Opening Night
Opening weekend at the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony had double the attendance of last year, and Saturday’s performance broke box office records for walk-up sales. The press coverage was great, and we were even mentioned in Alex Ross’s well-known and wonderful blog, The Rest Is Noise.
It’s amazing when you dream of something and it actually happens. I think we achieved our goals, which were to play music that people would talk about, and to make the evening an event.
The musical moments were distinctive — opening with John Adams was a completely new sound for most of this Canadian audience. I’m glad that they seemed to enjoy this music as much as I do. It was the most discussed work after the concert. The unexpected segue from Morton Feldman’s piece to Beethoven 5 (courtesy of Eb and G) also made an indelible impression. The meditative mood of the Feldman provided the opportunity for Beethoven 5 to deliver its intended sucker-punch to a modern audience.
As far as the “event,” here are some things that happened …
People were welcomed at the door - the lobby was a community music fair, with booths from other arts organizations - there was a dynamic video before my entrance, instead of a speech - there was a confetti cannon after the encore - there was a Q & A after the concert with free coffee and chocolate, etc. etc.
A very special part of the “event” was a private meeting backstage at intermission with the 80 or so high school students who came together to the concert (they organized this trip themselves). Rather than saying “thanks for coming,” I decided to talk about Beethoven 5. I told them how I thought the keys in the piece have specific and subtle emotional meaning. For instance, Ab Major could mean “safety” and C Major could mean “freedom,” and that Beethoven shows us through this that safety and freedom may not be the same thing. One of the students listening was moved to tears by this before the music even began.
(There were two videos made of the orchestra and me this week and you can view them on THIS PAGE.)