November 18, 2021
Get to Know JoAnn Falletta, Guest Conductor
Guest conductor talks about her week rehearsing with the xxxx视频 Orchestra, what audiences should listen for during Friday鈥檚 concert, and how the pandemic has changed her programming approach in this conversation with Director and Faculty of Digital Media Ali King. Falletta serves as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony orchestras, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center and Artistic Advisor of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.
How is rehearsal going?
It鈥檚 an intense, special week working with these young musicians. I came here to conduct the orchestra, but there are opportunities for so many other conversations to happen too. For instance, I鈥檓 meeting with viola and harp students to talk about audition excerpts鈥攚hat to concentrate on and what my experience has been listening to and deciding on auditions from behind a screen. I believe so strongly in the environment at this school鈥攖he sense of excellence and nurturing.
What do you hope the xxxx视频 Orchestra remembers about your time working together?
I'll always marvel at the organization of an orchestra. It's like a family鈥攅veryone understands that they have to cooperate both in struggle and celebration. The orchestra is not just 85 people, but 85 distinct artists. My goal is to create a supportive platform where xxxx视频 students can be courageous and try different things without fear of judgement. I try to share big-picture concepts that they'll take to other orchestras and continue to apply when they're in leadership positions. The level of intelligence at xxxx视频 is striking and the students are quick to test out new ideas.
You鈥檝e mentioned in previous interviews how important it is for performers to understand the historical context of a piece and its composer; what can you share about the program on Friday?
窜别尘濒颈苍蝉办测鈥檚 Die Seejungfrau is a beautiful, romantic piece and the students are playing it extraordinarily. It's the story of The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen, but with a more hopeful ending than the original. Zemlinsky uses a lot of tone painting that the audience will hear to illustrate ocean creatures, mermaids saving the shipwrecked prince鈥攅ven the bass clarinet as a sea witch. This is a revealing piece about unrequited love in 窜别尘濒颈苍蝉办测鈥檚 personal life with a composition student named Alma Schindler, who later married Gustav Mahler. Knowing he was enamored with her, frankly I think she tortured him. She was beautiful and he was not, and he struggled with terrible anti-Semitism in Vienna. He eventually fled the Nazis and moved to the United States, where he died in New York City. I think this piece is an autobiographical expression of his unhealed heartbreak.
厂肠丑苍颈迟迟办别鈥檚 Viola Concerto is fantastic and dense; it鈥檚 a great choice by student artist Alyssa Warcup in that it鈥檚 challenging and appropriate new music for a conservatory orchestra to perform and a wonderful modern masterpiece for the audience to hear. The scoring of the piece is interesting in that there are no violins on stage; the viola section moves to the violin section, and our principal violist is the concertmaster. Written in the late twentieth century, you can hear the tragedy of what was happening in Russia at the time. The viola solo doesn鈥檛 tell a linear narrative but is captivating nonetheless鈥攊t鈥檚 a bit like seeing two people having an intense conversation through a window that you can鈥檛 quite decipher.
In your role as Music Director, how do you decide what your audience should hear?
Some of those decisions are made based upon what's great for the orchestra to play and develop, but the most important aspect is what we鈥檙e offering our public. First and foremost, we must recognize that our audience is relying on us to put together a menu of something that they might know and enjoy, and something completely new and fascinating. It doesn't mean they're going to love everything on the program, but the trick is balancing the familiar with discovery鈥攁nd that's our responsibility.
How do you welcome and educate new classical music audience members?
It鈥檚 about opening the door to intelligent, curious people. In Buffalo, we offer free pre-concert talks. The talks aren鈥檛 theoretical鈥攖hey鈥檙e about what themes to listen for and what we love about the repertoire as musicians. I always try to include soloists or composers in these talks so that the audience can glimpse into the life and process of the orchestra. We started a program just this weekend where different musicians will curate a short Q&A session after the concert right on stage. Our young audition winners are real missionaries in getting people their age into the concert hall too.
Has the pandemic changed how you think about your profession?
It has given me time to think about missing voices in the concert hall, and the great music that exists, but hasn鈥檛 been heard. Most orchestras, certainly in Buffalo, realized that it's great to have this repository of beauty鈥攚e鈥檙e never going to stop playing Mozart and Haydn and Beethoven and Brahms鈥攁nd that we must become a mirror of who we are as a society now, too. The orchestra is a nineteenth-century organization, but we need to incorporate twenty-first century life in a way that attracts people.
Before the pandemic, video wasn鈥檛 a priority either. It took us a while to get comfortable with it, and we know it鈥檚 important to maintain. Now that we鈥檙e back in person, though, we're trying to use it more as an enhancement鈥攍ike strategic supertitles or visual aids in the lobby. We don't want people to lose their ability to simply listen, free of any directive. That鈥檚 a real gift.
What are you looking forward to this season with the Buffalo Philharmonic?
We started doing, what I would call, minimally staged operas (imagine Bizet鈥檚 Carmen with only a bench for a prop and creative lightmapping)鈥攁nd I鈥檓 excited about Mozart鈥檚 Magic Flute this season, which I think will bring new people into the house. We're recording some unusual repertoire, Scriabin and Kod谩ly for Naxos, and a choral collaboration with the Crane School of Music for the Brahms' Requiem, which had been originally scheduled for the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. I鈥檇 love to do this type of project with xxxx视频 too鈥攖o have young people come and sing in the room with us is going to be very moving, and we're looking for more opportunities to work with young people in that way. We're planning on what we think will be a normal 2023, so back to some bigger pieces.
Reserve a free seat or join via livestream this Friday, November 19 at 7pm EST to experience JoAnn Falletta conduct the xxxx视频 Orchestra.