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Greeley orchestra kicks off season with auditions - Greeley Orchestra Kicks Off Season With Auditions |
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Written by Dan England, for NEXTnc
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Wednesday, 13 September 2006 |
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The three finalists for the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra’s musical director job, Glen Cortese of New York, Robin Fountain of Nashville and Russell Guyver of Greeley, will conduct a fall concert from September through November.
This is the first time in 37 years the orchestra is seeking a new director and conductor. Howard Skinner will retire at the end of the season.
The three finalists were chosen from a search that included more than 200 applicants.
A special “meet-the-conductor” reception follows each concert at the Union Colony Civic Center.
More information regarding the Greeley Philharmonic is available at www.GreeleyPhilharmonic.com.
The search committee is looking for a conductor who is talented and works well with people but who will also please the musicians and their audience.
“We want to make sure our musicians stay with us,” said Jennifer Bick, chairwoman of the search committee. “They want to be stretched and challenged, and that’s what we want as a audience, as well.”
The philharmonic hopes to make a decision by January. The search committee will present its recommendation, based on the audition, interviews as well as comments from an audience survey after each concert, to the philharmonic board, which will make the final choice.
The auditions will be a part, but only a part, of the upcoming season, which kicks off Sept. 16. The season will feature six classical music concerts, the popular Poinsettia Pops concert, a family concert and the celebration of Howard Skinner at the last performance in May.
The Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra season will feature a new face for its first three concerts.
Now it’s up to the board, and the audience, to determine which face will be in front of them permanently starting next year.
Howard Skinner, the philharmonic’s conductor for 37 years, is retiring, so the orchestra will be auditioning three candidates as a part of its regular season, which kicks off Sept. 16. The conductors have picked the music and will rehearse the orchestra and present the concert during their auditions. They also will give a talk before the program and will be available afterward after for introductions.
Here are the three finalists:
Glen Cortese
When Cortese was a boy, he had the dreams of many kids. He wanted to be a baseball player. When he got hit in the head with a bat at age 12, fracturing his skull and ending any chance to play baseball ever again, his dreams switched to music.
Music was the only other thing that brought him as much joy as baseball. He asked for piano lessons at age 4 — he was fascinated with the one in the house — and eventually went to college to study composition, doing conducting work on the side.
Now he’s the artistic director of the Oregon Mozart Players and is in his 18th season as music director of the New York Chamber Sinfonia. He also has been the conductor of the New York City Opera since 1998.
Cortese said he would love to work in Colorado because some of his work deals with nature, landscapes and Native American lore. A piece he premiered with the Colorado Springs orchestra was entitled “Garden of the Gods.” He said he would like to add a larger orchestra to the two smaller chamber orchestras he already conducts.
He said he believes his background as a composer gives him the knowledge he needs to present varied and exciting programs that also will attract and keep an audience, the kind of challenge facing many small orchestras.
“You really want to be able to continue to attract that kind of support, and there’s tremendous pressure to do that,” he said. “That’s one of the things I really pride myself on. I hope and believe I do it well.”
Cortese hasn’t completely given up his dreams. He’s just changed them a bit. He’s happy at least one set worked out.
“And I’m still a baseball fanatic,” he said. “I just can’t play it anymore.”
He will conduct the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra’s Sept. 16 concert, “Perils of Passion” featuring mezzo soprano, Emily Johnson. The works he selected for the program include “Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy” by Tchaikovsky, “Songs of a Wayfarer” by Mahler, “Composer’s Aria from Ariadne auf Naxos” by R. Strauss and “Firebird Suite” by Stravinsky.
Russell Guyver
Russell Guyver once hated conductors so much, he set up his own chamber orchestra without one.
He still plays viola and loves it, but he’s also moved to what he calls the dark side. And it turns out he’s pretty good at it.
As conductor and musical director for the University of Northern Colorado, the student orchestra has won the title of best orchestra in the country by “Downbeat” magazine numerous times.
Guyver, who fell in love with music at age 5, when his principal would play Beethoven before a school assembly, composes and plays as well as conducts, and said he believes his experience loathing conductors helps him do his job well.
“Frankly, I don’t feel like I’m the most important person on stage,” Guyver said.
“Conductors can be arrogant and autocratic and very unmusical, and if you’re playing in an orchestra, it should be joyful. You’ve worked so hard to get there. I hope if I bring anything to the conducting profession, it’s a love of music-making.”
Guyver believes a local conductor would be the best choice for the job because he would be available to promote its mission in the schools and other towns of Weld County.
“He should be a constant presence in the town,” he said of the musical director. “I want to rejuvenate the excitement I remember feeling when I was young. The Greeley Philharmonic has kept in the black. Now it needs to move into high gear and seek out a new audience.”
In fact, he’ll start by playing the same piece of music, Beethoven’s “Pastorale” Symphony No. 6, that pushed him to fall for music when he was 5. He said he hopes others are moved the same way.
He will conduct the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra’s Nov. 11 concert featuring oboist Lisa Brende Martin. He has selected “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Copeland, “Symphony No. 6” (Pastorale) by Beethoven, “Concerto for Oboe in C” by Vivaldi and “Variations on a Theme (Enigma)” by Elgar.
Robin Fountain
Robin Fountain found his calling in high school, when the organist for the choir needed a conductor. He was only a student.
“But I discovered to my great joy that not only did I enjoy it but others enjoyed it as well when I did it,” Fountain said.
He was in a boarding school in England, and the music teacher exhibited enough faith in Fountain’s abilities — he played piano and violin well — that it not only solved the problem of the organist being able to play instead of conduct, it sparked his career as well.
He is now in his 13th season as music director of the Williamsport Symphony in Pennsylvania and associate professor of conducting at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. His first experience never left him.
“I’ve really been invested in creating situations where every musician is totally involved and committed,” he said. “That’s the No. 1 challenge that faces orchestras all over the country. We want them to be passionate about what they do, and I appear to be quite good at creating that type of atmosphere.”
In fact, he believes that type of atmosphere already exists at the Greeley orchestra. Three times, completely out of the blue in the last year, he had people tell him what a fine orchestra it was. He wouldn’t have to do much rebuilding, just maintain the success while helping it grow.
“It’s an orchestra that is in very good artistic shape,” he said. “So I wouldn’t be starting at ground zero. It’s already ready to fly.”
He will conduct the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra’s Oct. 21 concert featuring violinist Carolyn Huebl. He selected the “Cowboys Overture” by Williams, “Chaconne” from the Red Violin by Corigliano and “Symphony No. 1” by Brahms.
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