Early on in my career I was asked the gender question a lot. I mean, A LOT. It seemed to be the focus of most of my interviews in the early aughts – what’s it like to be a female conductor in a male-dominated field? Given the increasing numbers of women on the podium, lately that questions has become less prevalent, and I suppose in a way that’s a huge positive. Women conductors are becoming more normalized and pointing out our unique experiences might act as a disservice to that process. Which is not to say that the challenges of being a woman in what is still a man’s world…
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Heigh-ho, heigh-ho
I’m currently killing time in a Burbank coffee shop before I head back to the airport – an airport I left just a few hours ago. I’ve had quite a few days like this in the last month or so, any guess as to where my meeting was this afternoon? Between the recording last month for “Little Mermaid Live” and upcoming performances of “Coco Live in Concert” at the Hollywood Bowl I’ve been spending quite a bit of time doing work that seems far away from my classical roots. Hollywood is a very, very different world, with different expectations, different attitudes, different modes of operation. I’ve always been a big…
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Independence Day Musings
I just watched a Fourth of July fireworks show from the window of my hotel room. It was at quite a distance, and the sky was a bit smoky already, but well, it was something. I guess. Sigh. For some reason today I’ve found it hard not to feel a little…grinchy…? I can’t think of a better way to express it. I felt annoyed at the people at the airport adorned in red white and blue garb, at the airline lounges serving barbeque and lemonade. I mean, fireworks are making me surly. So I’ve taken a step back to give myself the space to think it through. I end up…
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Daily Smile #2
I came across this last week and cringe-laughed for a good few minutes. I’ll let you watch before I comment: Oh, where do I begin. I mean, I’ve certainly heard my share of horn clams and mistakes of all kinds and “wtf-are-you-even-playing-the-same-piece?” moments on the podium, but one of the fundamental things a conductor should do is to NOT REACT LIKE THIS. In this instance I’m sure the horn player was mortified enough with his blipped entrance without having to face that look of death (he even stops conducting! During a concert!). You don’t need to magnify a moment like this with pouting or histrionics on the podium. It doesn’t…
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Life on edge, part 1
I am a very, very anxious person. There, I’ve said it. And when I say that, I mean all day, every day, since I was a young child; worrying, ruminating, convinced that something is just on the verge of going wrong. It’s not really environmentally related – I mean, yes, I get uncomfortable on particularly turbulent flights, but what I’m talking about is an underlying baseline state of dis-ease that has always been with me. My anxiety manifests as an inexplicable sense of existential dread that has no practical explanation. And for my ordered and rational brain, the fact that I can’t reason my anxiety out of existence is both…
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Stuff you should listen to #1
Confession: I don’t spend a lot of my spare time listening to classical music. It’s mostly because of the fatigue – I hear enough of it at work and want to let my ears be open to something else on my off time, and my tastes are eclectic. But occasionally I’ll encounter an orchestral work that strikes me as that “something else”, music that gives me a slightly different perspective, music that inhabits a slightly different world than the one I work in daily. A few weeks back I was with the Virginia Symphony performing a program that included a new piece for me, Tan Dun’s Pipa concerto My soloist…
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Tick Tock
I was in Dublin a few weeks back working with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. An afternoon off afforded me a few hours to take in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College and a handful of other highlights. Although the major sights were nice, it was a chance encounter that ended up being the most meaningful visit of the day. Searching for a caffeine hit I turned down a promising road but instead of a coffee shop I found the National Library; a sign told me that it housed a free W.B Yeats exhibit. I love Yeats and I love free stuff, so I wandered in. It was a beautifully…
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The glamorous life
I was in Belgium a month ago conducting concerts with the Antwerp Symphony. I’d never been to Antwerp before, and was delighted to discover a city of beautiful architecture (Central Station), exquisite art (Rubens) and delectable food (moules frites and waffles). The orchestra was great, and their schedule was such that I had enough time to make the hour long trip to Bruges, which was utterly charming, if overrun by tourists. On a sunny Saturday morning I set out for a run in the brisk autumn air of Stadtpark. And on the afternoon before my last concert I had time to troll the city for the best chocolate boutiques to…
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Taking ownership
Last week I made my debut with the Cleveland Orchestra. For those of you familiar with the orchestra scene, you’ll know that the Cleveland Orchestra, along with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, are one of the Big Five – historically the largest and most prestigious ensembles in the country. They were, as expected, fantastic, and it was an immense pleasure working with them. During the break between dress rehearsal and concert at the Blossom Music Center I was chatting with one of the musicians about the variety of music which takes me all over the world, and he asked me, unironically, if I…
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Positive payback
When I started my career as a conductor, I was fresh out of conservatory and newly married. I was teaching part time at Curtis and working for a small regional orchestra near Philly and doing the odd little gigs that came in. Paul and I made maybe $25K between the two of us, didn’t have health insurance and barely had two pennies to rub together. We were starving young musicians in all senses. I remember throughout those very lean early years that though money was tight, I didn’t want to completely curtail my social life, particularly the relaxing ritual of the post-concert drink. And on many occasions, after a cocktail…