WEBVTT

00:00.000 --> 00:28.980
I just have been so fortunate in my life to work with phenomenally talented people.

00:28.980 --> 00:40.980
The privilege of just rolling up your sleeves every day, going into a rehearsal room and just working on the art collectively.

00:40.980 --> 00:43.980
I love this job and who wouldn't.

00:43.980 --> 00:50.980
I started out actually with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra professionally and then I got sidetracked to Houston.

00:50.980 --> 00:55.980
I was 18 years at Houston Grand Opera and had a fantastic time.

00:55.980 --> 00:59.980
But I always loved orchestral conducting and I thought I could be good at it.

00:59.980 --> 01:02.980
If you have a life as a guest conductor, you can't make a difference.

01:02.980 --> 01:06.980
But if you invest in a community, you can make a difference over the time.

01:06.980 --> 01:08.980
And that's what I hoped I would be able to do.

01:08.980 --> 01:14.980
So I was able to come into Madison and see what we were doing and what we were not doing.

01:14.980 --> 01:18.980
For example, we weren't doing a matinee.

01:18.980 --> 01:21.980
Here we are 32 years later, it's our biggest audience.

01:21.980 --> 01:22.980
So I started that.

01:23.980 --> 01:32.980
What I didn't know when I arrived was that when Rowland took this from an unpaid community orchestra to a paid orchestra back in the 1960s,

01:32.980 --> 01:40.980
he invited the heads of the department at the University of Wisconsin to be the principal players in the orchestra.

01:40.980 --> 01:42.980
So they never auditioned to play.

01:42.980 --> 01:46.980
For me that was a closed shop and I blew it open.

01:46.980 --> 01:49.980
One, two, four, and ten.

01:49.980 --> 01:51.980
We started blind auditions.

01:51.980 --> 01:53.980
Oh my God, the things change.

01:53.980 --> 01:58.980
You don't get into the orchestra now unless you're really phenomenal.

01:58.980 --> 02:00.980
This is not a full-time orchestra.

02:00.980 --> 02:02.980
This is a fully paid orchestra.

02:02.980 --> 02:05.980
Every time it sits down, it's paid, but it's not full-time.

02:05.980 --> 02:11.980
But they fall in love with the city and they find a way to live here and work here, which is really great.

02:11.980 --> 02:16.980
It was a little touch and go when I first came here because the acoustical problems were monumental.

02:17.980 --> 02:19.980
And what are you going to say?

02:19.980 --> 02:21.980
Don't come to the symphony because it'll sound like crap.

02:21.980 --> 02:30.980
In 1985, when they opened the Oscar Meyer, which was a refurbished capital theater, they didn't really change it in the sense of what its acoustical problems were.

02:30.980 --> 02:32.980
Now I found this out.

02:32.980 --> 02:37.980
There was a young people's concert and I wasn't conducting it and I came to hear it.

02:37.980 --> 02:42.980
And I sat underneath the balcony where there were 900 seats.

02:42.980 --> 02:47.980
And the orchestra sounded like the worst high school orchestra you ever heard in your life.

02:47.980 --> 02:49.980
I mean, awful.

02:49.980 --> 02:53.980
And if anybody sat underneath there, they would never come again.

02:53.980 --> 02:57.980
During the same piece, I went upstairs to the mezzanine and to the upstairs.

02:57.980 --> 02:59.980
And it sounded like Carnegie Hall.

02:59.980 --> 03:05.980
I learned pretty early on that a woman by the name of Pleasant Rowland, who was married to Jerome Frouchy,

03:05.980 --> 03:10.980
they demonstrated their interest in being philanthropists for the arts.

03:10.980 --> 03:13.980
And Pleasant, of course, created the American Girl doll.

03:13.980 --> 03:19.980
And then she sold it to Mattel and Jerry was co-investor with her.

03:19.980 --> 03:22.980
And then Jerry, he gave us the money.

03:22.980 --> 03:30.980
Over $200 million, the largest philanthropic gift ever in the arts to build over to your hall.

03:30.980 --> 03:35.980
And I think he saw the possibility of what that could do for downtown and indeed it did.

03:36.980 --> 03:39.980
Now we had a hall that had a real acoustical shell.

03:39.980 --> 03:46.980
It had a real acoustical environment that was designed to have great acoustics from the beginning to the end.

03:46.980 --> 03:48.980
It was beautiful.

03:48.980 --> 03:50.980
And Pleasant wanted it to be high-end.

03:50.980 --> 03:55.980
She wanted you to walk in there and feel the beauty of natural wood.

03:55.980 --> 04:04.980
And she gave us the gift of the Overture Concert Organ, which is a magnificent 4,000-pipe organ.

04:05.980 --> 04:10.980
I sort of had the idea for this weekend because I remembered way back when Overture Hall opened,

04:10.980 --> 04:14.980
the open house that Jerry stood in the doorway and welcomed people off the streets,

04:14.980 --> 04:16.980
and I thought, you know, we should do that.

04:16.980 --> 04:20.980
You know, Overture Center is our home where we play, and we should just invite people in,

04:20.980 --> 04:24.980
and then we bring together the community with all different kinds of music.

04:24.980 --> 04:30.980
It's my last concert as music director, but it's not my last concert because, you know,

04:30.980 --> 04:34.980
the orchestra was very nice to name me, music director emeritus.

04:34.980 --> 04:38.980
You know, as conductors get older, we don't mind giving up all the planning

04:38.980 --> 04:41.980
and the administrative duties and the auditions and all that kind of stuff,

04:41.980 --> 04:43.980
and we just want to make music.

04:43.980 --> 04:47.980
And so I'm glad that that's what I'm doing next year with the symphonies is making some music,

04:47.980 --> 04:49.980
because that's the most fun.

04:49.980 --> 04:51.980
One, two, three.

04:51.980 --> 04:58.980
Since I was 14 years old, I have been conducting almost every day of my life.

04:59.980 --> 05:05.980
So, to not do that anymore, it's going to be different, and it might be hard,

05:05.980 --> 05:09.980
but the thing is, most of us who conduct, we play an instrument,

05:09.980 --> 05:13.980
and we can have a personal relationship with music, you know,

05:13.980 --> 05:14.980
and I love that so much.

05:14.980 --> 05:18.980
I could sit here and play for hours if I wasn't studying, you know,

05:18.980 --> 05:19.980
for my next symphony concert.

05:19.980 --> 05:24.980
I get out some Chopin and try to work my fingers, you know.

05:24.980 --> 05:27.980
So, I think I'll be just fine.

05:28.980 --> 05:33.980
MUSIC