This weekend I was asked to participate in one of the Concert Conversations before each evening’s concert. My co-host for the half-hour talks was John Pitman of KBPS 89.9 FM. He’s such a consummate professional in the broadcast realm – I always marvel at how broadcasters can so deftly avoid verbal pauses (ah, um, etc) and maintain a train of thought – that the 30 minutes flew by. The last time I did a pre-concert talk I had to do it myself, and it was many times more nerve-wracking doing it that way. There were also many more people at the talk than I’d remembered from years ago, and that was great as well. It’s good to know that there are so many concertgoers who are curious to learn as much as they can about what they’re enjoying during the concert.
Today I was thinking of ways that the whole experience could be even more interesting for those in attendance. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a short video presentation with various members of the orchestra sharing their impressions of a piece, or what their most difficult licks in the piece might be, or what was their favorite moment in the piece. I could envision a 15 minute video which would include either commercially pre-recorded excerpts of audio, or possibly video footage from a rehearsal. Things like this are always hard to navigate through the minefield of work rules and other contractual considerations, not to mention finding the money to ensure that it doesn’t look like a typical YouTube home video, but it might be worth trying, as it could be featured on the orchestra’s website to promote the concert as well.
That aside, I had a great experience doing the Concert Conversation this past weekend, and I encourage you to attend future conversations one half-hour prior to each Classical series concert throughout the season!