Job Search 2

So last January I was a finalist (1 of 2) for Buffalo's WNED (market #52) Program Director. As I scoped out the area by emailing my friend Gabe DiMaio, who worked at WBFO as assistant PD, I found out he was the other candidate! (picture at right is NOT from Buffalo in January, believe me!)

There were two phone interviews, and I had to listen to the air signal, doing what essentially were air checks - and discovered alot I liked, and lot I questioned.

Later in the month, I went up and met the staff and was interviewed, wined and dined. (The studios are seen right with a now former announcer.)

After a month of waiting, they chose Gabe.

It was fun to get up to Buffalo, but there was enough wackiness that it didn't seem right. I was bummed because a dear friend and brilliant conductor, JoAnn Falletta is the conductor there, and I would have loved to worked with her on a regular basis.

Everyone also kept mentioning the TV station as "an 800 pound gorilla" and their falling ratings.
I truly believe things work out the way they should.
As cool as Buffalo could have been, it wasn't meant to be.

Job Search 1

In December I was a finalist (1 of 4) for KUHF's Director of Cultural Programming in Houston (market #6).

I spent a day meting the staff and talking with the management. I had met Dean Dalton previously at a PRPD in San Antonio, and he knew my friend Joyce DiDonato when she was at Houston Opera.

Talking on the phone for the interview, we also had a good friend Andy Trudeau in common, when I worked at National Public Radio.

The day was long, flying out of Baltimore direct to Houston (see John on the plane upper right hand corner). A limo picked me up and took me to the University of Houston (John in the limo, pictured left). Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see my old professor Andrzej Grabiec who teaches there, but I did get to see the studios and hear a taping for an upcoming Christmas show (including the Revels!) [The Irish Tenors taped for a show that day as well, seen below left]

A lunch followed with the key players. Afterwards a few more questions and it was back to the airport.

They selected St. John Smyth for the gig, which probably bodes well for them and me. As it turns out, I had much more to offer other stations, as you'll read in the next few days. [Cool radio scultpure, they call "The Head" at KUHF's studios, pictured below right]

Seen everything?

Not yet...odd way to advertise public radio.

Listen and vote

It will take a few moments to register, but the following two minutes is well worth it.
Please take two minutes, and vote for my friend Jann at Public Radio Talent Quest.
You'll be glad you did, and then be able to say, oh yeah, I voted for her in round one...and round two, and the finals, and woohoo!
Go ahead, you know you want to!

Get Carter

What a great discussion going on over at Classical Notes! There is also another posting at New Music Box.
This is my response to Don Lee's post:
Don and his non-broadcasting friend bring up an interesting point, that a "concert performance engaged him in a way that a radio broadcast of the piece would not have done."
There are several questions to about why this was more engaging...is it the visual side to music making or seeing the performer? Is it sitting in a wonderful hall with fine acoustics? Is it knowing you're one of many audience members enjoying the music?
Also, how often do you "put down the op-ed pages, turn up the radio and just listen?" with any radio broadcast: music or news?
Is radio meant to be background or foreground? Is it art or business?
Let's take a piece from the early 20th Century not as challenging as the Messiaen or Carter, Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos as an example. If you listen to it on the radio or from your cd/ipod/musical device, you'll hear the notes played by performers X & Y with Z orchestra. Yet you won't see the interaction of the brilliant orchestration of Poulenc when pianist X plays with the violins on the right side of the stage and pianist Y play with the cellos on the left side of the stage. It really is stunning to see, besides hearing it. So should you only enjoy the Poulenc in a live performance and not a recording? You may not be as engaged by it.
Violinist Joshua Bell is currently on tour with a recital, and soon to be playing on tour with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. He is a performer who communicates brilliantly on his recordings, yet seeing him play live is another level. His recital partner on the current tour, Jeremy Denk is someone who is constantly communicating with Bell on stage. Yet both shouldn't be missed on recording or the radio, or in the hall.
I truly believe if radio stations played Carter as much as they play Stamitz, Mozart and Vivaldi that it would not be the case that a 14 minute piano & orchestra work by Elliott would be more engaging in the concert hall, or while reading the business ads of the Star Tribune. Engaging music is engaging music.
We should always ask ourselves why. Why is live music engaging on Performance Today? Why is the programming engaging from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra? Why is a break engaing on Classical 24? Why interview a composer for Composing Thoughts? If it is not engaging, why isn't it? Perhaps it is not the music. I'll take Carter anyday over Vivaldi.
[pictured above right, Poulenc; pictured above left, Carter]

A response to a response

More from Comparing Notes at Minnesota Public Radio. Here's what I had to say:
John-
Thanks for your response, and congrats on a successful drive!

A few more points, to help clarify (or clare-ify if you will, hahaha)
If John had read carefully, I wrote "perhaps" they walk out because the music is bad.
Great word, "perhaps"...and I agree completely. Most of this discussion comes from my part reading it before coffee and a cigar. I’m now trying to take time in making these comments precise and with thought (hence sleeping on it last night and posting today.)
I just don't see that many folks walking out on concerts in general - nor do I really want them to leave unless they do give it a chance (be it Beethoven or Babbitt!) – what is “giving it a try” length?

Quantity ain't necessarily quality.
I'm asserting that the many concerts I take in there IS great quality to the performance and music choices. Of course, I spend a large amount of time figuring out what concerts to go to before I go - which I recommend to others as well.
I am not asserting that since there are so many composers these days that music is on a higher level - but in general I want to make a point that American music really is top form – hence the Vienna of the 1890s comparison. You should really give music every bit of chance. Perhaps this is why I don’t watch American Idol: I want to make my own opinion, and I also do not want to judge immediately.

This assumes that a) you gave it a fair shake, and b) it's not disruptive to others at the concert who *are* getting the experience they came for.
Amen! and there (being disruptive) is where I have a huge problem: talking during the music or being loud in leaving. Please, if you must leave, be kind and respectful to the other audience members.

If it was simply a matter of being averse to "sonic disturbances," people would be leaving movie theaters in droves every night of the week at Dolby THX suburban multiplexes across the land.
THIS is where I mentioned the latest movies. Sorry, but I didn’t get the idea you were talking about volume, rather I took it as content.

if the art that's presented to them has a compelling story to tell, one that makes them so engaged that they can't wait for the next scene, the next movement, the next chapter.
I will maintain that if you go through a journey, things become clearer. Should people leave after the first chord in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony finale?! Gosh, if you don’t like percussion, shouldn’t I leave Beethoven’s Ninth when the second movement starts with that awful timpani?! If you stay through an entire piece, you’ll get the architecture and perhaps some catharsis…I will say if the orchestra is butchering a work, say a masterpiece like Beethoven’s Ninth, you should feel free to leave. (But again, please be considerate to other concert goers!) [A cinematic comparison could be made with the movie “Crash” – where after the first hour things are connected that weren’t before; if you left the theater after that hour, you would have a very different view of this movie than staying for the entire film. A literary example might be an Ayn Rand novel where five seemingly unrelated elements are all drawn together to make a compelling and remarkable story. Yet, if you stop reading it, you don’t realize the elements are there to clarify it.]
Mostly I yearn to keep an open mind about art – especially music of our time. I do not want to give any ammunition for the bashing of new music. It’s close to my heart and I try to protect it in any way possible.

John, I will admit there are compositions I don’t care for, but you’ll hear me plead for those that I love, rather than those I hate. (Hard to believe after my passionate defense above, huh?) I write a regular “Five Things” post on ClassicallyHip about concerts I attend. They are on the whole positive, because I write about what I liked, rarely about the negative.

So, I’ll come around and answer, What keeps me in my seat?
Creativity, originality, beauty, and curiosity.
More specifically, performers like Helene Grimaud, Janine Jansen, eighth blackbird, and Gil Shaham. Composers like Andrzej Panufnik, Jennifer Higdon, Augusta Read Thomas, Elliott Carter, and John Harbison to name a few.
I hope more folks comment on what keeps them in their seat, I’m anxious to know!