What creates genuine excitement?

Over recent months I have been struggling to determine why certain performances create buzz. I was very excited about the Georgia Symphony Orchestra's performance this past weekend and I am starting to understand why. First and foremost, I feel our motives were pure. Everyone there seemed to be committed to the joy of bringing two great works of art to life and sharing our vision of these works with an audience. No trophies were awarded, nobody won, the performance was not even reviewed, and all we are left with is the memory of the performance. Although the performance was not perfect by any means, we were willing to share how we felt about the music, we took musical risks, and everyone seemed to be doing everything they could to reproduce the composer's intent.

Second, we shared our experience with two guest artists. In this case, Martina Filjak and Jesse Blumberg brought their artistry to us and inspired all of us to be better. It is important for any organization to constantly bring in people to challenge and encourage the status quo to be raised.

Third, we chose repertoire that was engaging and connected to modern issues. While it seemed from the audience reaction that people liked it, I am sure there were some that did not. Whether they liked it or not, I am quite sure they talked about it. We engaged them in a dialogue about Belshazzar's Feast and the issues that it raised in today's world and we compared it to another stormy piece from a much different time in the Piano Concerto #1 by Brahms. Although strikingly different pieces, we even found connections between them and searched for answers to how both composers in their late 20's could write such amazing music.

Finally, we involved our community. We reached out and invited people in. It was amazing to see the diversity of people in the audience and how we all shared a few hours together. In a troubled world, that matters. It may not directly solve our problems, but it certainly puts positive energy into the community, brings diverse groups together, and creates dialogue. Where else does that happen?

While the Georgia Symphony struggles to get through these difficult financial times, I believe these are the ideals that we should stick to. We should have faith that the community will recognize the importance of an organization that provides musical opportunities for close to 1,000 musicians (young and old) and performs for thousands more each year. Our community leaders and business community will deem that we are worthy of the support necessary to continue to give back in these challenging times. While we continue to spread our message, I will hold the memory of the experience I had the opportunity to share with the musicians and audience on March 10 very dear.

Silence

There is a beauty to silence. It can create tension or allow one to relax. It plays a vital role in music. I invite you to go here or here.

Great music causes you to think. It causes you to consider or reconsider how you view the world. It can also entertain, but with a broad view of that word. In other words, not all music makes us smile. All emotions are stronger when felt in comparison to the opposite feeling including the smile.

I am proud to be part of an arts organization that understands this. Come to the GSO concerts on November 12-13 and you will experience what I am talking about. We believe in our art, are willing to take risks, and want our audience to be an active part of what we do. If you are not exhausted from reading everything here, try one last article. It is my dream that we lead the way in redefining what it means to go to a "classical" concert. Baby steps, but we will take one this weekend.

A Salute to Bryan Black

It is rare that you can have an idea or vision and then have someone else realize it better than you could have ever imagined yourself. When I first got to the GSO (then Cobb Symphony), I thought it would be amazing to have our own symphony chorus that could grow along with the rest of the organization. After collaborating once with Bryan Black, I knew he was the person to attempt this for us. We said, "Go build a chorus!" and Bryan did the rest.

What makes him special? He is fiercely devoted to being an artist, humanitarian, collaborator, and has a genuine love for music and how the human voice can produce it. To watch him work with the GSO Chorus and Chamber Chorus is a joy and the results always reflect his musicianship and spirit. Bryan never asks for anything, he simply gives and makes everyone around him better for it. Now in its fifth year, I could never have imagined that we would have a chorus program of this size and depth of quality. Yet, it seems the last person who ever asks for any credit for it is the person who has built it!

On top of all of this, Bryan is an extremely creative programmer. The concert that the chorus will give on Saturday, October 22 will show this off. In a collaboration with GSO brass and percussion players, the chorus will present "Together in Song" at Marietta First United Methodist Church and will include Samuel Barber's powerful A Stopwatch and an Ordinance Map. I look forward to seeing you there on Saturday. I promise you will feel the warmth of Bryan's spirit through the performance of the musicians.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

We are off and running in the 2011-2012 Season! Our second GSO Masterworks program features a symphony by Philip Glass inspired by the work of David Bowie and Brian Eno. I love all of the strange connections this piece makes. First, it is a traditional symphony playing the tunes from a pop icon. Second, it gives us a rare opportunity to hear the music of Philip Glass played live in our area. Third, it takes us out of our musical “comfort zone”! Listening to Philip Glass is beautiful, but not in the same way that you would consider a composer like Mozart beautiful. Mozart (and most pre-20th Century music) progresses. It gets somewhere and often quickly. It is like watching a complex movie full of amazing details. The more you watch it, the more you appreciate it and grasp it at a deeper and deeper level. Glass is quite the opposite. Its beauty comes in allowing you to relax and almost not have to concentrate on the details. This is the kind of music in my opinion that you should just close your eyes and let wash over you. The aesthetic comes from calling attention to each detail and giving you time to process it. Your mind may wander, but notice how quickly you snap back to attention when a shift happens in the music. This music is the perfect foil to our hectic 21st Century lives where information comes at us at the speed of light. We follow this with the Dvorak Te Deum, a piece that could not be more different in its approach! Its power comes in its confidence, faith, and willingness to embrace Romantic excess. You are about to hear a version of musical schizophrenia in the first and second halves of our concert. It shows how diverse music can be and how it can move us in an infinite number of ways. You just have to be willing to have a mind open enough to allow it!

What do you hear?

I work with great people. One of them is Grant Harville, Creative Director and Associate Conductor of the Georgia Symphony. He was recently explaining to someone how we hear music and why we need it and I asked if I could paraphrase what he wrote here: "Composers write music that makes sense to them. The music obeys their ideas of logic and cause and effect. The music shows the composer's consciousness in action, and consciousness is a human being making sense of the world around them. Thus a musical composition is a philosophical treatise - an explanation of the way the world works - even if the composer doesn't realize it. So every time we understand (in the sense of "be moved by", not "write a music theory paper about") a musical work, we sharpen our understanding of the universe. This not only helps us understand ourselves and our world (which is benefit enough) but also requires incredible mental faculties. That music "feels good" to listen to gilds the philosophic pill. If being a musician for ten years really does lower the incidence of dementia, it's because music is a supreme fitness regimen for the brain and every bit as important as fitness for all our other body parts. Which means that programs such as ours that allow people to be musicians for many years are every bit as important as programs that support other kinds of health."

I think this applies to all of the arts and why we root for all arts groups to get through these difficult times. The arts help us understand our world, increase our quality of life, and make the world a "healthier" place. If you come to hear the GSO perform Brahms' First Symphony this weekend, you will have a window into a work that describes struggle and elation, emotion using classic form and structure, and brilliant compositional technique with overt romanticism. Where else can you find that combination? Here is the coolest thing. You might hear something completely different and yet we can both agree that it is a great piece. I hope to see you after the concert so we talk about it!

Ageless

I am an unabashed, huge fan of The Who. Last night I saw Roger Daltrey, their legendary lead singer, (age 67) in concert. You can insert your own joke here, but there is no way you would guess that he is 67 if you were at that concert. Incredible energy. As I was driving home, I thought about several things. Even though Daltrey has performed those songs thousands of times, it felt fresh. It was clear that he loves the music he performs. He was taking musical risks, digging to find the full meaning of the music, re-thinking how tunes that have been around for 50 years can be heard, was unafraid to do some new charts, and was sincere in his attempt to communicate how he felt to the audience. While we may play in a different style and setting, these are the same ideals that I think we should hold when we perform with an orchestra. It is my hope that people who come to a GSO performance feel the same way I felt last night. It caused me to think, to reflect, to be inspired, and to feel energized about what I do and how as artists we contribute to the world. I am reminded of what Alban Berg, renowned avant guarde composer, said to George Gershwin after they met in Paris and played their incredibly different pieces for each other: "Mr. Gershwin, music is music." I hope to explore in later blogs how art and entertainment intersect, collide, and differ, but for one night at least it was the last thing on my mind. Even in difficult times, we are lucky as musicians to get to do what we love. The key is communicating that to our audience.

Connections

Our first program on October 1 and 2 contains three pieces that have meaningful connections to the Georgia Symphony Orchestra. We begin with Peachtree Street by Jennifer Higdon, one of my favorite contemporary composers. Her voice is unique, full of energy, and I like the fact that she wrote this piece for Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. We are so fortunate to have neighbors like the ASO that continually push our artform forward. It is our goal as the new GSO to work with other arts groups to collaborate and advance the arts in our community. This piece features the orchestra in furious tutti passages and is like a mini concerto for orchestra as each large section gets a moment to shine. It features our musicians, who make us what we are as an organization. Plus, what better way to start the GSO than with a piece with Peachtree in the title! Next, we move to the Barber Violin Concerto with Helen Kim as the violin soloist. If there is a more beautiful first two movements of a concerto, I don't know what they are. Contrast this with the furious perpetual motion of the third movement and you have a concerto that requires a rare soloist. We have that in Helen Kim, whose intensity of sound and dazzling technique always inspire me. She is true to her art and contributes so much to the community through her work at Kennesaw State University and her performances with Sonic Generator and numerous other arts groups in the area. I could not think of a more perfect concerto or soloist to begin our list of guest artists as the GSO. We conclude with bliss. It took Brahms 44 years to write his First Symphony and there is something about that struggle that endears him to me and is a neat metaphor for the the GSO. We are an arts group that has been around for 60 years and through hard work, determination, and belief in our mission continues to evolve. Like Brahms, we pay tribute to those that have gotten us this far and embrace an uncertain, but exciting future ahead. Just as Brahms combined rich romanticism with the ideals of the classical giants before him, we attempt to be innovators in bringing great art to our community in a new age. I like the idea that I am blogging about a piece that is almost 135 years old, yet still seems innovative and can move our spirits in 2011!