WENDEL: "Artworks" is made possible in part by the Citizens of Baltimore County and by the Ruth R. Marder Arts Endowment Fund, The Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Endowment for the Arts, The E.T.

and Robert B. Rocklin Fund, The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Arts Endowment in memory of Ruth Marder.

Hi, I'm your host, Wendel Patrick.

In this episode we delve into the "Art of Conducting," join me as I sit down with the imaginative and insightful conductor, Joseph Young, whose passion for music is evident in every performance.

JOSEPH YOUNG: The best part of this melody is it doesn't come back, you know?

And I need you to make it feel like it's very special, you just have to let it fall into place.

And for me, you, you, you're really trying to show everything, but I want you to really make sure that everyone feels the flow of, of lines like this.

So I want you to just be a little bit more soupy, just swimming in, in the sound instead of sewing the sound.

Mm, now flow.

Let go, let go.

♪ ♪ Good, good, good one that I want you, can you think there's like a, a bigger orchestra right now?

I think you are trying to think this sound, I want this to feel like you're inviting everyone to be a part of this swirl of sound, yeah.

When you think about what conducting is, we're trying to guide the whole orchestra.

Um, there are times where I'm asking my conducting students to try to find that independence of, of their hands, one hand may be just, you know, keeping time being that metronome, uh, for the orchestra so they understand the, the pacing of music.

And another, the left hand may be showing a little bit more of the intent of the sound.

Whether you want them to play softly, if you want them to play short, if you want them to really present the sound to them, so you, you gain this vocabulary as a musician, but also as a conductor and we have to interpret that as a musician.

RYO HASEGAWA: I've been studying conducting for a long time.

I think conducting is still mysterious to me sometimes.

But one thing that is very clear is that as a musicians, I think we are still an artist, a creative being and sometimes when we sit and play instruments, we just get stuck in what's on the score, and then we try to just reproduce what's on the page.

But I think as a conductor, my role, I believe, is to really inspire musicians to be a creative being, you know, to be an artist.

RACHEL RIESE: You know, if you're a kid in a youth orchestra, and the conductor is sort of in charge of keeping everyone together if somebody rushes if somebody slows down.

But then especially being involved in conductors orchestra at Peabody, you really see a lot of conductors have a lot to contribute musically and how to do that.

Um, it's almost like a psychology lesson, even more than it is science.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ WENDEL: Joseph, it's great to see you.

JOSEPH: Great to see you too.

WENDEL: Here we are at Peabody Conservatory.

How long have you been here now?

JOSEPH: Oh, I think this is my seventh year, yeah.

WENDEL: Seventh year, wow, okay.

Uh, it's wonderful to have you as a, a colleague, and, uh, I just wanna ask you, what is, uh, I'm curious, what is your earliest non-participatory musical memory?

JOSEPH: My earliest non-participatory musical memory would be, you know, uh, just watching my mother sing in the church choir, yeah.

WENDEL: Mm-Hmm, okay.

And, uh, at what point did you start singing or playing instruments yourself?

JOSEPH: Um, I started playing, um, the trumpet, uh, in sixth grade.

Uh, my dad wanted me to do something to keep me outta trouble, and, uh, I was horrible at soccer.

Uh, so, uh, we decided to, you know, go the music route, and that was the first time I, um, started studying music.

WENDEL: And were you taking lessons weekly?

JOSEPH: So I was in a band, the band program, uh, public school band program and, um, I didn't have lessons until maybe I was 16 years old.

And so I was just, uh, learning through the, the, the classes in, in the band program.

WENDEL: Yeah, and do you play other instruments as well?

JOSEPH: No.

WENDEL: And so at, at what point did you find yourself considering leading an ensemble from a, a directorial role, or perspective?

Do you remember the first time you sort of got an inkling?

JOSEPH: Well, I think, um, I would say the first time I got the inkling was I, um, my, in South Carolina, um, my aunt who I always went to stay with after school, um, lived across the street from where the marching band, uh, rehearsed.

And so after school, as a middle school player, uh, kid, I always watched the high school marching band rehearsing.

And I was always fascinated by the drum major that was standing up there.

So that, that was the inkling, um, of it, um, getting the idea of what, what does this conductor do?

Um, and but it wasn't until I was, um, 16 years old that I actually got the opportunity to see an orchestra and stand in front of an ensemble, and it was the sheer sound of all of that that got me, um, excited about being in front of that sound.

And I was like, this is what I wanna do.

♪ ♪ WENDEL: Even I think in the, in the classical music world or, or jazz world, being a, a leader of an ensemble is, uh, it's unusual.

JOSEPH: Yeah, and at 16, you, you tell your parents, I wanna be a conductor, they say, "What does that mean?"

And really, I did not know what that meant.

Um, I didn't really understand that there was an industry, uh, you know, an orchestra industry out there.

Um, I knew only the educational world, I knew the band world, I knew that young kids were playing.

And, you know, my, my parents said, and I was the first one to actually go to college, and they said, you know, I think I hear what you want to do.

I think the best thing to do is go, go to college for music education, and discover how to, you know, make those steps forward.

And so I went and did my undergrad in music education, um, and I actually fell in love with teaching.

So I decided to, um, teach high school.

Um, and that's a form of conducting, you're, you're leading a, a high school group, you're trying to influence them, um, musically.

But I wanted to really dive deeper into the, the pieces that I started falling in love with.

The first score I ever bought was "The Rite of Spring."

You know, I fell in love as a trumpet player, uh, uh, with Mahler symphonies.

I wanted to do the big stuff.

WENDEL: So I've always been incredibly impressed with conductors.

I've, I've had a, a few experiences where I've, I've played as a piano soloist and, um, a few other experiences as a vocalist as well, but the, the sheer sort of breadth of knowledge and attention to detail that a conductor seems to need to have, 'cause again, I've, I've never done that, um, is, is almost mind-boggling.

JOSEPH: It is mind-boggling because the biggest role of anyone in that position is you have to have that curiosity.

You have to keep it open for, it has to be your livelihood.

The idea of discovering new things, you know, even if it's an old piece, uh, uh, a Beethoven symphony, I don't open that up the, the seventh time and want it to sound like the sixth time, you know?

I wanna open it up and really continue to dive deeper and when I look at a new piece, it's the same thing.

You are discovering the composer's voice, you're discovering the different, um, ideas that, uh, you have to communicate to, to the orchestra.

And so this puzzle, it's, that starts to be put together.

Um, from the first day of opening a score, it becomes my duty, but not only a duty, it's like the joy of conducting.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (audience applause and cheering).

WENDEL: And so the last thing I wanna ask you is what are you looking forward to in the next year, two years, three years?

JOSEPH: Oh, wow.

Um, I look forward to like exploring even more repertoire, you know, um, this concert that I'm doing with Peabody, I, I said, this is a, um, "The Rite Spring" is the first score that I bought, this is gonna be the first time I ever conducted, and it's just amazing.

Like, I'm still doing my first, I'm just excited to meet more orchestras and, but continuing to just grow as a musician.

So, um, yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to in the next three years, that's all I can say.

(laughs).

WENDEL: Well, it's really a truly a pleasure to know you and to have you as a colleague and just to be able to witness what you do artistically and musically is a huge inspiration to me.

JOSEPH: Thank you, thank you so much.

WENDEL: Thank you.

♪ ♪ DANIELLE BELEN: Anytime you put a group of talented people up on the stage, it's going to showcase what community means.

♪ ♪ NAN WASHBURN: It's really my job to just kind of bring us together as one musical voice, not easy to do, but it's, it's wonderful when it happens.

♪ ♪ BETH STEWART: The Michigan Philharmonic is a regional professional orchestra, made up of players from all around the Detroit area and sometimes even beyond.

And we are have our "world headquarters," we like to say, here in Plymouth.

We sort of call ourselves the nomadic orchestra because we travel all around and we play pretty much across southeast Michigan.

We are still considered what they would label a per-service orchestra, meaning that we hire for each concert that we do.

But we have a great terrific core group of players that do everything with us.

And Conductor Nan Washburn, who came, um, in here 20 years ago, so we're celebrating her 20th season with us.

And, um, that was a little bit of a stretch for an orchestra that had been just existing as kind of in a community model for all that time to bring, um, first of all, a woman, somebody from California, and, um, you know, to come here to this kind of small town and really change things up a bit.

And she certainly did.

NAN: I come from a very diverse kind of community, and I was so happy to find that same diversity, uh, when I came to Southeast Michigan.

And I've also branched out in lots of other, uh, different kinds of music and, and I just feel that it's really important that any orchestra reflect the community at large.

BETH: The NANiversary is our little play on words for, uh, celebrating the beginning of her 20th season with the Michigan Philharmonic.

NAN: This is, uh, kind of a Nan's wish list.

I asked for a little bit bigger orchestra than we normally can afford, so that offered a few things.

And I just wanted to put four great pieces together.

So I'm starting off with a piece that's brand new to me, Berlioz, um, "Rome Carnival Overture," which is just exciting and a great start to the season.

♪ ♪ And then I'm so happy that we've invited, uh, Danielle Belen to be our, uh, violin soloist.

And when I heard about her and I thought, I wanna do the Samuel Barber, uh, "Violin Concerto," which is just one of my favorites, it's just a fabulous piece, and she's just knock your socks off terrific.

♪ ♪ DANIELLE: I was absolutely delighted when Nan Washburn reached out to me to solo with her orchestra.

She mentioned the Barber "Violin Concerto," and that was the clincher.

I think you have to have a lot of grit to play this piece.

♪ ♪ NAN: And then after intermission, we're going to do a piece, uh, by Wael Binali.

His piece is called "Earth," and it was written for a, a climate change conference in Qatar.

It's very tuneful and beautiful.

♪ ♪ Last piece is Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphosis," which is a piece that goes way back for me, and it's just happy and fun and big and splashy, and I thought that's a great NANiversary.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ DANIELLE: It is really fantastic to have the opportunity to work with an orchestra that has a female at the helm.

The orchestra also has a lot of respect for her, um, because she's incredible at what she does, and she's passionate about them and about the soloist that she brings in.

You just, you feel a lot of authenticity.

♪ ♪ NAN: That's it, so just, um, it's mainly in the middle of the thing, the phrases that we can't slow down, ends we can do a little bit, but mostly not on that second part of the variation.

Everything that you bring to conducting is so unique.

It's learning the music, understanding what you want to say in the music.

It's an interpretive thing, you, but I always go back to see what the composer intended.

You have to figure out a style, all of that, and then you have to figure out gestures that will hopefully get the sound and the ensemble that you, you have in your head.

♪ ♪ BETH: She's definitely, um, an advocate for women conductors because, um, first of all, we always like to say she really is, um, in a man's world, there are a lot of people that when they look up on that stage and they don't see a guy, they're like, wait, what's going on here?

But there are lots more women conductors out there now, JoAnn Falletta, there are a lot of people that are making quite a name for themselves, and Nan is one of them too, we've won lots of national awards, and a lot of it is because of her and because of the programming that she's done.

DANIELLE: This is my first introduction to this orchestra, and I look forward to future collaborations with them.

They're a fantastic group of people, I could not imagine working with, um, a more spirited and hardworking group.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ NAN: I'd like to think that we are all very proud about, uh, where the orchestra has, has gone.

I mean, that's the thing about different, uh, conductors, they all have a vision and I had a very specific one heavily on education and the multicultural thing, and bringing in new composers and making the orchestra grow in excellence.

And I, I think we've achieved that.

So, uh, at a plateau, we will go on from there too.

♪ ♪ (audience applause).

♪ ♪ JESSICA HELEN LOPEZ: Hey.

Welcome, Gemma.

GEMMA NEW: Great to see you.

JESSICA: Welcome, thank you for being here.

GEMMA: Thanks for having me.

JESSICA: We're so glad you're here, come on in.

JESSICA: What is your love for music?

GEMMA: It's an amazing phenomenon, and it is really hard to put into words what makes music so powerful and how it moves us.

I always feel, uh, happiest when I, after a concert, someone says, "I was moved by that" because that means their soul really was transported, it was, it was uplifted um, and they were inspired.

And possibly they can take that away from the concert hall and feel differently as they go through the streets, um, continuing.

And so there is a certain magic about music.

How did a composer like Beethoven, who wrote a piece over 200 years ago, wrote something that we are still moved by now?

It's, he, he was genius.

I mean, it is fantastic.

And then we look at, okay, throughout the years, orchestras have had different styles and traditions, and they've played that Beethoven Symphony many different ways, and yet people are still moved by all the different ways that people speak it.

Uh, and then you look at the conductor, the conductor doesn't say a word in, in the performance, they don't make any noise at all, and yet somehow, they're connecting with all the musicians on stage, and we're all listening to each other and breathing together, and we somehow play in harmony.

How does that all work?

I, it, it's, it's one of the greatest mysteries, but I am obsessed by it.

I, I love to see how I can, um, go deeper into that experience.

And what helps me is to really know everyone's part, and then I can just connect to it, even if it's just in my little finger.

It's just having all that, those people combine, uh, over the same joy of the music and, and then somehow the audience feels like they're right there on stage with us.

It, it, it, I love it.

It's fantastic.

JESSICA: You're here in Santa Fe representing, uh, Pro Musica and the Women of Distinction Initiative.

Uh, tell me about why you think it's important for a woman to be in the arts, especially in a leadership role.

GEMMA: Well, uh, historically I think there haven't, um, been a lot of female leaders in, in the arts and so, um, I think we're coming to a time when, um, everyone, uh, is more open-minded about what women can do, uh, with their careers.

And so, uh, when I was growing up, um, my mom said, "Gemma, you can do whatever career you like, um, so long as you work hard and it you have talent."

And I actually, she said, "even being a woman," and I laughed at her because I thought, "Of course."

JESSICA: Yeah, right.

GEMMA: Why would that make a difference?

JESSICA: Mm-Hmm.

GEMMA: And for me, it, it really ha, I think, uh, I've worked hard at this career, um, for about, uh, 17 years now, and, um, it's always a, a long and steady road just growing, uh, incrementally, um, but, uh, it's something that I really believe in and I, I want to continue pursuing.

Um, I think for others, uh, it's encouraging for them to see a female leader in this role, um, because it maybe it makes them think that they can do, um, it, it as well.

And, uh, I think we're seeing more and more female conductors, which is really exciting.

JESSICA: Can you remember a specific time when you were much younger when music just spoke to you, you knew it was this divine message that came to you and said, "You will be a musician," "You will be a conductor."

Do you have a memory like that?

GEMMA: I do, yes.

Um, I was 12 years old playing the violin in an or a youth orchestra.

Uh, and so I think that's why I love youth orchestra so much, uh, there were 200 of us on stage and we did, um, a really powerful piece um, Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," and in the Great Gates of Kyiv, I made a promise to my young self to always be part of an orchestra.

Uh, I didn't know exactly how it would pan out, um, and then when I was 15, I got first chance to conduct and I said to my best friend that night, I was like, this is it, this is what I wanna pursue.

Um, and, uh, the road just started from there, I started asking questions.

That's the biggest thing, be curious.

JESSICA: Do women bring something unique to orchestral conducting?

GEMMA: I think that everyone brings something unique, uh, to orchestral conducting, um, and to music.

Uh, as, uh, an artist, uh, it is our job to find what we are uniquely strong at or what our potential is and how to get there and realizing that potential, um, what our weaknesses are that we really need to work on, um, and, uh, it's finding that unique voice that you have, who are you as a person, um, especially as a conductor, it's all about communication.

So how do you communicate both, uh, very efficiently in words and rehearsal where it's in front of a lot of people, it's not private.

Um, and yet it has to be so direct and somehow, um, resonate with that person, um, in, in a high, uh, stakes environment.

Um, and also physically, how you show the music without talking, without using words.

Um, and also sometimes it's just a miracle how maybe telepathically we connect.

JESSICA: I mean, that's a really important leadership role.

GEMMA: Yes.

JESSICA: What do you bring to it as a woman?

GEMMA: Leadership uh, skills that I, I find very important are, um, being a good listener.

So for the first rehearsal, um, when I meet an orchestra, especially for the first time, but even if it's one that I've met for many times and I'm just seeing where we are at in the first rehearsal, I want to know what they're giving and then, um, being able to build upon that foundation and unifying everyone's voice so that we have a really strong unified interpretation at the end of the week.

JESSICA: Your end goal is to create the best collaboration possible.

GEMMA: Yes.

JESSICA: And you at the helm need to kind of, uh, navigate those areas.

GEMMA: Yes, and it is definitely creating an environment on stage.

That's what a leader does, um, we have to have the artistic vision of the piece, but also how we are going to work as a team.

So I really try to make a positive environment, very supportive of each other, and one where we all very much mutually respect what we are bringing because everyone's voice is valuable in an orchestra.

JESSICA: What do you hope to achieve with your work?

GEMMA: I really hope to, uh, bring, uh, people together and, uh, to make people feel uplifted.

Uh, and that's what I fell in love with when I was 12 years old, the fact that I was creating something that was bigger than myself.

And it was the idea that when we come together, we can create something powerful.

♪ ♪