Intersections — it worked.
Just finished a fantastic INTERSECTIONS concert with the one, the only, GILLES APAP* this weekend. It was a sold-out concert, and the audience for the series has grown exponentially in just a few months. I’m so proud of this series — it’s my baby. It’s neither a new music series, nor a classical series, nor a pops series. It’s simply a cool music series. There might be hardcore contemporary music, there might be bluegrass … you just never know. I just got an email from one audience member who perfectly described the feeling that I wanted to create here:
“The quality of listening in these concerts is remarkable … because you’ve created contexts in which people don’t know what will happen next, do need to listen; I’m certain we’re all learning huge amounts about music from this series (I discovered at least one fabulous composer new to me–Kancheli) and having a heck of a lot of fun at the same time.”
As a conductor, the two ways I can help sustain orchestral music as an artform are 1) getting the audience to truly listen to the music and 2) actually have a really good time at a concert. If these two things happened more often, we’d be in fine shape.
Intersections for 2008-2009 has been announced. We’ve expanded the series to four concerts. 1. MASON BATES 2. TIME FOR THREE 3. Brass Music with ALAIN TRUDEL 4. EVE EGOYAN + Video Art
* Here’s a picture a Gilles when he was 17 (that’s Claudio Abbado in the background in the brown v-neck sweater!)
