Copious Notes

Scott Terrell conducts the Lexington Philharmonic in the orchestra's annual Patriotic Concert at Transylvania University. The concert was also his debut as music director of the orchestra. Photo by Mark Cornelison | Herald-Leader.

Click here to see more photos from Friday’s Patriotic Concert.

Scott Terrell said he liked the view from the stage in front of the Old Morrison Building at Transylvania University. When he looked one way, he saw his new orchestra, the Lexington Philharmonic. When he turned around, he saw his new town, or what must have looked like the whole town, from that perch.

The crowd for the Patriotic Concert the Philharmonic presents ever July 3 stretched from the steps of Old Morrison back across the lawn and over Third Street through Gratz Park almost to the back steps of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. Our own Tom Eblen, a veteran Patriotic Concert fan, guessed the audience was almost twice as large as the typical crowd for this event.

That makes sense, as it wasn’t a typical Patriotic Concert.

It was the debut of Scott Terrell as the Phil’s music director — his first concert conducting the orchestra since he was named to that post in April.

Whether it was that or the perfect night that drew people out, it was a truly big debut that showed Terrell had some good instincts.

Conventional wisdom would have had him waiting for his first bow in September when the Philharmonic opens its Masterclassics season at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

Thing is, you couldn’t fit this audience in a couple of Singletarys.

By taking the baton Friday night, he got in front of one of the Phil’s biggest audiences of the year for a concert that sent a few messages.

~ Masterclassics aren’t the only thing. Terrell has talked about reviving the Phil’s pops series and introducing other concerts and series in coming seasons. That he chose to debut with this concert and obviously put some thought into it says he’s serious about broadening the orchestra’s profile.

~ Get ready for some new ideas about repertoire. Friday night’s concert had some of the staples of the event, including a tribute to the Armed Forces and the “get out your sparklers” rendition of Stars-and-Stripes Forever. He also got to conduct My Old Kentucky Home for the first time, and complimented the “mass choir” of the audience joining the Lexington Singers for the state song.

But Terrell wanted to make it about the broader concept of American music, so he added a selection of traditional melodies, showtunes and movie themes.

My favorite moment of people watching came during All That Jazz, from Chicago, when near the front of the stage, a little girl was dancing with abandon while, a few yards behind her, a senior couple was walking in rhythm, as if they were about to cut a rug — or lawn, as the case would be.

Exploring American music for the Fourth is an interesting idea, and it could yield some intriguing programs in the future. I did hear that some people wanted a concert more in line with the traditional Fourth evening of patriotic standards. The audience immediately around me, near the front of the stage, seemed to enjoy the program. Just as Lexington will spend the next season hearing Terrell’s ideas, Terrell will certainly spend the next season — and beyond — hearing audience feedback.

One note: It was cool he included Leroy Anderson’s Blue Tango, as Anderson was a favorite of Terrell’s predecessor, George Zack.

Speaking of Zack . . .

~ Terrell is ready to embrace the role of “Face of the Philhamonic.” Replacing such an iconic figure in Lexington arts, Zack’s successor needed to be ready to step forward in a PR role as well as musical role. Terrell seems ready for that, picking a debut concert that had him talking to the audience quite a bit.  And by picking this concert, Terrell chose a venue that would put him center-stage before one of the orchestra’s biggest audiences.

And he seemed to have a great time, a big time — big gestures, big eyes and a big smile on the podium.

That would be the podium where he saw his orchestra and his audience, and we got out first good look at the Philharmonic’s future.

Friday’s concert will be repeated Saturday night in Versailles.

Comment: What did you think of the program?

Scott Terrell addresses some comments to the orchestra after being introduced as the new music director of the Lexington Philharmonic. Photo by Mark Cornelison | LexGo.

Click the play button to hear Scott Terrell chat about being named the new music director of the Philharmonic (Apology in advance: The recording sounds like we’re in the middle of a freeway because we couldn’t resist the beautiful weather, but didn’t realize how loud the traffic was):

This is the first of three Podcasts from our chat with Terrell. Next week, he discusses programming the 2009-10 season and beyond.

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

When Scott Terrell auditioned for music director of the Lexington Philharmonic in October, Keeneland was in session.

“I lost,” he said with a smile. “I contributed to the local economy.”

Scott Terrell. Photo by David Stephenson | LexGo.

Terrell’s going to be contributing a lot more, because regardless of how the 38-year-old conductor does at the track this weekend, he’s the big winner in the Philharmonic’s conductor search.

After a two-year, 10-candidate audition process, the orchestra announced at its season-closing concert Friday night that Terrell will succeed George Zack, who is retiring after 37 years as the philharmonic’s music director.

“He’s who the orchestra wanted,” said Margie Karp, a violinist who was also a member of the search committee that waded through applications from 278 conductors.

“He is smart and talented. He’s going to be very demanding, but for the right reasons, because the music demands it. It’s really exciting for the orchestra.”

The new director is also excited.

“The potential of the orchestra is pretty infinite, in terms of where it could actually go, both musically, artistically and within the community,” Terrell said Friday morning. “Also, I was thoroughly impressed with the work the search committee did. That spoke volumes to me to have board members and community people engaged on the level to which they were engaged.”

Likewise, the more the board looked at Terrell, the more its members liked him.

“As I did some of the vetting and called his references, I became more and more excited about the possibility of him coming here,” said lawyer Greg Jenkins, co-chairman of the search committee. “In a few years, I think we will look back and say we were really lucky to get him.”

Terrell is finishing his fourth season as the resident conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina.

“I’m thrilled for him, not for us,” said Jan Newcomb, executive director of the Charleston Symphony. Read the rest of this entry »

The Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra will announce its choice for its new music director at Friday night’s concert, bringing to a close a two-year search for the successor to George Zack.

George Zack, whose successor will be named Friday. Photo by Matt Goins.

“This is the way we always wanted to make the announcement, and it looks like we’re on track to do it,” said Larry C. Deener, President of the Lexington Philharmonic Society, Inc.

Zack announced his retirement in December 2006, setting in motion a two-season search that saw 10 candidates conduct the Philharmonic between October 2007 and last month. Two candidates withdrew from the race after visiting — February auditioner Alastair Willis and March candidate Mei-Ann Chen.

That leaves eight candidates in contention for the spot:

• Kayoko Dan, assistant conductor of the Phoenix Symphony
• Alexander Platt, music director of the Waukesha Symphony in Wisconsin, resident conductor of the Chicago Opera Theatre and several other posts
• Darryl One, music director of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra in Texas
• Daniel Meyer, music director of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina, resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and several other posts
• Alfred Savia, music director of the Evansville Symphony Orchestra in Indiana
• Scott Terrell, resident conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina
• Jeffrey Pollock, last post was assistant conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in Texas
• Morihiko Nakahara, music director of the South Carolina Philharmonic

Deener said the announcement will come just before intermission of Friday’s concert, which will feature the Lexington Singers and Lexington Philharmonic performing works by Gabriel Faure and Ludwig Van Beethoven. Lexington Singers music director Jefferson Johnson and University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra director John Nardolillo will co-conduct the concert.

At the concert, Deener said plans are to have brochures available with the programs for next season’s Masterclassics series, which will be the new conductor’s first season with the Philharmonic.

Here’s our slide show of the candidates in the Lexington Philharmonic’s music director search. Mouse over the bottom to get controls. Click on the little comment cloud to the left to activate captions. If you click on a photo, it will take you to a larger version of it at Picasa, and you can click the link at the bottom left for a larger version of the whole show.

When we started the Lexington Philharmonic’s search for a new conductor, Barack Obama was still best known as a Senator from Illinois, AIG was pretty much known only to financial folk and golf fans, and CentrePointe sounded like a term out of Rand McNally.

OK, the length of the search for the Phil’s new music director has not been as dramatic as those comparisons that tell you the last time something happened dinosaurs were roaming the Earth. But, it has been a long journey for the orchestra, its search committee and the Philharmonic’s audience.

Now, with Mei-Ann Chen’s concert complete, all of the candidates have crossed the Singletary Center for the Arts concert hall stage, and it is up to the committee to choose from the nine hopefuls — 10 came to town, but February candidate Alastair Wills took his name out of the running after his appearance.

It’s been a dramatic couple of years for an orchestra that had the same person, George Zack, on the podium for well over three decades.

In the last two seasons, I know I have learned things about conducting and so has the audience.

Conducting is an entrepreneurial pursuit: Starting with Kayoko Dan, back in October 2007, I began hearing story after story about how aspiring conductors had to pull together pick-up orchestras to help them sharpen their skills. Alexander Platt, Mr. November 2007, organized performances of Benjamin Britten operas at Cambridge. Chen made friends with composition students at the New England Conservatory and organized performances of their works. If you play an instrument, you usually have that instrument to practice with. If you play large groups of people, that’s another thing altogether.

Mentors mean a lot: Scott Terrell, who we saw last October, went on about how influential David Zinman has been in his career. Chen did not have enough words for Robert Spano of the Atlanta Symphony, where she is assistant conductor. Almost every candidate we talked to had some sort of mentor who helped him or her develop and helped them get their feet in the first few doors.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is an extended version of the story that appears in the Feb. 18 Lexington Herald-Leader. It includes comments from last night’s kickoff, and those comments are in blue.

LexArts kicked off its 2009 Campaign for the Arts yesterday with a modified goal due to the ailing economy.

Last year, the Campaign took in $1,153,522, exceeding the goal of $1,125,000. Usually, that kind of success prompts the arts umbrella organization to ramp up its expectations the next year.

Campaign chair Larry Bell speaks at the Feb. 17 kickoff. Photo by Rich Copley.

“We set the goal in the midst of a lot of the bad economic news breaking,” said LexArts president and CEO Jim Clark, a few hours before last night’s kick-off party at Spindletop Hall. “We were not going to be limited by national conditions, but we did think it was realistic to set our goal a little lower.”

Despite the challenges of raising money in uncertain financial times, campaign organizers said supporting the arts is still important, particularly with the FEI World Equestrian Games coming in 2010.

“Although I am from Lexington, Ky., I lived in New Orleans for six years,” campaign chair Larry Bell, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, said at last night’s kickoff. “And New Orleans would not be the tourist attraction it is, it would not be the convention city it is, without something to do in the evenings . . . It is a thriving community for artists, for musicians and for the culinary arts. Now is that only reflected in the quality of life in New Orleans? No, it is also reflected in the tourism, and tourism is the only industry in New Orleans. So, my experience with the arts is that it is a driver of economic activity.

“That lesson is transferable, particularly to us, because we’ll be hosting the world next year, and part of the experience they will have is our arts and our entertainment options.”

Honorary campaign chair and retiring Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra music director George Zack invoked New Orleans, and the New Orleans Symphony in particular, in his remarks. He noted the losses the orchestra suffered during Hurricane Katrina, including the losses of instruments and its concert hall, and how the orchestra regrouped and went on tour.

“Nothing galvanizes a community better than the arts,” Zack said. “When you look to the past, you look at the past through its art treasures.”

Funds raised by the campaign go to support local arts groups both through allocations to major area arts organizations and grants to groups and individual artists.

Clark said that with the games coming up, “funds are particularly important for groups that are putting together special exhibits and performances for the games. It’s hard to plan when you’re struggling to get by.”

Since the economy went south, Clark says he and his staff have had to work a little harder to make sure people are fulfilling their pledges to the 2008 campaign, but those contributions are still coming in.

The campaign is starting with $300,000 already raised, a little bit less than the fund raiser normally has when it launches. LexArts also will have to wait until April to see what kind of contribution it will get from the Lexington Fayette Urban-County Government, which has kicked in $350,000, plus $150,000 in challenge grants the last couple of years.

Mayor Jim Newberry appeared at the Spindletop kickoff and encouraged people in the audience to, “visit with your council members to encourage their support for the arts, because this is going to be a difficult time, financially, for Urban-County government, and the more they understand the depth and breadth of the support for the arts in the community, the more likely we are to find ourselves in a good position as we go through the budget process.”

Newberry also cited the Destination 2040 campaign, “an effort to develop a longer term vision for our community.”

The mayor said in a citywide survey, there was widespread support for, “funding for the arts so, ‘our arts community can become nationally competitive.’ I like that recommendation a lot. I’ve got a little bit of an issue with it though, and that is the part that says, ’so we can become nationally competitive.’” Then, citing the recent Our Lincoln performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., he said, “If you were there, and you had any doubt about the national competitiveness of the arts in Lexington, Ky., it should have been totally removed that night.”

Alastair Willis conducts the Lexington Philharmonic in a rehearsal Tuesday night at the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Click the play button to hear our chat with Alastair Willis:

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

Alastair Willis’ résumé reads like a world tour. He started playing piano when he was a boy in Russia, took up trumpet and then conducting while he was living in England, continued his conducting studies in Houston, toured Japan and other foreign lands with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and held posts with orchestras in Cincinnati and Seattle, where he lives now.

This week, Willis, 37, who speaks with a British accent, has set his sights on Lexington, where he is the ninth candidate to succeed George Zack as music director of the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra.

“Every conductor needs an orchestra, and every orchestra needs a conductor,” Willis says when asked what attracted him to Lexington. “My research of this area and this orchestra has showed wonderful support for the arts and wonderful potential for future growth here, and I don’t know any conductor who’s currently not got a music director position who wouldn’t be interested in that.”

After one rehearsal, on Monday night, Willis had a good impression of the Phil, saying, “The orchestra seems open to what I have to offer.”

On Tuesday, he threw the players a bit of a curve ball, rehearsing Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round, the opening number of Friday’s concert. It requires the violins and violas to stand as opposing orchestras, with the basses and cellos seated in the middle. After some initial confusion, he pulled a fairly flowing rehearsal out of the players.

Willis had no hesitation about coming in and shaking things up a bit.

“Why have we always played in the form we always play in?” Willis asks, referring to the Phil’s traditional seating arrangement. “Because it works. Because it’s how orchestras historically sound best, for most of the repertoire. No one’s ever going to change that, but I love to find the variety.”

Willis has experienced a lot of variety in the past few years. He was in Cincinnati in the late 1990s for a year as assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras and director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra.

He says he loved the experience working under symphony conductor Jesús López- Cobos and pops conductor Erich Kunzel, but Cincy didn’t offer what he thought he really needed: “podium time.”

So Willis moved to Seattle, where as assistant and then resident conductor he was able to direct more than 100 performances in three years.

In 2003, he went the free-lance route, guest-conducting around the world and hanging out, when he could, with leading orchestras. He has a particular in with the Berlin Philharmonic, where his sister, Sarah Willis, plays fourth horn.

Read the rest of this entry »

New York Philharmonic music director-designate Alan Gilbert in action. Photo by Mats Lundquist | IMG Artists.

While the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra’s conductor search has us contemplating what a changing of the baton in the Bluegrass might mean, we can check out how the same sort of change might impact a bigger band.

Anyone up for a drive?

Next weekend, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will perform with conductor Alan Gilbert, the conductor-designate of the New York Philharmonic. Then in March, you can travel to Danville and see the New York Phil with its outgoing conductor, Lorin Maazel, the man Gilbert is to succeed.

If you want to do a little projecting, you can watch the Philharmonic in March and contemplate how it might look and sound under the guy you saw lead the Cincinnati Symphony in December.

Either way, the changing of conductors is something we have not seen much of here with George Zack having served as the Lexington Philharmonic’s music director for 38 years. For New York, it hasn’t been nearly that long. Maazel took the podium in 2002. Four conductors have actually passed through the New York Phil since Zack came to Lexington.

But Gilbert comes to the New York orchestra with Obama-esque expectations for change in many circles, including critics.

“I’ve heard Gilbert give several powerful performances of late,” The New Yorker’s critic Alex Ross wrote on his blog, The Rest Is Noise, when Gilbert was announced in July 2007. “He is a man with an inquisitive, contemporary mind. If all goes well, the Philharmonic will be a markedly different, more vibrant organization in a few years’ time.”

Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote, “The Philharmonic’s administrators, in what seemed like trial balloons, had been dropping the name of this excellent 40-year-old conductor (he is now 42) and New York native for some months. But like many other longtime Philharmonic watchers who have fretted over the future of this great but artistically staid orchestra, I thought that they would never have the courage do it. I am glad to be proved wrong.

“Mr. Gilbert is an unpretentious musician with no whiff of the formidable maestro about him. And that is just what makes him such a refreshing choice for the Philharmonic.”

New York is a town with a large, extremely opinionated music community, so it is not surprising that the announcement of a new conductor comes with a lot of expectations for what he will do with the institution.

So what do we expect?

Read the rest of this entry »