NYC Update
This afternoon I attended one of the best concerts of my life. The performance, part of Carnegie Hall’s Sunday MET Orchestra series (the orchestra for the Metropolitan Opera), featured Gil Shaham on Brahms’ Violin Concerto (Gil also played with my orchestra this summer in Aspen). Other highlights of the evening included a new-to-me work entitled Amériques (a HUGE work that took 126 musicians to perform); a lively overture by Weber; and a jaw dropping best-ever (to me) performance of Gershwin’s An American in Paris.
This was seriously one of the top five concerts I have ever experienced. The programming and execution left me beaming well into the night. Adding to the excitement, the League arranged for the Fellows and participants of the Essentials of Orchestra Management seminar to meet with the famous MET Orchestra Music Director James Levine after the performance. We listened and asked questions as Jimmy talked about programming, orchestra management, and his new appointment as Music Director of the Boston Symphony.
Speaking of concerts, I will listen to five of them performed by four of the world’s premier orchestras in three venues over these two weeks in New York. So far, I have heard the NY Phil, New Jersey Symphony, and the MET Orchestra. In the days to come, I will also have the privilege of listening to the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie and the NY Phil once again. Thank the Lord for New York City and its thriving cultural scene!
Outside of the concerts, the League has been keeping us Fellows quite busy with meetings day in and day out. Among these have been meetings with Henry Fogel, League President and former Chicago Symphony President, over a tasty Chinese meal (Henry is quite the Chinese food connoisseur); some of the senior staff at the musician empowered and conductorless Orpheus chamber orchestra; George Steel, Executive Director at the Miller Theatre on the campus of Columbia University; Ara Guzelimian, Artistic Advisor at Carnegie Hall; senior executives at G. Shirmer, ICM Artists and the AFM; gosh the list goes on and on plus we still have one week to go.
Meeting with these folks has really been a treat. In addition to learning more about what they do and how their respective businesses relate to orchestra management, I am also walking away with new perspectives on challenges facing the field and fresh ideas on how to tackle them in my career.
There has been one major downside however. This can be broken down into a simple equation: more meetings = less sleep. Thankfully, our day begins a little later than usual tomorrow morning so maybe this means a normal night’s rest tonight…maybe.
This was seriously one of the top five concerts I have ever experienced. The programming and execution left me beaming well into the night. Adding to the excitement, the League arranged for the Fellows and participants of the Essentials of Orchestra Management seminar to meet with the famous MET Orchestra Music Director James Levine after the performance. We listened and asked questions as Jimmy talked about programming, orchestra management, and his new appointment as Music Director of the Boston Symphony.
Speaking of concerts, I will listen to five of them performed by four of the world’s premier orchestras in three venues over these two weeks in New York. So far, I have heard the NY Phil, New Jersey Symphony, and the MET Orchestra. In the days to come, I will also have the privilege of listening to the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie and the NY Phil once again. Thank the Lord for New York City and its thriving cultural scene!
Outside of the concerts, the League has been keeping us Fellows quite busy with meetings day in and day out. Among these have been meetings with Henry Fogel, League President and former Chicago Symphony President, over a tasty Chinese meal (Henry is quite the Chinese food connoisseur); some of the senior staff at the musician empowered and conductorless Orpheus chamber orchestra; George Steel, Executive Director at the Miller Theatre on the campus of Columbia University; Ara Guzelimian, Artistic Advisor at Carnegie Hall; senior executives at G. Shirmer, ICM Artists and the AFM; gosh the list goes on and on plus we still have one week to go.
Meeting with these folks has really been a treat. In addition to learning more about what they do and how their respective businesses relate to orchestra management, I am also walking away with new perspectives on challenges facing the field and fresh ideas on how to tackle them in my career.
There has been one major downside however. This can be broken down into a simple equation: more meetings = less sleep. Thankfully, our day begins a little later than usual tomorrow morning so maybe this means a normal night’s rest tonight…maybe.
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