The New Criterion: Taking the Baton

The New Criterion
By John Check

On “Behind the Baton: An American Icon Talks Music”by Gerard Schwarz and Maxine Frost. Amadeus Press, 2017, pp. 378, $27.99

One of the oldest musical jokes in the book involves a young man from the provinces freshly arrived in New York. He has a ticket, acquired at considerable cost, to hear Jascha Heifetz in concert that evening and he wants to be sure of the location of the venue. Heading uptown on Seventh Avenue, awestruck to be in this city that has always boasted so robust a musical life, he spots an old violinist with his battered instrument case tucked under one arm. “Excuse me, sir,” the young man asks, confident that here was someone who would know the way, “can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?” The old violinist looks him over, shakes his head, and wearily replies, “Practice, practice, practice.”

Gerard Schwarz may have had this joke in mind when, as he reveals in his lucid autobiography, he was asked how to become a conductor. “It’s simple,” he answered, “by being a great musician.” Schwarz, a longtime director of the Seattle Symphony (1985–2011), was a great musician indeed, a trumpet player of the first class. For instance, his recording of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto features a deep, dark sound, reverberant in overtones; soft entrances, emerging as if from nothing, that have no perceptible attack; dynamics that are expansive yet controlled; and an overall flair that demonstrates what the music theorist Eugene Montague has termed “performerly agency.”

Schwarz, born in New Jersey in 1947, grew up in a house filled with music. His parents—doctors both, Jewish émigrés from Vienna—were serious amateur pianists who saw to it that their children received excellent training in the instrument. Schwarz soon became enchanted by the trumpet, and began to practice (practice, practice) diligently. While a student at New York’s Performing Arts High School, he participated in a variety of ensembles, learning the orchestral repertoire from the inside. As a teenager he played his first professional jobs. Work soon interfered with school as demand for his services grew: it would take him seven years to complete his bachelor’s at Juilliard. Securing a permanent job with the New York Philharmonic was for Schwarz a “lifelong dream”—which he achieved at the age of twenty-five, when he was hired in 1972 as a co-principal trumpeter.

Naturally, a new dream began to form. Finding that some of the orchestra’s guest conductors “did not delve deeply enough” into the music, Schwarz wondered if he had the makings of a conductor. He would learn that he did in what he calls his defining moment. It happened in 1973 at the Aspen Music Festival, and it came about because Schwarz, hired to teach trumpet, made good on an opportunity.

A performance of Elliot Carter’s Concerto for Piano was scheduled, but the slated conductor cancelled his appearance. Substitutes were sought, yet none was willing to tackle so formidable a piece on such short notice. Not wanting to see his preparation wasted, the piano soloist Samuel Lipman (later the founding publisher of The New Criterion) asked Schwarz to fill in. The resulting performance was a hit, and Lipman thereafter “pushed [him] very hard” to strike out as a conductor.

To become the kind of conductor he had in mind to be, Schwarz realized he had to leave the Philharmonic. In the meantime, he continued to scrutinize all the conductors for whom he played. He would look back on his relatively short career with the orchestra as his “greatest education in conducting.” As he writes, he “watched the conductors, saw their techniques, saw what worked, heard the words they chose.” He knew, in his new endeavor, that he had to be responsible for “every note, every part, every phrase, every nuance, every marking in the score.” His education as a conductor would be broadened by directing the Waterloo Music Festival (of which he was a co-founder) and the Mostly Mozart festival (whose reputation he was instrumental in burnishing). It would acquire added depth during his years at the helm of the New York Chamber Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. While leading all of these groups, he would, in the early 1980s, make his first appearance as a guest conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

Schwarz had been looking to set his mark upon a large orchestra. Seattle’s, he grants, had the reputation of being “second-tier”: its subscription season was short, its performance space deficient. Management pursued him assiduously, but his was an enviable position—other orchestras were interested in him, too. Before finally committing to Seattle, Schwarz asked “everyone—the board, the staff, and the orchestra’s leadership” whether there was “100 percent buy-in” with his plans for the organization. Assured that there was, he set to work, honing the sound of the ensemble and inspiring the musicians to raise their standards. Progress came quickly under Schwarz’s directorship; a series of Wagner recordings that the orchestra produced in the early period of his run earned favorable press, and soon plans were underway for the construction of a new hall. As music director, Schwarz, capitalizing on his reputation, played a key role as a fundraiser. Benaroya Hall opened in 1998, and for the next dozen years, accolades would rain down upon both orchestra and conductor. Wanting to write “another chapter” in his artistic life, Schwarz stepped down in 2011; since then, he has been busy composing music, furnishing online lectures for Khan Academy, and appearing as a guest conductor.

Behind the Baton is rich in anecdotes, especially about conductors and soloists. With discretion, the book also captures something of Schwarz’s life as a husband and father. Short chapters toward the end, one of them entitled “Vignettes,” convey in capsule form his point of view on a range of artistic topics. Unfolded in the pages of this absorbing book is the story of a great musician who made himself an even greater conductor.

Strings: Prague Summer Nights Festival

Strings Magazine
By Heather K. Scott

The Prague Summer Nights (PSN) Festival is a monthlong opportunity for conservatory-level students to learn and perform opera music in some of the most music-rich cities in Europe. It’s also much like taking lessons within a living, breathing music-history museum. If you think it sounds both dreamy and intense, you’re 100 percent correct. “You walk around, from rehearsals to your hotel, and see the cafes and the canals. It is different than playing the same music anywhere else,” says cellist Amit Peled, who joined PSN in Salzburg, Austria, to perform the Dvorak Cello Concerto this summer.

Encompassing 18 performances over the course of just one month, and triangulating three grand European cities (Prague, Salzburg, and Tabor), PSN is a heavy mix of learning, culture, and performance all stirred together in one big bowl. Sprinkle in long rehearsals, tight schedules, ever-changing concert programs, and loads of travel, and you’ve got the recipe for a challenging—and uniquely stylized—learning experience.

To successfully devour this musical feast, students must tackle the gritty nuts and bolts of daily rehearsals and simultaneously develop some serious time-management skills. As violinist and past PSN attendee Kristen Morrill explains, “Time is everything. If we don’t use our time efficiently, then we lose precious details and stylistic embellishments that are crucial to the success and power of each piece.”

Another PSN participant, bassist Harrison Dilthey, concurs, declaring that the biggest lesson he’s learned from PSN is just how much work and time it takes to be a professional musician. “Not just in terms of playing ability, but in terms of the hours of rehearsal required to pull together a concert in less than a week,” he says. “It’s a mentally exhausting process, and physically draining as well. But it is a high-level professional organization, and the wonderful faculty at PSN give me the tools needed to be able to play two three-hour opera performances in one day.”

Preparation Is Key
Knowing that schedules are packed and study is intense, what is the best way for students interested in participating in PSN to prepare? Peled suggests doing more than just reviewing YouTube videos, recordings of other players auditioning, or performing the same pieces slated for PSN performances. Instead, he recommends finding ways to go above and beyond playing accurately. “[Sometimes,] people are efficient and play the right notes, but there’s something musically lacking [that’s needed] to give them context.” He reports that this is one of the challenges so many music educators face today. “As a teacher, helping students fill in that missing piece is important to me,” he says. “I want to encourage students to become curious, because that doesn’t happen much anymore.”

PSN gives participants an opportunity to be curious and immerse themselves in music, culture, and living history as well. “[Participants] can look back at this experience and smile because they will know what it looked and felt like when the music was created and first performed,” Peled says.

Another consideration while preparing for the festival is less esoteric and much more physical. The human body can handle only so much, and practicing for the rigors of a festival like this can be not just exhausting and challenging—but painful, too. “It was really important for me to prepare my body for playing six to eight hours each day without injuring myself,” says Morrill (who has struggled with tendinitis). The solution: Morrill focused on balancing practicing with self-care during the time leading up to the festival. She shaped her practice sessions by working through fundamentals. As she says, “It only takes one person to completely derail a rehearsal, resulting in loss of time and frustration for the other members of the orchestra.”

Life Lessons
Undoubtedly, preparation is key. But the bigger question for students interested in PSN may be more about what they stand to get out of the experience. “What we teach at the festival can shape players and students in new ways,” Peled says. It makes students think more personally, rather than copying to learn.

The program, only in its third year, is already garnering accolades. The true sign of success? Students who want to come back again . . . and again. This is the case with Morrill and Dilthey, two of the program’s inaugural students who are happy to apply and participate again and again. As Morrill explains, “After having an amazing experience in 2015, I decided to return. There are even more opportunities for orchestra players—including our final concert on the stage of the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, so when I was asked to consider coming back to the festival, I decided to apply again.”

For Dilthey, who was inspired to apply for PSN after a fair amount of time spent in youth orchestras (and a deep-seated passion for opera), the decision to go back was simple: He looked forward to more opportunities to work with vocalists. After participating in PSN once, he was sold. “Seeing the opportunity to perform Don Giovanni on the same stage where it was premiered by Mozart so many years ago seemed to be exactly what I was looking for,” he says. “And it ended up being so much more. This is my third summer with PSN, and it has brought something new for me, year after year. I’m excited to go to Salzburg and have the opportunity to perform Mozart’s operas in the city where he is from.”

The program is rich in opportunity for faculty as well, particularly for newcomer Peled, who looks forward to connecting his love for opera with his passion for teaching and performing. “There’s something incredible about playing music in the place in which it was composed—particularly in Prague,” he says. There are also rare opportunities for string players to learn from being part of a vocal performance, Peled adds. He has his students take voice lessons so that they can learn how to accompany singers from both sides of the fence.

It’s All About Opera
During the days of Dvorak and Mozart, opera was the entertainment—the TV-social media-radio-newspaper of the day. And musicians and vocalists were the storytellers who drew in audiences, night after night. Instrumentalists were tasked with translating emotion without words. “When students perform The Marriage of Figaro, they’re part of creating not just the music, but the story and words, too,” Peled says. “Being a musician and having a chance to work with vocalists together to deliver that story offers a unique learning experience.”

Playing with an orchestra is one thing, but performing with vocalists who are also actors on a stage is quite another thing. “When working in any live performance, nothing will be exactly the same each time,” Morrill says. “Specifically, working with a live opera at this festival has helped me learn to collaborate with players and singers alike. An opera setting requires the orchestra to take on the role of accompaniment, meaning that we have to listen and react to the soloists.

“Working in such long and demanding operas also challenges the orchestra to adapt quickly to any changes or deviations.”

Additionally, PSN participants are stationed in the same opera houses in which the pieces were performed hundreds of years ago. The smaller spaces and less-comfortable seating can be eye opening. “The sticky summertime temperatures make the music making more authentic,” Peled explains. “This is part of what Mozart had in mind when he wrote this music and it is important for musicians to see these spaces and feel what it is like to play in them.”

Peled, like many students, is inspired and excited by all that PSN has to offer. “This inspires me, and I hope I have time to talk with the students about it. I want them to know that they are important and this music is important. I hope I am able to do that and give them a good experience,” he says. “Our grandfathers played this music, and I want participants to feel that, too. These instruments and music—we are the new caretakers.” 

Favorite memories from Prague Summer Nights alums

“One of my favorite memories from my first year at PSN was performing Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre. Mozart is easily my favorite composer, so having the chance to perform this opera where Mozart premiered it in 1787 was truly overwhelming. The sheer history that lies within the building seemed tangible. The most intense moment for me was during our fourth and final performance as we reached the recapitulation in the finale of Act II. Hearing the culmination of the opera and realizing our time in Prague was coming to an end sent tears streaming down my face. Music truly has the ability to move us to the core of our being, and I can only hope that this emotion reaches not just the musicians performing, but the audience.”

—Kristen Morrill

“In the first installment of PSN, we performed Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini. James Burton (now Tanglewood’s festival chorus director) had a way of pulling every musician into the intensity of Puccini’s story. At the end of the opera, when Suor drifts off to heaven, it was the most magical musical experience I had ever been a part of. There was not a dry eye in the building, and most of the audience didn’t even speak
the language of the opera. It was a moment of universal peace that I’ll never forget."

—Harrison Dilthey

1843 Magazine: Music in the Mountains

1843 Magazine

At the foot of the Grand Teton mountain range, you’ll hear the wind whispering through the pine trees, trumpeter swans tooting their horns, moose shuffling through the forest – and, for seven weeks this summer, the strains of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Rachmaninov. This enchanting spot is where some of the world’s best musicians congregate and perform together. This year, Yo Yo Ma is on the bill, along with Garrick Ohlsson, a pianist, and conductor Fabien Gabel. The dress code is informal: bring hiking boots and a cowboy hat. That’s the headwear of choice of the season’s musical director, Donald Runnicles.
Grand Teton Music Festival, until August 20th

Strings: The All-Star Orchestra Shines in a New Season

Strings
By Cristina Schreil

It’s August 2016 at SUNY Purchase, a college just north of New York City. As she’s done countless times in her two decades with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, violinist Elita Kang dons concert attire. She’s all made up, notes in hand, as she moves with fellow players onto the concert stage. Yet something feels distinctly odd about this performance: There is no audience.

Along with 86 other musicians, Kang is performing for a fleet of high-definition cameras. “You develop kind of a Pavlovian routine after a while: You get into your concert gear and you walk out onstage and there are going to be people listening. It was a little bit odd to just pretend,” Kang says after the performance. There was, she stresses, a gratifying reason behind the experience. This recording session was for season three of the All-Star Orchestra, a public-television project bringing classical-music education to the masses this September.

When you hear “all star,” it’s usually baseball diamonds—not concert halls—that are likely come to mind. But this inclusive celebration of the “best of the best” embraces a mega ensemble that unites principals and concertmasters from a host of American orchestras—30, in fact. The roster is a virtual cross-country journey; players from Utah, New Jersey, North Carolina, Jacksonville, Washington, D.C., and beyond rub shoulders.

Giving the event this kind of universal moniker communicates the goal of nudging classical music onto a more public stage. “I thought that we should be called the All-Star Orchestra to make it as popular as possible,” says maestro Gerard Schwarz, the founder. “It wouldn’t be a New York show or Chicago show or San Francisco show . . . We wanted it to be an American show.” With this harmonious mission of public service, the All-Stars feel less equivalent to an Olympic basketball team than to a musical Justice League. Since its first season in 2013, about 85 percent of public-broadcasting stations have aired the orchestra’s specially crafted concert-like episodes, which are interspersed with commentary and interviews with players and composers.

Minutes before Schwarz shares his vision with me, I’m walking along a sun-streaked Park Avenue to meet him at his home. It’s springtime in New York City and clusters of bright tulips seem to wave at me from their flowerbeds. And then Schwarz, turning our handshake into something of a dance move, whisks me into his opulent apartment. As he settles in a window-side chair, the marigold blobs of taxicabs streak down the avenue behind him. A chorus of car horns punctuates the atmosphere. You’d think this was just the place to brainstorm big ideas, but Schwarz’ All-Star concept actually took root in Seattle, where he was music director of the Seattle Symphony for 26 years.

Schwarz conducting the All Star Orchestra

Schwarz was by then no stranger to multimedia platforms or the power of public television. Previously as music director of New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, he earned an Emmy nomination for a Live from Lincoln Center broadcast. In 2007 in Seattle, while filming concert shots sans audience for a local public broadcaster, Schwarz found himself beaming. With cameramen not having to worry about interfering with the audience experience, unique bird’s-eye perspectives were possible. “And then it just dawned on me: ‘Oh boy, this is the way it should be done,’” he remembers thinking.

That show won an Emmy award.

When it came time for Schwarz to leave the Seattle Symphony, he sought “another mountain to climb.” With the participation of his wife Jody and other friends and confidants, the plan emerged. A key pillar was the potential of public television. Drawing on its role as a resource for young history students, Schwarz aimed to create a parallel resource about music history. He made a list of composers, including living ones, whom he regarded as history’s hundred most important. He admits it was a titanic feat to narrow it down. Then, for each composer, Schwarz chose what he considered to be his or her most “identifiable” work—one that has notable cultural significance or is intertwined with the composer’s legacy. The dream, Schwarz says, is to present a work by each, forging a complete record.

The Khan Academy, a free online educational nonprofit, is a partner. Its more than five million music students can view lessons presenting music basics, composer interviews, instrument explanations, and full movements. Full episodes are broadcast on public networks and on YouTube. Schwarz asserts episodes are “not a concert substitute at all, but with the idea that the intrinsic value would lead to people being excited about music, people being exposed to music, people being at least a little bit educated, and hopefully that music becomes part of their lives—maybe [they] even become concertgoers.”

There was initial pushback. “Many people didn’t believe that you could bring 80 or 90 musicians together and make it sound good,” Schwarz recalls, also citing worries that a short time frame (each season tapes in a few days) wouldn’t work. But in reality, it did. For season one, they shot eight episodes in four days. Schwarz delivered marked sheet music well in advance, plus recordings of himself conducting, to show such details at his preferred tempo. This was not the time to put a wild new interpretative stamp on repertoire. The All-Stars’ collective experience made it gel, according to Schwarz.

Perhaps making this kind of ensemble work is all in the selection process. There’s no auditioning to become an All-Star. To form his first orchestra, Schwarz hand-picked players he had connected with over the years, and asked his section principals to bring in the rest. Since then, section principals have continued to fill any vacancies.

“Of course you want people to have opportunities to audition,” Schwarz says. “On the other hand if I were making an orchestra and I went to the first trumpet and said, ‘Make a section for me,’ he or she would do better than an audition. [Section leaders] would pick people who play like they do, who make the sound that they make. It’s not like in politics where people feel like if you argue, it’s useful. In music, it’s not. You want to get people who actually sound well together.”

The first two seasons featured masterpieces like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67; Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80; and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. There were also works by living composers, such as Samuel Jones’ Concerto for Violoncello, performed by Schwarz’ son, Julian Schwarz, and Jones’ Concerto for Violin, performed by Anne Akiko Meyers. Much of the first season featured players reflecting with awe on the sheer quality of sound, the surprising force generated when entire orchestral sections are comprised of the country’s top players. “I mean, you’re talking about the highest level of musical performance,” Schwarz says. With a laugh, he adds that after years of conducting, he knows the potential pitfalls of every piece. Time and again, they don’t occur. He observes, “They’re playing like they were in the front, not in the back.”

Kang, who is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s assistant concertmaster, knows what Schwarz means. “Pretty much everyone in the first violin section was a title chair—if not concertmaster, then an assistant or an associate concertmaster—so we’re all used to leading,” she says. “I didn’t get the feeling that anybody was being particularly overbearing. There was still a sense that we were trying to play together as an ensemble. But we’re definitely more assertive as a bunch.”

David Kim, the concertmaster of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, serves as the All-Star’s concertmaster. He recalls it was easy to say yes, noting there are similar groups bringing together top musicians in Japan. “People love doing this,” he says. “It’s exciting, it’s vital, and it feels like we’re a part of something important because of all the curriculum that’s attached to it.” He paints it as a treat for players. In looking ahead at season three, he notes many works are ones professionals can “play in our sleep.” He adds that Schwarz, a steady final arbiter of a group of many distinct voices, has a keen “sixth sense” about when to step in and when to let go.

It’s also a fun atmosphere. “I haven’t seen some people since my Juilliard days 30 years ago and all of a sudden we’re talking about our kids going to college or getting their first job after college. It’s really meaningful,” he relates. A few seasons in, initial uncertainty about the logistics has faded. “We’ve really settled into a new rhythm and everybody feels much more comfortable with the setup,” Kim says. Still, it’s grueling even for seasoned professionals. “It’s really quite a challenge to maintain that incredible, high level of concentration and focus for the whole time, regardless of repertoire,” Kim admits, adding that he prioritizes healthy eating and quick naps.

Season three has a geographical theme, which arose from Schwarz’ continued quest to feature every composer. Thus there’s an episode on “Russian Treasures,” featuring excerpts from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, arranged by Ravel. Moving west, there’s a spotlight on British composers, featuring Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 occupies another episode on Nordic Romanticism. The finale spotlights American composers. It features Alan Hovhaness’ Symphony No. 2, Op. 132, “Mysterious Mountain”—a dreamy work that seems to conjure the composer’s home view of Seattle’s Mount Rainier.

It also features the 1944 work Jubilee Variations by Sir Eugene Goossens—which held challenges and intrigue. Ten American composers contributed minutes of music based on Goossens’ theme. Before now, the most easily accessible recording was a scratchy rendition on YouTube. Schwarz recalls worries from the All-Stars, remembering one violist said she had stayed up the entire night before, practicing the unfamiliar repertoire. “It wasn’t a crisp new manuscript,” Kim says, adding that it was yellowed and tricky to read. But “it doesn’t matter how difficult it is—everybody is cool under pressure.” The All-Stars’ performance is a world-premiere television recording.

Despite the fast-paced nature of filming, Schwarz’ self-described perfectionist nature remained. “You have a certain trust in me and a trust in yourself and a trust in each other and a trust in engineering and in the cameramen,” he says. “They know I won’t let anything out that’s not basically perfect.”

Others have noticed. The overall series earned four Emmy awards. However, Schwarz thinks the project still has room to grow—a live concert, or a broadcast with a visual element, perhaps. He recalls an inspiring yet challenging concert back in Seattle, where glass artist Dale Chihuly contributed dazzling structures for a production of Béla Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle.”

Schwarz’ main goal is still education. He recalls visiting public-school students in Tenafly, New Jersey, where he showed an episode on Beethoven to a large group of fifth graders. Their reaction gave him hope: “Someone said afterward that they’d never seen a large group of a hundred fifth graders be so quiet.” He hopes the project converts neophytes of all ages into people who are aware, if not transformed.

“How many people in our country feel like classical music is important? Five percent? Four percent? Think about if we could influence another percent,” Schwarz muses. The twinkle in his eye that’s been glimmering throughout our interview intensifies. “If you believe in music and if you believe in music education, it should be in everyone’s lives. Or, at least the attempt should be in everyone’s.” 

Strings Sessions Presents: Anne Akiko Meyers

Strings Sessions Presents: Anne Akiko Meyers – Strings Magazine

Tucked away in a rehearsal room at the San Francisco Conservatory, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers took time out of her schedule to perform a few audience-favorites for our latest Strings Session. Watch Meyers, accompanied by pianist Jeff LaDeur, perform Ennio Morricone’s “Love Theme” from Cinema Paradiso; Arvo Pärt’s “Spiegel im Spiegel,” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” (arr. for violin and piano by Claus Ogerman).

BBC Music Magazine: Behind the Baton

BBC Music Magazine
By Julian Haylock

Gerard Schwarz's memoir, Behind the Baton: An American Icon Talks Music, "refreshingly exchanges ephemera for an information-packed, sweeping narrative, full of optimism and affection, that reveals a man whose passionate dedication to music is evident on every page...

As an uplifting retrospective of a highly successful career populated by some of the biggest names of the last half-century, and as a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at the near-impossible balancing act that is the lot of a music director, it makes for fascinating reading."

For the full review, purchase the July issue of the BBC Music Magazine here.

Opera Wire: A Passionate Duo at Prague Summer Nights

Opera Wire
By Francisco Salazar

Sherrill Milnes & Maria Zouves

What do you do after you’ve taught, formed a young artist program and had a legendary career as a singer and conductor?

The answer? Direct opera.

That is exactly what famed baritone Sherrill Milnes has embarked on alongside his wife, Maria Zouves. In collaboration with the Prague Summer Nights, presented by Classical Movements, the duo has already directed two Mozart masterpieces with the festival and have garnered rave reviews.

Passing On Tradition

When the Prague Summer Nights Festival was started Artistic Director John Nardolillo contacted Milnes and Zouves with the idea of bringing them to the program and having them work as directors. It was the opportunity to not only bring their knowledge to young artists but it was also a new opportunity for Milnes.

“I’m post-career and the idea of passing on to younger singers ideas is important,” Milnes noted in a recent interview with OperaWire.

Part of those ideas is passing down musical history. “I go back to the Bernstein, Solti, Giuliani and Karajan and all these giants. And I sang under Fritz Reiner, who was a great maestro in the old style. He was scary. I often categorize the old conductors as ‘Fear conductors’ and now from James Levine to now, I call the ‘Love conductors,'” Milnes joked.

The baritone recalled working with Reiner noting that he was part of the generation where conductors were more like enemies and often times scary to work with. However, that trend changed while he was singing. “When you look at Jim Levine or Jim Conlon, you feel like, ‘Let’s do this together.’ Psychologically you feel like you can give more. I don’t know if you actually do, But you feel like you give more when you see a face that is bright and wanting you to succeed,” he noted.

For Milnes, it is crucial that younger generations understand this newer conducting philosophy and its impact on music,  as well as the tradition and style of the old masters.

But it also goes beyond passing down history. While Milnes sang he learned a lot about languages and realized that the English language could be an obstacle when singing in Italian or French. And that is something Milnes is constantly looking to improve.

“In America, we tend to be mathematically correct, tah-tah eighth notes, 3/4 bar or whatever it is. But every language has its own contours. For example in Italian, you don’t say ‘Am-mo-re’ accenting the ‘Re’ but you say ‘amore’ smoothly. It’s mathematically precise but with a flow.

“You have to be correct, but beyond correct, there is a whole musical level. There has to be intention and meaning. Correct doesn’t make good music,” Milnes noted.

The Dynamic Directing Duo

The second opportunity that the program allowed was for Milnes and his wife Maria Zouves to collaborate as directors. Milnes would make his directorial debut, expanding his artistic horizons and also furthering his artistic relationship with Zouves.

“Maria is the stage director,” Milnes revealed. “She has the ideas. If I have a bunch of people on stage, I don’t know what to with them. She is very imaginative. She really does the staging. However, if you show me a staging, I can make it better.”

And Zouves agrees that Milnes always goes back to his experience and it is really helpful.  “He is the eyeballs. I look at him and he goes, ‘This isn’t working.’ And then he says, ‘When I did it with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle or Tito Capobianco, we did it that way.’ So the partnership works.”

Milnes has another forte while they are directing together. “I know how to cheat on stage. Audiences can judge left and right but they can not judge depth at all. Well, you never walk straight stage across for many reasons and that is important.”

As for how they approach the directing, Zouves is extremely diligent with going back to the original text as is Milnes who is always looking for meaning and intention. So before going into blocking or stage direction, they both sit down with their cast members and do what Zouves calls a “Script reading.”

But there is a twist. Zouves describes it as a Babel reading because everyone reads it in their first language. So in one reading, there could be Korean, Spanish and German.

“It’s always about reacting. In opera, we’re in a different language and we generally only speak English and you have to sing most of the time for a language which is not their language. That is tough and we’re supposed to be as good as the native speaker,” Zouves noted.

The result is that singers react more naturally in their own language, allowing them to discover the character and, as Milnes notes, “the intention becomes real.”

Zouves recalls one of the first readings she did with this technique and notes that it really created the drama. “We had a ‘Don Giovanni’ in Korean and the Leporello repeated it back in what he heard of the Korean. And he just repeated it that way as an impulse. We saw the humor in the scene and those are the responses you get when you use that gut level translation.”

She finds that this technique eventually leads to great listening when the young singers are finally on stage getting ready to perform.

The Advantages of Prague

Beyond their artistic rewards and the teaching experience they both bring to young singers, Milnes and Zouves feel a great reward seeing them grow.

The duo noted that some of the singers enter the program without having ever performed an opera and seeing them develop into their characters and learning the process is incredibly important.

“One of the Figaros this year had never been in an opera scene before. He had no operatic experience whatsoever. He came here and he had no idea what to do. Everything was new. But he got through the title character and he did a wonderful job and he feels really good now and excited. It is a huge deal. There are other singers who are a little more seasoned so it’s a little more mileage. For others, it’s a huge arch,” Zuoves revealed.

And the other important aspect is learning from each other and their environment.

“They are also able to experience a foreign language,” Milnes noted. “They are also working with international students and they are learning from each other. We have Korea, Poland, America, France, Canada, Germany, China and much more represented here. It’s the United Nations and that is very good for all.”

Milnes and Zouves also feel that working in Prague opens the possibilities for general growth.

“These types of programs where they go to another country, they also absorb what our art form has intrinsically in it, which is the international scope and they are learning how to manage their way through this. For some of them, it is the first time out of the U.S and out of their home. So they are learning how to experience foreign currency and culture and sometimes it’s not as comfortable. But they are also learning about audiences. Here in Prague, they love music. It’s part of the culture.  To have that type of audience, that’s important for a singer. When the work is done they want to have someone to perform for,” noted Zouves.

And the other aspect that makes Prague so enriching is the history. This year, for example, when the Estates Theater was closed, the festival found a venue where Mozart and Hayden gave recitals. That made the experience even more exciting for them.

“We all throw around Mozart but he was here. In fact, I was the first American to sing ‘Don Giovanni’ in the theater where it was premiered. And there is a plaque. They have redone it several times but Mozart walked there and that is awesome.”

A Changing Landscape

With the Prague Summer Festival having ended Zouves and Milnes will go back to their development program in Savannah and continue to enrich and develop new singers. And most of the young singers at Prague will not be going back with them. Some will go back to auditions while others will be back to college having learned and garnered an international performance on their resume. But some of them will face new obstacles.

In the operatic landscape, singers today are crashing and burning quickly with many promising voices faltering after a few years. And that is something that Milnes and Zouves have tried to avoid as they develop singers.

“Part of the problem is today’s culture. Today everything is instant and it’s all an app. You can’t download an app in opera. It’s a slow process and today’s instant life gets in the way of that slow process,” said Zouves.

Milnes goes back to his 42-year career and has two words of advice for young singers, “Common Sense.”

“You have to have enough rest. Sleep and the voice are very friendly. When I didn’t have to get up at 7 a.m. to do a 10 a.m. audition I was better. That means the day of a performance you better be careful. There wasn’t really a conscientious effort but it was all about being smart. One of the worst things in performing is going to a noisy nightclub after singing because you have already used your voice and then the music is so loud you have to yell. Then you really beat up the throat,” Milnes joked.

But Zouves also thinks it was due to her husband’s discipline and learning to say no when he felt uncomfortable.

“He was very disciplined. He was very good at performing and it had to do with his musicianship. There are singers who were great artistically which he was but there are also good musicians. Singers that are just singers who make beautiful sounds. When those beautiful sounds no longer work there is nothing else to do. Sherrill is a wonderful conductor and teacher and great masterclass giver. He could, as a result, take projects not just with opera. He did a lot of concerts, recitals and oratorio work. His roles diminished in terms of what he could take on. But those roles like Scarpia, Germont and all of these guys stayed constant. He was doing Scarpia up to the end and Falstaff was a defacto. Sherrill was also smart and he said no to things.”

One such thing that he did not sing,despite the insistence of  Karl Böhm, was “The Flying Dutchman.”

“It wasn’t the right fach and the center of my baritone was a little higher than what Wagner requires,” Milnes recalled.

But with the operatic world changing so quickly, both Zouves and Milnes do have faith in the future. With their Voice Experience program, both are giving singers an opportunity to perform and learn their craft as well as engage with audiences.

And the other thing that Zouves is excited about are the new initiatives and the new opera companies coming up.

“I see a lot of singers starting their own companies to start their opportunities and I think that is great. Organizations like Opera America give them more resources and that is a different idea. You have to create and that has changed.”

“It’s about the longevity of the art form. Opera is not dead because it is ingrained in our history and culture.”

Daily Mail: Serenade! Choral Festival finds the universal in choirs

Neeta Helms, president and founder of Classical Movements, poses with the Madras Youth Choir from Chennai, India, ahead of the Serenade! choral festival in Washington

Daily Mail (via Agence France Presse)

The human voice is the most basic of all musical instruments. But when singers come together as choirs, quality standards vary widely around the world.

A festival in Washington is bringing together top-tier choirs from a dozen countries in a bid to show music's universality -- how the joy of singing together transcends cultures.

But the festival is also part of an effort to boost training for choral music, which can be rudimentary in many countries.

The Serenade! Washington DC Choral Festival is the brainchild of Neeta Helms, president of Classical Movements, a company that runs international tours for major music ensembles.

Helms, who launched the festival in 2011, said she had been struck by an explosion of global interest in choral music -- largely outside the Western canon.

"I'm not on a mission to change the world through choral singing -- although I think that sometimes we end up doing that. I've seen a need and I've seen I can help," she said.

"Everybody has a voice -- well, almost everybody -- and almost every culture has this huge tradition of songs and sounds and rhythms and folk tunes," she said.

The latest Serenade festival, which runs eight days through July 4, is part of celebrations for the centennial of the birth of slain US president John F. Kennedy.

With free concerts at the Kennedy Center and other sites across the Washington area, the festival features choirs from countries with strong connections to Kennedy or the Peace Corps, the international volunteer program his administration created.

Performers include Mongolian folk group Egschiglen; the Madras Youth Choir, formed by celebrated South Indian film composer M.B. Sreenivasan, and Spain's L'Escolania de Montserrat, considered the world's oldest boys choir -- which has ties to cellist Pablo Casals, who was famously invited to the Kennedy White House.

Choirs also come from Kenya, Zimbabwe, China, Northern Ireland, Panama, Bulgaria and Latvia -- which Kennedy visited while a Harvard student.

- Refining oral traditions -

Helms, who was born in India, said she saw a particular demand in the billion-plus country where many people without means can instantly sing along to Bollywood hits yet have nowhere to train.

Classical Movements has started a fellowship to send established choir directors to India as instructors. As part of the festival, the company also has commissioned original works from around the world.

Members of choirs especially need to master harmony -- coming together as a whole by singing different, and often fewer, lines.

"I always say that Pavarotti would have been terrible in a choir. His voice would have stuck out," she said.

Choirs at the Serenade festival vary sharply in their traditions. The Mongolians sing from their throats while the Africans often have rich vibratos and, compared with Europeans, dance and move much more when they sing.

With choral music often passed down by oral tradition, it can carry more freedom than, say, Western orchestral music, which emphasizes precision.

But Helms said it was also critical to transcribe choral music.

"That's how things spread. That's how literature has spread -- the printing press was created," she said.

"Someone has to take all those folk tunes that are in people's heads, or some records of them, and put them down on paper so that people can figure them out."

But whatever the course of education, Helms said she was impressed by seeing choirs bond -- uniting in music without regard to race, gender, religion or other barriers.

"We are firm believers that in this small way we are changing the world bit by bit," she said with a laugh, "no matter who is in power in that country or our country."

WQXR: The Cliburn Winners' First Public Appearance

WQXR

Less than a week after the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, the gold, silver and bronze medalistscome to The Greene Space at WQXR for their first public appearance as winners. WQXR’s Elliott Forrest hosts this special sold-out evening of music and conversation.

The Winners:

Yekwon Sunwoo (Gold)
Kenneth Broberg (silver)
Daniel Hsu (Bronze)

Every four years, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition convenes the most promising rising star pianists from around the world for 17 days of intense competition. Established in 1962, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is widely recognized as “one of the world’s highest-visibility classical music contests.” Winners are chosen by an esteemed panel of judges and awarded significant cash prizes, as well as three years of comprehensive career management and concert tours. Previous laureates include Radu Lupu, Olga Kern, Joyce Yang, Haochen Zhang and Vadym Kholodenko.

Cliburn Gold 2017 will be available on Decca Gold digitally on June 23; physically on August 18. Cliburn Silver 2017 and Cliburn Bronze 2017 albums are digital-only, also out on August 18.

NYC Arts: Pianist Haochen Zhang Profile

NYC Arts

Originally from Shanghai, 27-year-old Haochen Zhang has already established an international career. He first rose to prominence in 2009 as the youngest ever gold medal winner at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. A graduate of the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia, Zhang is widely respected for his virtuosity and musicality.

Watch the profile video here.