Every once in a while I want to post about things that I believe in, that drive me, ideas that pop up. Not necessarily related to anything that is going on specifically, but just to get the voices in my head on paper! For the first quick take:
What’s my Job?…….
My belief that Conducting is not actually a job, in the same way playing an instrument is not a job, or even being a surgeon is not a job. Pretty much everything we are taught to do is a skill. It is up to us to turn that skill into a job, so whilst conducting is my skill, I believe my job is touch people’s lives with music. I fault music schools for many things, and yet their biggest fault is that even though they are good at teaching the skills needed, there is precious little being taught or learned about why we do what we do. Advocacy for our art from and the relationship that is needed to be built with audiences and communities is barely or mostly never touched upon in music schools. Those relationships (or lack of them) are what continually plagues our industry.
With a humanitarian purpose in mind, ambition changes from how can I be successful and uplifted to how can my audience and community be successful and uplifted. This mindset at least for me keeps me in the present when I am performing so that I am giving the audience and the organization everything I have at every moment. With having done 300 + performances of the Nutcracker, I never tire of it knowing that there are children there who are perhaps seeing their first ever live performance. It is about them and what keeps me going and keeps it fresh are those children who at intermission are peering over the pit with their eyes wide looking at the instruments, some seeing them for the first time.
I think of “real world” examples such as the job of the body shop repair tech is not fix your dents, that is their skill, their job is to make you forget you ever had an accident. When talking recently to a friend I hadn’t seen in a while, we caught up on many things and right before parting she turned to me and said that she nearly forgot to tell me that she had heart surgery 4 month prior. The only thing I could think of was that the surgeon employed his skill to fix her heart, but he did his job by making her forget she ever had a heart problem! The dry cleaner uses his or her skill to clean our clothes but their job is to make you and I feel good and/or fresh for the interview, the wedding, even the concert!
Like a pilot flying passengers, we on stage also have an audience committed to a journey. Everyone might be traveling to a different place and our job is to get them there no matter where it is and to hope they continue to fly with us to all their future destinations. Cue Frank!
Ron — I’m writing to thank you for the fun show that you and the Tulsa Symphony did Saturday evening. I enjoyed your pre-concert comments and the music, too. I was a little tired afterward and didn’t stop by the meet-and-greet, but I wanted you to know your enthusiasm and effort were greatly appreciated. I saw a Maynard Ferguson concert in Alabama when I was a teenager, so Walter White’s playing was quite a treat. Love your approach to connecting with the listening public.