MUSIC
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
FRANCESCO
LECCE-CHONG:
BUILDING
TRUST
Eugene Symphony’s new
music director plans to be
part of the community
N
ot all orchestra music directors live in the city
where they conduct. Most have multiple gigs and
spend much of their time on airplanes and in hotel
rooms. But newly appointed Eugene Symphony
music director Francesco Lecce-Chong decided to
move here — during last month’s 107-degree heat wave,
no less.
“You travel so much as a conductor anyway that you
can pick your spot,” he explains. “It’s such a beautiful
place, and when you’re starting a new job in a new place,
you want to invest in it.”
Besides, it already feels like home. After a decade at
East Coast conservatories (Mannes College of Music and
Curtis Institute) and orchestras (assistant conductor at Mil-
waukee and Pittsburg symphonies), Eugene reminds him
of another outdoor-friendly college town where he was
born and raised — Boulder, Colorado — and where he
started conducting youth orchestra at age 16. Even then,
Lecce-Chong says, he admired how Eugene Symphony
music director Marin Alsop took her other orchestra, the
Colorado Symphony, from community ensemble to profes-
sional orchestra.
As a student, he encountered two of Alsop’s successors,
Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Giancarlo Guerrero, who, like
Alsop, went on to conduct prestigious orchestras. Both told
him how valuable the ESO position had been for their de-
velopment.
“They said that back before it was cool, Eugene was the
only orchestra in the U.S. that was taking risks and picking
young, first-time music directors and giving them space
and support to grow,” Lecce-Chong recalls.
That put the ESO on his radar, and when Danail
Rachev’s contract expired last year and the job opened up,
Lecce-Chong went for it, beating out more than 250 other
applicants. (He’ll keep his current assignments as assistant
conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, with which he’s
currently on a big European tour, and principal conductor
of its youth orchestra, for the rest of this season.)
Lecce-Chong arrived to find Eugene Symphony’s cur-
rent season already set (orchestras plan way ahead), so
the coming year doesn’t really represent his own vision.
However, he was able to make a few tweaks that reflect his
priorities and offer insights into what lies ahead.
For example, the Feb. 15 program, which has a na-
ture theme springing from Vivaldi’s famous Four Sea-
sons violin concertos, originally boasted a couple of hoary
classics. Lecce-Chong, who told EW during the audition
process that “as a composer myself, I am passionate about
supporting local and national composers,” thought the pro-
gram needed something contemporary — and he had just
the piece in mind.
Tumblebird Contrails, written by his friend and fellow
former Curtis student Gabriella Smith (a rising star whose
work impressed Portland audiences at last month’s Cham-
ber Music Northwest) was inspired by the 26-year-old Bay
Area-based composer’s hikes along the Pacific Crest Trail.
“We have a composer who’s hiked around the area,
written a piece that describes what’s around here so beauti-
fully, and it fits in the program thematically,” Lecce-Chong
says.
It’s a sign of things to come. “I want to [program] Or-
egon composers and bring in all my young composer col-
leagues,” Lecce-Chong says. “The hardest part is finding
ways to introduce them in the best possible light,” not just
programming the usual brief “toss-aways” that allow or-
chestras to claim they’re doing today’s music while still
filling the vast majority of actual performance minutes
with old music by long-dead Europeans.
“You’ve given the audience permission to not take it
seriously,” he said. “When people come to concerts we
should be enriching, inspiring, creating dialogue.” That
means devoting attention to how the music is presented
and “approaching new music and American composers in
a way that connects to audiences,” he explains.
Those who remember Alsop’s storied tenure will recall
how she built a level of trust with Eugene audiences. “I
think the most successful music directors are ones who de-
velop 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,” Lecce-Chong says.
Building that trust happens not just on stage but also
in the orchestra’s community and education programs,
like ESO’s current Symphony Connect. It brings classical
music to people unlikely to venture to the Hult Center, in-
cluding students, low-income Oregonians and people with
mental health issues.
Like many assistant conductors, Lecce-Chong, who
was inspired by the broad audiences and high enthusiasm
he experienced in leading this summer’s free Cuthbert con-
cert, has advocated for such programs in his previous or-
chestras. The difference now is that he’s actually in charge.
“Artistic integrity and being in your community are
the same thing,” he says. “You can’t have one without the
other.”
T H E AT E R
SHAKESPEARE
IN THE PARK BRINGS
‘HENRY V’ OUTDOORS
How rare is it to find an engaging, free, open-air public
performance of Shakespeare? It’s an annual event in
Eugene.
This year Shakespeare in the Park adapted Henry V
for a short outdoor performance directed by Sharon
Sèlove. A narrator (David Stuart Bull), sporting awesome
warrior braids, aids the transition between settings and
synopsizes missing scenes.
King Henry of England (Josh Simpson) has a claim
on the French throne through a distant relative. He takes
his lords and army to France and conquers several
towns. The arrogance of the French dauphin (Nicholas
McLaughlin) is quickly replaced with defeat, and
England wins the day. To secure his victory, King Henry
successfully and hilariously woos the French Princess
(Radhika Stein).
Utilizing the park’s topography expanded the play’s
blocking in entertaining ways. Heralds dashed hither
and thither delivering messages to monarchs. Later, the
French darted through the audience before dying among
us.
The wireless mics worked — most of the time —
even at long distances, which was an impressive feat of
sound coordination.
I found it confusing when individual actors repeatedly
switched between French and English roles, but that’s a
hazard of having a “happy few” of actors.
Simpson delivered the famous St. Crispin’s Day
speech (“Band of brothers”) with volume and
exuberance, but I prefer Kenneth Branagh’s dynamic
articulation and sustained crescendo in the film version.
My favorite scene was when the disguised King
Henry wandered around the camp speaking with his
soldiers on the eve of battle. The soldiers were candid on
their feelings towards the king, and his reactions were
suitably miffed.
The drunkards were funny, the swordfights
swashbuckling and the French well-spoken. Actually,
Stein’s French accent was exquisite.
Henry V plays Saturdays and Sundays at 6 pm
through Aug. 27 in Amazon Park. Bring your own chair;
FREE. — Emily Dunnan
eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 24, 2017
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