The most interesting conversations about Classical Music never happen in the Board Room, or after a concert, or in any venue that one would connect with the art form. My friend Jeremy reminded me of that on Thanksgiving Day.
I’m getting to that age where Thanksgiving and related holidays are bordering on the annoying. Just co-ordinating schedules, menus, and the various proclivities makes the Super-Committee negotiations look like child’s play. But we have to put up with it. We’re Americans, dammit.
Because of this I wasn’t prepared for that conversation, though perhaps I should have been. No matter, it was a quick 4 minutes out of my Turkey Day but it was definitely the highlight. I won’t go into how I know Jeremy (suffice it to say someone is dating someone who is related to someone, etc……. you know the drill) but this wasn’t the first time I had a slightly…… unsuspected….. conversation with him.
Jeremy lives in Duluth, MN. Bright, bright-eyed, he has recently been hooked on the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. It so happens that the DSSO is the band where my wife, Jen, is Principal Clarinet. Jen had slipped him a few tickets so that he could take his wife on a date, and lo and behold! They loved it.
Of course, judging from the “book’s cover” Jeremy is much closer to Joe Lunchbox than Mr. Ring Cycle. He’s an athlete, big old scandahoovian, been through rehab. (OK, that last one could definitely be in either persona.) But suddenly he had the bug. So much so that he auditioned for a part in The Pirates of Penzance, though he’s never sung a note in public. His eyes lit up when relaying the story of his audition – he started singing, the two guys on the audition panel looked at each other, the vocal coach came over and started working with him and “within 3 minutes I was sounding like an opera star!”
Jeremy got the part. Unfortunately, he also has a congenital malformation of his hip sockets. The 2 complete hip replacements would have to take precedence over making his Gilbert & Sullivan debut. But the look in his eyes, the conviction in his voice – nothing excited him more than the idea of healing, getting off of his crutches, taking the next audition, and maybe……. just maybe….. finding himself onstage one day. Singing. In an opera.
This one story sums up everything I’ve been bloggin about over the past 5 years. It’s people like Jeremy that are important if classical music is going to do more than just survive. If you are a Music Director of 4 orchestras you won’t have the time to find your local Jeremy and encourage them to come to the orchestra. If you are some country club Neo-Con new to the Board who thinks the orchestra is a cultural icon for your people you are denying your local Jeremy his chance to enjoy this glorious music. If you are a musician hung up on comparing your contract to Orchestra X and finding new ways to complain about Admin you are missing the point of why we do this. And if you are in Admin and the only things you worry about could be run through a TI-55 calculator then look up, put your spreadsheet away, and listen to the music.
The point is the look in Jeremy’s eyes, the sound of his voice. The wonder. The joy.