Sarah's Big Week
In case you're wondering why you're not hearing a lot from our Ms. Hicks on the blog this week, the answer is that, well, she's kinda busy. This is a huge week for Sarah - her subcription debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, and (as she noted at our first rehearsal of the week,) her first time getting more than one rehearsal for a concert with us after more than 70 (!) performances in Minneapolis. (As we've noted more than once, the orchestra gets 4-5 rehearsals for a subscription concert week, but only one chance to rehearse pops shows, young people's concerts, and Inside the Classics.)
Making a major orchestra debut is always a nerve-racking experience for a young conductor (and make no mistake, Sarah is a seriously young conductor - mid-thirties is about 13 in conductor years,) and thus far, Sarah's been handling it with extreme calm and efficiency in rehearsal. I'll leave it to her to talk about the specifics of the experience, but I think we should have some awfully fun concerts ahead of us this week, and if you normally only come to our Inside the Classics shows, I'd strongly encourage you to check out Sarah's programs on Thursday and Friday.
The repertoire for these concerts (which Sarah picked out) is some of the most interesting we'll do all year, and it really highlights the orchestra as a whole. I know all the ads we're running for this program say "Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante," (shades of last year's Mahler 9 program being promoted as "Schubert's Unfinished Symphony," no?) but the real meat of this concert are the bookending pieces by Schedrin and Lutoslawski. Not exactly household names, true, but the Lutoslawski is an incredible magnum opus that manages to be intellectual without ever becoming off-putting, and the Schedrin is just good, hard-rocking fun. (If you remember the percussion extravaganza we put on last spring, Schedrin was the composer of that ridiculous and wonderful adaptation of Bizet's Carmen.)
So if you've been waiting for a chance to see Sarah conduct without the goofball standing next to her cracking silly jokes the whole time, here's your chance. And don't forget to come back to the blog after the show and let us know what you thought...
Making a major orchestra debut is always a nerve-racking experience for a young conductor (and make no mistake, Sarah is a seriously young conductor - mid-thirties is about 13 in conductor years,) and thus far, Sarah's been handling it with extreme calm and efficiency in rehearsal. I'll leave it to her to talk about the specifics of the experience, but I think we should have some awfully fun concerts ahead of us this week, and if you normally only come to our Inside the Classics shows, I'd strongly encourage you to check out Sarah's programs on Thursday and Friday.
The repertoire for these concerts (which Sarah picked out) is some of the most interesting we'll do all year, and it really highlights the orchestra as a whole. I know all the ads we're running for this program say "Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante," (shades of last year's Mahler 9 program being promoted as "Schubert's Unfinished Symphony," no?) but the real meat of this concert are the bookending pieces by Schedrin and Lutoslawski. Not exactly household names, true, but the Lutoslawski is an incredible magnum opus that manages to be intellectual without ever becoming off-putting, and the Schedrin is just good, hard-rocking fun. (If you remember the percussion extravaganza we put on last spring, Schedrin was the composer of that ridiculous and wonderful adaptation of Bizet's Carmen.)
So if you've been waiting for a chance to see Sarah conduct without the goofball standing next to her cracking silly jokes the whole time, here's your chance. And don't forget to come back to the blog after the show and let us know what you thought...
posted by Sam at
9:03 AM
4 Comments:
Good luck, Sarah - you go, girl!
Thanks, Nicki - the first concert was a blast (in all senses of the word), as well as one heck of a workout!
I cannot resist, Sam -- do musicians really think in terms of "conductor years"? What is the ratio? 3 to 1? That's not fair! Conductors remain young longer than the rest of us! (laughing) How old is Osmo in conductor years? I love this. Can I use it in my novels? Cinda
There's no actual ratio, and no, musicians don't keep any sort of running tally of conductor years that I'm aware of. It's just that conductors tend to have their peak years far later than instrumentalists. Most instrumentalists are at their best in their late 20s to late 30s, and then have to start fighting the body's urge to lose some of its physical strength and elasticity. Conducting is a less physical and more cerebral activity, so conductors often take longer to truly become masters of their craft, but because they aren't dependent on so many small muscle groups working in concert, they can be effective far longer than, say, the average violinist
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