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- John DeMain: I just have been
so fortunate in my life

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to work with phenomenally
talented people.

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The privilege of just rolling up
your sleeves every day,

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going into a rehearsal room,

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and just working on the art
collectively.

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I love this job,
and who wouldn't?

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I started out actually

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with the St. Paul Chamber
Orchestra professionally,

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and then I got sidetracked
to Houston.

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I was 18 years at Houston Grand
Opera and had a fantastic time.

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But I always loved
orchestral conducting

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and I thought I could be good
at it.

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If you have a life
as a guest conductor,

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you can't make a difference.

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But if you invest
in a community,

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you can make a difference
over the time.

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And that's what I hoped
I would be able to do.

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So, I was able
to come into Madison

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and see what we were doing
and what we were not doing.

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For example,
we weren't doing a matinee.

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Here we are 32 years later,
it's our biggest audience.

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So, I started that.

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What I didn't know
when I arrived

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was that when Roland took this

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from an unpaid
community orchestra

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to a paid orchestra
back in the 1960s,

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he invited the heads
of the department

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at the University of Wisconsin

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to be the principal players
in the orchestra.

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So, they never auditioned
to play.

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For me, that was a closed shop,
and I blew it open.

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One, two, four, and.

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We started blind auditions.

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Oh, my God, did things change.

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You don't get into the orchestra
now

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unless you're really phenomenal.

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This is not
a full-time orchestra.

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This is a fully paid orchestra.

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Every time it sits down, it's
paid, but it's not full time.

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But they fall in love
with the city

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and they find a way to live here
and work here,

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which is really great.

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It was a little touch and go
when I first came here

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because the acoustical problems
were monumental.

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And what are you gonna say?

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"Don't come to the symphony
'cause it'll sound like crap."

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In 1985, when they opened
the Oscar Meyer,

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which was a refurbished
Capitol Theater,

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they didn't really change it

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in the sense of what its
acoustical problems were.

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How I found this out,

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there was a young people's
concert

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and I wasn't conducting it,
and I came to hear it.

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And I sat underneath the balcony
where there were 900 seats.

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And the orchestra sounded like
the worst high school orchestra

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you ever heard in your life.

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I mean, awful.

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And if anybody sat
underneath there,

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they would never come again.

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During the same piece, I went
upstairs to the mezzanine

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and to the upstairs.

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And it sounded
like Carnegie Hall.

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I learned pretty early on

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that a woman by the name
of Pleasant Rowland,

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who was married
to Jerome Frautschi,

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they demonstrated their interest

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in being philanthropists
for the arts.

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And Pleasant, of course, created
the American Girl doll.

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And then she sold it to Mattel,

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and Jerry was co-investor
with her.

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And then Jerry,
he gave us the money.

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Over $200 million,

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the largest philanthropical gift
ever in, you know, the arts

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to build Overture Hall.

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And I think he saw the
possibility

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of what that could do
for downtown,

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and indeed it did.

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Now, we had a hall that had
a real acoustical shell.

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It had a real
acoustical environment

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that was designed
to have great acoustics

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from the beginning to the end.

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I mean, it's beautiful.

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And Pleasant wanted it
to be high end.

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She wanted you to walk in there

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and feel the beauty
of natural wood.

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And she gave us the gift
of the Overture concert organ,

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which is a magnificent
4,000-pipe organ.

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I sort of had the idea
for this weekend

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because I remembered way back
when Overture Hall opened,

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the open house that Jerry stood
in the doorway

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and welcomed people
off the streets,

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and I thought, you know,
we should do that.

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You know, Overture Center
is our home where we play,

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and we should just invite people
in,

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and then we bring together
the community

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with all different kinds
of music.

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It's my last concert
as music director,

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but it's not my last concert
because, you know,

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the orchestra was very nice to
name me music director emeritus.

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You know,
as conductors get older,

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we don't mind giving up
all the planning

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and the administrative duties
and the auditions

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and all that kind of stuff,
and we just want to make music.

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And so, I'm glad that that's
what I'm doing next year

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with the symphony
is making some music,

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'cause that's the most fun.

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One, two, three.
[orchestral music]

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Since I was 14 years old,

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I have been conducting
almost every day of my life.

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So, to not do that anymore,
it's gonna be different,

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and it might be hard,

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but the thing is, most of us who
conduct, we play an instrument,

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and we can have a personal
relationship with music,

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you know, and I love that
so much.

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I could sit here and play
for hours if I wasn't studying,

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you know, for my next
symphony concert.

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I'd get out some Chopin and try
to work my fingers, you know.

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So, I think I'll be just fine.

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[rousing orchestral music]