MUSIC
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
THE WHOLE WORLD
IS WATCHING –
AND LISTENING
Eugene Symphony’s search for its next
music director plays to a national
and international audience
DINA GILBERT CONDUCTING THE
ORCHESTRA ON DEC. 3, 2016
PHOTO BY AMANDA L. SMITH
C
hoosing a new Eugene Symphony music director
is big news here, of course, but it’s also national
news. That’s because our little symphony, in a
middling-sized town far from cultural centers, has
launched the careers of three important American
conductors: Marin Alsop (the first woman to lead a major
American orchestra, in Baltimore), Miguel Harth-Bedoya
(who now leads the Fort Worth Symphony and his own
Latin American classical music ensemble and guest
conducts other major orchestras) and Giancarlo Guerrero
(winning an international reputation for showcasing new
music with his Nashville Symphony).
It’s too early to tell where Guerrero’s successor, Danail
Rachev, whose seven-year term ends this spring, will go
next.
The exhaustive process used to choose them all,
largely created by Eugene lawyer and arts supporter Roger
Saydack, has become a national model. “He literally
wrote the book” on picking a music director, says Eugene
Symphony executive director Scott Freck, noting that
Saydack wrote the League of American Orchestras’ manual
on orchestra conductor searches.
So who becomes the next artistic leader matters — not
just here, but nationally.
“There’s no more exciting time in the life of an orchestra
than when we go through this process,” Freck says. “Every
time, we start from scratch. It’s a time of introspection and
renewal.”
Every seven or so years, the search for its next director
forces the orchestra to consider what kind of organization
it wants to be, what music it wants to play and what role
it wants to assume in its community. Here’s how Eugene
Symphony makes the magic happen — and what to expect
from the three finalists if one of them is chosen when the
process concludes this spring.
INTENSIVE PROCESS
Some orchestras choose leaders in back rooms
containing a few big donors and their boards. Freck, who
took over in 2012, says he’s proud that Eugene’s is “an
open process.” After some initial planning last March, he
emailed 300 people — artist managers, other orchestras
and music conservatories among them — to let them know
that the Eugene job was opening.
Freck received 257 applications from 44 countries and
33 U.S. states.
A 12-member committee of board members, orchestra
musicians and community members then began checking
references and watching performance videos. They
trimmed the list to 70, then to 30.
The top nine candidates visited Eugene last summer to
talk to committee members, to put together a hypothetical
first season and to share ideas about the concert experience.
They also, for the first time, actually worked with the
Continued on p. 22
WHAT THE CANDIDATES SAY
Dina Gilbert
Ryan McAdams
“My main philosophy as a music director is to develop
a relationship of trust between the orchestra and the
audience … by insisting that every piece in every concert
deserves the full attention of the concertgoers and also by
communicating and engaging with the audience before
some lesser-known pieces. As music director of the Eugene
Symphony, I would like to pursue ... innovative concert
programs with a special focus to attract 18- to 35-year-
olds, who are mostly students at the University of Oregon
or young professionals.”
“I became a conductor first and foremost to deepen the
relationship between an orchestra and its community. We
have to make sure that what we put on the stage reflects
the diversity of the world we are inviting into the concert
hall. If we can help people to feel that they are seen and
heard outside of the concert hall, then they will feel more
excited about having a collective experience inside it. The
collective experience of music-making must be available
to everyone, and orchestras can now go outside the concert
hall to offer it directly.”
A native of Quebec, Dina Gilbert is former assistant conductor of the
Orchestre symphonique de Montreal and founder and artistic director
of Ensemble Arkea, a chamber orchestra group that presents innovative
interpretations of orchestral music. She conducted the orchestra in
December.
Brooklyn resident Ryan McAdams, who’s received acclaim for leading
orchestras around the world, is the first-ever recipient of the Sir Georg
Solti Emerging Conductor Award. He conducts the orchestra on Jan. 26.
Francesco Lecce-Chong
“When I am considering pieces for a program, I keep
three specific questions in mind: How does the piece fit
in with the audience, community and orchestra? What
does the piece mean to me as an artist? And how does it
relate with other pieces on the program? I think the most
successful music directors are ones who develop a level
of trust with their audience — a trust that the music on the
program will be meaningful and memorable, even if they
are unfamiliar with it.”
Francesco Lecce-Chong, a native of Boulder, Colo., has worked with
orchestras around the world and is Assistant Conductor of the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony
Orchestra. He conducts the orchestra on March 16.
eugeneweekly.com • January 26, 2017
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