Michael Christie

It's a pleasure.

Yep, with lots of snow already.

More coming.

Nice.

Sure. I think what was very interesting about the beginning of my professional life was that it was happening at a time in the mid-'90s when orchestras and opera companies, for that matter, were almost inexplicably taking a chance on very young conductors [laughter] because there was... before that, I don't think you could be... it would be imagined that you'd be more than really an apprentice conductor or an assistant conductor. But suddenly, there was a change in the mentality of what the nurturing of a young person might be in the field. And at that time, Franz Welser-Möst, then music director of the Zurich Opera—who was on a panel for the Sibelius Conducting Competition where I participated—pulled me aside and said, "Look, it seems like you have some understanding for how this whole conducting thing works, but you need to come to the opera house and really learn about the inner workings of music and drama and storytelling, and the craft."And so for about four years, I was his assistant at the Zurich Opera, doing all the ballet productions, taking over productions once they were in the repertoire, doing all the staging sessions, collaborating with the directors, with the singers. It was great. So I was very, very grateful. And some other conductors—I know Jim Gaffigan, for example, also worked with Franz in Zurich. And yes, I was also concurrently working in a very introductory way into the symphonic world in Scandinavia. I got my first job in Australia as music director of the Queensland Symphony. So I think even at that time—which is something that is still pervasive today—there was a symphony track and there was an opera track. And somehow, I was managing to keep my feet separate and having one in either camp. And that was just... that has been something I've fought for to this day because it's really hard.

It's liberating, I think, actually. And although I do find sometimes working with various orchestras that they have been conditioned to expect every little gesture to come from the conductor, every musical gesture. And so sometimes I have definitely found that there's been a friction when I would say to somebody, "Oh great, yeah, I hear how you're taking time there and I can accommodate that." And they'll say, "Well, is that what you want?" And I'll say, "Well, it's within the range of expectations for how this will go, and if that's how you feel it, I can accommodate that." And sometimes that's worked really well, and the orchestra's been like, "Oh great, fantastic, there's flexibility." And then other times, there's this feeling like, "Well, do you want that or not?" So I definitely have found that part of the juggling act to be a little... it's like a little bit of a job hazard when you go and meet an orchestra.

Rubato. I find rubato with an orchestra that isn't as used to the idea of breathing to be really problematic. Often, they will rush up to the point where we should slow down and then suddenly hit the brakes. And to get the ensemble to feel the space of the few seconds before that as a fertile ground to let things start to expand is very confronting. And it just depends on their tradition, I think.

Oh boy, a very, very long time ago. Actually in Australia, because those tone poems would have been more on the minds of the more British-oriented Australian orchestras.

I think it gives me more confidence in knowing that everybody understands how the tug and pull will work. So, yeah, I just think that not only is it what they're producing musically, but it's also you start to get into their head about how they're forming a vowel, how they are getting ready for something. You can tell if they're maybe vocally needing a little bit of help, or if actually they're really cruising forward. And I think that applies to pianists as well as clarinetists and other experiences in accompanying. It doesn't just become, "How are they executing those notes on the page?" You really start to appreciate, as you said before, about that distance—negotiating the distance, negotiating the fact those singers have lights shining directly in their eyes and it's hard for them to see, and all they hear is this muffled sound. There's just all these factors. And when you can just relax and know that there will be a moment for you to exert the momentum that's required, and when they are going to, and it's not personally offensive to your musicality, then I think you're doing okay. [laughter]

Right.

Yeah, I think one of the truly liberating things about having an interpretive angle about Mozart, for example, is working with living composers. Because you realize that the dots on the page that they have there are a close approximation to the timing, to the feel, to the energy of what they're looking for. And there's no way that that humanity would be different between Mozart and Kevin Puts, for example. They have families, and they're paying bills, and they're creating music and reflecting what's around them. So Mozart wasn't in a bubble and immune from that, so that's all in that music.So I think for living composers, it's always starting with a phone call to just start to understand what they're looking for. Some composers, you can really tell that they have invested so much in every particular detail that they've written down that you will get the best relationship out of them if you really try to execute on that. And other composers, they'll say, "Yeah, I really want to get that sweep there, and I know that I didn't write an accelerando because I didn't want it to rush, but let it feel like it's pushing forward." So you really start to get a sense of how their musical intention relates to what they've actually written on the page.

Yeah! I think it's really true. And it makes my stomach get a little tight when I hear somebody say, "Come scritto," and you just hear that, "It says an eighth note rest, so it will have this duration. This says a half note, it will have this duration. Start, stop." And I just think, "Oh, yeah, I know," but especially in opera, when there's an emotional sigh, or if there's a gesture that has movement, don't you want to let it just a little bit? [laughter] So it makes me nervous when people say that because I think, yes, of course, you can check the box of having the sound stop exactly at that moment, but maybe you're not exactly... well, I won't say that you aren't getting the intention because sure, it's there, but it makes me nervous. [laughter]

Right.

Yeah. Very early in my time—actually, after this competition in Finland in 1995—Henry Fogel, who was then running the Chicago Symphony, said, as Franz Welser-Möst did, he said, "You know, I want you to come and spend some time, just sitting in rehearsals with the CSO, and just be a fly on the wall." An apprentice-type thing with Maestro Barenboim, and come and see the different conductors. And so before my position in Zurich started, I did this little zoom back and forth between Oberlin College, where I was finishing up, and Chicago. And of course, working with Maestro Barenboim was fantastic on so many levels.But as to this very question about the impression you get with an orchestra, it was actually Pierre Boulez. I remember sitting in the conductor's suite with him, looking at Dumbarton Oaks, and I asked him a couple of questions and I said, "So, Maestro, when you are in front of the orchestra, what is your strategy?" And he said, "No matter what happens, get to the end. They need to know the feeling, not only the musical thing that we're all aiming for together, but they need to know that you can get to the end, that you have a feeling for what the piece is supposed to do." And from that moment on, for the last 25 years, every first rehearsal is a read-through top to bottom, even if it's a disaster. I will always say, "We have time to come back to that, don't worry, let's just keep moving on." So I try to consciously avoid that moment where three, five, seven minutes into it, everybody says, "Why did you stop? What do you want?" I just take that out of the equation. And then they can judge me however else they want to.

Yeah.

Sure. So, the New West Symphony is made up of musicians from Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. Many of them are playing in the studios—they're on Star Trek, Star Wars film scores, and James Cameron, John Williams, you name it, all those film scores my colleagues are playing on. And still today, actually, even in the pandemic, they're home in their studios recording just one person to the click track, etc. So it's a great, skillful group that really relishes the opportunity to play together with that very, very visceral symphonic music because a lot of them do really just have to play to that click often in their day jobs. So it's a great energy there.And when I got there, I... well, actually, I'll just step back just a second to say that when I was asked by their general manager to come in for a colleague who was ill, he said, "Oh, we're doing a search, but I know you're doing this opera thing and everything else, and so just come in, don't feel intimidated by the search process." So I got there, and I'm looking around and working with the colleagues and just thinking, A, these people are amazing, and B, the CEO, Natalia Staneva, we were talking about the community development strategies that I had been employing with lots of other communities in the past, and other activity. And I said, "You know, what would happen if... what would you consider happening if I brought a number of these ideas that had already been successful in other communities, and you don't have to recreate the wheel?" And she said, "Get yourself in this search process and we'll talk."And so it happened that way, I was appointed, and right away I said, "One of the first things I want to implement is adding a whole expansive programming in the intermission." And so we've actually turned the intermission into this Q&A, new music, swirling format so that audience members can choose to experience different interfaces with artists, or they can head out to the lobby and enjoy their wine, and they've got this choice time, which I think has been really fascinating. And we only got a few concerts to implement it, but it was terrific how people were participating in that. So that was a really great start. We also started making a certain thematic approach to the programming. I didn't want to overwhelm people with themes because I had done some of that approach early and it just got confusing for people. So a couple of performances were themed and others were balanced more traditionally, I suppose.

Yes.

Right, right.

Well, I think having done this for 25 years, I've come up with a bit of a strategy overall. Like, I think the audience does need a piece to sink their teeth into, like a Scheherazade, for example. But then after that, I really feel like adding a surprise element is always interesting. So for my first concert there in the season pre-COVID, we did John Corigliano's Salute, which has the chorus or the orchestra playing their parts on kazoos. Just icebreaker-type things. I really do try to put an emphasis on American artistry, I suppose—not just American artists or American composers necessarily, but like an umbrella about artistry. So working with Marcus Roberts, working with David Krakauer, working with artists doing different things.One thing that this intermission concept has allowed us to say to our audience there is that whether you want to hear it or not, there will be on offer for you a new piece on every concert, which you will have never heard before. And I'm very, very deliberate about making sure that the orchestra had never played it before, and then the audience gets to choose. Now, before COVID hit, we had probably 85% of the audience come back because they're five-minute pieces at the end of the intermission. But it was so great to be able to say to the people who were looking for that new music experience, "You will have it every time. Every time you come to one of our performances, you'll have that." And of course, it's curated. I'm thinking about that excited concertgoer who's doing another career, who doesn't know Puts versus Poulenc, you know. I don't expect them to know that, but I know that, so I'm going to curate that experience for them. So I think a lot of the programming strategy is about, in the season, a mix of different kinds of artists, allowing there to be a little bit of audience interaction where there may be something new happening. And what this online world has allowed us to do now is that we can create content around the explanation part, which is enormously full because we're not subjecting 1,800 people to a conductor way down there addressing the audience. We can do this.

It's so old school, and yet it's on people's desks now. It's amazing. And that's where we've pivoted now, which I think is really exciting.

Well, my biggest concern is that there will be a group of our audience that won't or can't come back to the hall, at least for a number of seasons. And one of the things that I think is really important for us to do right now is to lay track for them, to get them comfortable with the technology, enable them to see how the extra content can work, how they can experience on their smart TV or even their laptop the concert experience. And it gives us the experience of creating that for them as well. So that's one of the big things that we're really thinking about as we create these "docu-concerts," is what the orchestra concertgoer who can't come will experience at home so that they will be confident to say, "Yes, I want to hear the New West Symphony because I love the mix of classical and new, cultural, etc., etc., and I know it's on this channel," so to speak. And that's one of our big missions with our activities during COVID.

Good luck everybody, stay healthy.