It’s always an interesting experience, working with guest conductors.\u00a0 Especially when you’ve had three weeks with your own music director.\u00a0 The orchestral habits encouraged by your music director are in full force, and if your MD is a clear conductor with a concise beat (as Carlos has), then adjusting to someone with a much vaguer beat can be a challenge.\u00a0 In this regard this current classical series week has be especially challenging.\u00a0 Our guest conductor is pleasant enough, but he’s been somewhat reticent to really put his stamp on the pieces that we’re performing, and there are times when it seems like he’s not really actively involved in the moment-to-moment process of leading the works.\u00a0 It may be that he’s just in a growth phase where he’s trying to get from being a micro-manager to being more of a hands-off conductor, but this in-between limbo is kind of a terrifying place to be when you’re playing under him.\u00a0 There have been moments in the Sibelius symphony where you can feel the orchestra’s ensemble sense threatening to break apart, and within the ensemble, particularly among the principal players, the sense of tension is palpable.\u00a0 How much of this is evident past the footlights remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s always an interesting experience, working with guest conductors.\u00a0 Especially when you’ve had three weeks with your own music director.\u00a0 The orchestral habits encouraged by your music director are in full force, and if your MD is a clear conductor with a concise beat (as Carlos has), then adjusting to someone with a much vaguer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-12E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":220,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/23\/long-term-conductor-search-in-philly\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":0},"title":"yawns in Philly?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"From today's Philadelphia Inquirer: In a surprise move made without the knowledge or approval of its full musician membership, the Philadelphia Orchestra has appointed Charles Dutoit chief conductor and artistic adviser. Dutoit, 70, a longtime and frequent guest conductor here who oversees the orchestra's summer series in Saratoga, N.Y., will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"dutoit.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/dutoit.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":248,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/03\/19\/wish-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":1},"title":"wish list","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A few months ago Elaine Calder asked the orchestra members to suggest guest artists with whom they would like to work. I've compiled a list of those who I'd personally love to see come, as well as those who I think would really create excitement and big audience numbers for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":827,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/06\/first-meetings\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":2},"title":"first meetings","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we had the first rehearsals for our upcoming classical series concerts with Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen. He's a guest conductor that we've never worked with before, and he's very new to the U.S. conducting circuit - this is his second US orchestra ever, his first having been the Cincinnati\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"pietari-inkinen-sm.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/pietari-inkinen-sm.thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":549,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/25\/kogan-stepping-up-in-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":3},"title":"kogan stepping up in utah?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I just ran across this story from the Salt Lake Tribune about the possible succession of Keith Lockhart as music director of the Utah Symphony by their former principal conductor Pavel Kogan. Kogan was also a candidate for music director here in Oregon, but Carlos Kalmar was chosen instead.","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13985,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/01\/21\/the-guest-conductor-formula\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":4},"title":"the guest conductor formula","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"After over twenty years of having my butt in the chair of a major orchestra, I've come to the conclusion that there is a Guest Conductor Formula. It goes like this: Program a piece that no orchestra has played. Program a very popular concerto. Program a major piece that is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/INSIDERS-CM-e1453422247806.jpg?fit=800%2C337&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/INSIDERS-CM-e1453422247806.jpg?fit=800%2C337&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/INSIDERS-CM-e1453422247806.jpg?fit=800%2C337&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/INSIDERS-CM-e1453422247806.jpg?fit=800%2C337&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":287,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/25\/ny-phil-makes-changes-at-the-top-of-its-roster\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":5},"title":"ny phil makes changes at the top of its roster","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times reports that the New York Philharmonic has decided to add the position of Principal Conductor to its roster. Most likely this is an attempt to get a place-holder figure on the podium on a regular basis while they continue their search for a successor to music\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"nyphillogo.gif","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/nyphillogo.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}