EW’S GUIDE TO THE OREGON BACH FESTIVAL 2008
Breathing Under Music
NEW OBF EXEC JOHN EVANS SPEAKS
J
ohn Evans brought a wall of CDs.
Or maybe it’s an entire house.
But the 3,500 albums he shipped
from London to Eugene represent a mere
fraction of the music he amassed over the
21 years he spent at the British Broadcasting
Corporation, the last six as head of music
for the BBC’s Radio 3. Who better to fi ll the
large shoes of OBF’s generous, hardworking,
passionate and visionary founding director,
Royce Saltzman? Let Evans tell you why he
might be “just the man.”
What did you know about Eugene before
you got here?
Well, on business, I had been to L.A.
and San Francisco, but that was the only
part of the West Coast I had ever visited. So
I had to look at my map to fi nd Eugene! I
thought, “That’s where they fi lmed Animal
House.”
By Suzi Steff en
Henry Fogel, president and CEO of the
League of American Orchestras, told me
he threw your name in the OBF ring.
I started doing projects in America in
the 1980s, and I always said I would love
to work in the States. I’d have jumped ship
from the BBC like that if the opportunity
arose, but then I was offered the job as the
head of music. So when I left the BBC [in
the spring of 2006], I thought I might get the
chance to do some consultancy work. I met
with Leonard Slatkin [music director of the
National Symphony Orchestra in Washington,
D.C.] and Peter Gelb [general manager of the
Metropolitan Opera]; I met with headhunters
in New York and Washington.
But while I was there, an old protegé
of mine said, “You need to meet Henry
Fogel.” Oddly, I’d never met him though
we did fi gure out we once sat near each
other at the same concert. We went to lunch,
and we talked broadcasting and music.
We had a wonderful talk, but I went home
thinking I would get a job offer possibly
from the headhunters. Then Fogel was
visiting Eugene, and someone on the search
committee asked him for recommendations
[for someone to replace Royce Saltzman as
executive director], and he said, “I know
just the man.”
So what on earth induced you to move
from London to Eugene?
This is a festival started 39 years ago by
two men with vision, with music education
at its heart from the outset and with one
composer at its heart. When I was in my fi rst
job out of university, it was the same, at the
Britten-Pears [Foundation and School for
Advanced Musical Studies] — founded by
two men with a vision, Benjamin Britten and
Peter Pears, with a school and master classes.
Like [the Britten-Pears Foundation],
this festival works at the highest level and
is truly an international organization with
www.eugeneweekly.com
education at its heart. It’s borne of the
vision of two remarkable men who want to
sustain its success.
This is also closer to the music. [Artistic
Director] Helmuth Rilling has his vision,
the main concerts and the Discovery Series,
but other parts need to be coordinated, for
instance, the chamber music. Out of 55
events, Helmuth is directly responsible for
12 to 15 of them, and then it comes down
to the executive director and others to
make it work.
What was it like to watch the festival in 2007?
I got here on the 16th of June last year,
the week before things got feverish. I went
to every concert and event; I was in and out
of rehearsals, production meetings and staff
meetings. It was somewhat surreal because
I’d been in the middle of the music business
half my life, so for once I was getting to
observe others running around like headless
chickens. It was useful to see.
How are you getting along with Rilling?
One of the great things is that we have
a good working relationship. It wouldn’t
work otherwise. We have mutual respect;
we talk about music on the same level. We
don’t agree about absolutely everything,
but when we talk about repertoire,
interpretation or artists, we both know
what we’re talking about.
What has surprised you or been challenging?
Interesting. If I’d moved from the BBC
to run the New York Philharmonic, for
instance, it would be a different kettle of
fi sh. That’s entirely independent, but the
festival is under a state structure as is the
BBC, which has a royal charter issued by the
government. So some of the “state issues” are
not so far removed in terms of compliance,
management and regulations one has to
live by. This university is extremely well-
managed, and the culture comes down from
Dave [Frohnmayer]. They want us to run
effi ciently and effectively.
What does that mean for the Bach Festival?
It means running on budget. The festival
has been underfunded, and the UO would
give us a cushion of a sort or bail it out on
the back end. But the bottom line has to
be right.
Is going to Portland part of a quest for
donors?
I came to run the Oregon Bach Fest-
ival, not the Eugene Bach Festival. For
some reason, the festival has gotten too
comfortably established in Eugene. I think
it’s really international but should at least
have presence throughout the state, and
I think it’s vitally important to create a
presence in Portland, a vibrant, great city
with a creative buzz and a lot of good
thought going into development. Portland
people need to know about the OBF and
feel ownership over it.
What are you excited about this year?
The opening of the B Minor Mass in
Portland, the fi rst time the festival has been
in Portland in 26 years. When Helmuth
Rilling raises his baton, I will get a thrill up
the back of my neck. And Garrison Keillor
strutting his stuff on stage and doing
special stuff for the OBF that’s unique to
us. The Bowerman gala, because a festival
like this has only been sustainable because
of the generosity of supporters. Bill and
Barbara put a lot of money into this and
brought a lot of supporters and colleagues
to support us. And the Shanghai Quartet,
whose residency was my idea.
What would you tell people who are
wondering about how to experience their
fi rst orchestral concert, what to wear, etc.?
I think it’s an interactive experience.
Listening to a live concert, my experience
is I feel physically engaged. It affects
breathing and pulse rate, and when you
experience how exciting it is, it’s almost
impossible to describe. I don’t care what
they wear as long as they come. What I
want them to experience is live music. It’s
hard to sit still when you’re engaged in the
music so much — if you could visit my
body during a concert, you’d know I need
to remember to breathe.
OBF’08 | 5