It’s been awhile since our last post – we’ve been busy. What have we been doing? Well, for starters we’re on the hunt for a new executive director! Additionally – a communication manager. Our dearly beloved Beth Holmgren moved to Boston and we miss her dearly.
Also of note: Project 440! Next week on Thursday, we’ll be announcing the semi-finalist – the 12 before we get down to the final four. And right before the announcement – Q2 will be featuring all 30 composers who’ve made it thus far in a marathon www broadcast. And it will be a social media convergence of sorts! Facebook us, tweet with us! @orpheusnyc & @Q2music.
We’ve posted this article before – but thought it might be interesting in tandem with our announcement of our domestic tours for the 2010-2011 Season! Visit http://www.orpheusnyc.org/tour.html to see if we’ll be in your neck of the woods this coming season!
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Orpheus on Tour
By Aaron Grad
On January 30, a blizzard descended on Richmond, Virginia. While most of the region hunkered down for the once-in-a-generation storm, some 30 musicians and staff piled onto a charter bus at 4:00 AM to drive 150 miles south to Durham, North Carolina. At eight o’clock that night, Orpheus assembled backstage at Duke University’s Page Auditorium, primed to begin another performance. After hundreds of out-of-town concerts, the seasoned veterans took the travel adventure in stride; when the stage doors opened, they marched on with the same focus and determination they bring to each concert.
That snowy journey began years earlier, when Orpheus offered its presenters touring dates in advance of the February 6, 2010 concert at Carnegie Hall. Orpheus takes almost every program on tour, whether it is a day trip to Pennsylvania or a multi-week trek through Europe or Asia. Once the concerts are in place, the orchestra counts on the Operations team of Ryun Schienbein (Director of Operations) and Aaron Dalton (Production Manager and Librarian) to arrange the budgets, flights, hotels, buses, instrument rentals, music purchases, catering, rehearsal spaces, and countless other details. Above all, Dalton explained, “I try to predict what people will need. If I’m getting yelled at, it’s something I didn’t predict.”
The musicians receive practice parts and scores about six weeks in advance, and rehearse for a few days in New York. Most tours then begin at the airport, where the group assembles to check in, get their instruments through security, and rush to pre-board so they can claim the cabin’s overhead bins (cellos travel in their own seats, and only double basses fly as cargo). On the other end, a charter bus takes the group to a hotel, where they might warm up for a few hours before the self-imposed quiet hour. Then they load back onto the bus and drive to the concert hall.
The process of adjusting to the sounds and sightlines in each venue is crucial to Orpheus’ chamber-music style of playing. Besides warming up together and revisiting the decisions made in earlier rehearsals, they test the acoustic of the hall, and take turns listening from the audience and commenting. With subtle adjustments in dynamics and articulation, they tailor the performance for the particular space, in the process honing the group’s artistic interpretation. After a quick dinner backstage, the musicians begin their final concert preparations. Unlike most orchestras, they tune in the wings, led by the first piece’s principal oboist who circulates backstage intoning the official A. After the production staff makes a quick headcount to ensure everyone is in place, the doors open and Orpheus floods the stage.
All that pre-performance time spent in airports, buses and green rooms deepens the longstanding friendships among Orpheus, and also allows the particular roster of players for each tour to get more familiar, including the soloists, who usually travel with the group. Conversations might rarely touch on music—sports and food are perennial topics—but the social bonds pay off during the sometimes rushed and tense process of preparing an orchestra concert in a new city each night. As percussionist Maya Gunji quipped, “It’s like how in a war, if you look into your enemies’ eyes, it’s a lot harder to shoot them.” The “war story” Gunji remembers best was the start of a European tour when it took more than 24 hours just to get out of Kennedy Airport, resulting in a mad dash in Madrid to make a connecting flight to the Canary Islands, and just enough time for a quick meal and sound check before playing the first concert. She remembers that they still performed at top caliber; on an Orpheus tour, “No matter how crappy we feel, or how hard the travel day has been, we are committed to putting on a great show.”
Orpheus’ musical approach relies on group cooperation and flexibility, qualities they have practiced during decades of touring. When they come home to Carnegie Hall, their musical discourse resonates with the shared travails and laughs from their time on the road. And even as the musicians disperse back to their homes, other cities around the world are already preparing for the next Orpheus adventure.
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Name that track! It’s tres French…
Live from Carnegie Hall – April 1, 2008. The entire broadcast can be accessed here…
To all of you who have contributed your comments and questions about Project 440 thus far, thanks! It’s great to see so many thoughtful and wide-ranging opinions. In response to one question—whether Project 440 is a variation on “American Idol” or reality TV at large—we’d like to offer a note of clarification.
It is certainly not Orpheus’ intent to create classical music’s response to “American Idol.” We are not asking for votes or counting comments. There will be no “save” for the candidate with the most positive adjectives. Actually, the four commissioned composers will be determined by a Selection Committee of Orpheus musicians, executive staff, and previously commissioned composers.
So why are we asking to hear from you? Why not decide on these commissions behind closed doors, as usual? First, we want to showcase more composers—it’s just more interesting to learn about sixty people and their music than four. Second, we want to open up the process and find out what you think—about these composers, contemporary music at large, accessibility, originality, etc. It’s you, after all, who will be listening to the outcome. What you say here will be brought to the Selection Committee as the process continues. And yes, contrary to what happens on reality TV these days, we might end up making an unpopular decision. So by all means, continue the commentary; just don’t expect a vote!
We certainly didn’t conceive of Project 440 as a popularity contest in the manner of American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and what not. What we are aiming to do is to make an informed decision in selecting the composers that we commission, taking your opinions into account along the way. And yes, contrary to what happens on reality television these days, we might end up making an “unpopular” decision for art’s sake.
But in the mean time – please do check out www.orpheusproject440.org and select a few composers to listen to. We’re hoping that you’ll be inspired by what you hear and that you’ll let us know what you think.
Check out this video profile of Augusta Read Thomas done by New Music Box: The Web Magazine from the American Music Center.
Gusty, as she is fondly referred to by friends, is one of the most prolific composers of our times – and we are please to briefly mention that we have partnered with her in celebrating the centennial anniversary of Mahler’s death in 2011. We’re planning something BIG!
The title is “White Fire of the Stars, Songs of Eternity”
