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Falletta Proves You Can Go Home Again By SARAH CROCKER
Not a single Juilliard student can honestly deny that occasional moment of malaise, that fleeting premonition of doom, upon approaching Lincoln Center on a windy Monday morning. While Juilliard is our beloved artistic home, it can also be a pretty intense place. School—any school—embodies a youthful juxtaposition of boundless ambition with sometimes debilitating uncertainty. When JoAnn Falletta returns to Juilliard to conduct, she is momentarily swept back to this chapter in her life, on the cusp between student and professional. Years of experience, glowing accolades, impressive awards, and stunning reviews typify the life of this rising American star of the orchestral world. Yet as she walks through the doors of the conservatory where she was once a student, she is keenly aware of that familiar sensation in her stomach, that sensory memory of her youth. "Walking into Juilliard now, I still get a little twinge of anxiety—that desire to do well, to be competitive—it's still there," she says. "But I also feel a tremendous sense of pride in how excellent the School is, and to have been a student here, where standards are so high."
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| Conductor JoAnn Falletta at the podium. (Photo by Jim Bush) |
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A native of New York City, Falletta received both her master's and doctoral degrees in conducting from The Juilliard School. Since graduating, much has transpired in her musical career, establishing her as one of today's most promising conducting talents. As music director of both the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony, she has made a commitment unusual among conductors to divide her time between two prominent American orchestras. Given her demanding schedule, Falletta admits that she has few opportunities to work with students. "I actually rarely get the chance to work with young people, and I want the students at Juilliard to know that it really is such a delight, and such a learning experience for me to work with them."Discussing her programming choices for the December 9 concert with the Juilliard Symphony, Falletta explained that the virtuosic level of instrumentalists at Juilliard inspired her to create what she describes as an appropriately virtuosic program. To complement the Bartok First Piano Concerto (which was chosen by the School), she selected a program that she believes will be challenging but also fun for the orchestra. Says Falletta, "The Berlioz [Symphonie fantastique] is an incredibly virtuosic piece, but it also requires real subtlety and a beautiful sound. In between its more bombastic moments, there are extended periods that require subtle sound, nuanced playing, and shading." Every conductor may bring a unique focus to certain pieces, but for Falletta, the interest in the Berlioz lies in this issue of nuance and shading. "I want the orchestra to step away with incredible flexibility, especially in terms of rubato. This flexibility is so important for an orchestra."The Walton (Portsmouth Point Overture) also presents a myriad of technical complexities for the orchestra, most notably in its rhythmic variance. "It is only five minutes long, but it is one of the most difficult five minutes in the repertoire, especially in terms of rhythm. It requires fast thinking from the orchestra and the ability to very quickly change meters." For young orchestral musicians, the rhythmic challenges of this piece will encourage intense mental concentration.Falletta's choices in programming reflect her high regard and respect for the students here at Juilliard. She feels that, since her days here as a student, the general level of musicianship, which has always been very high, has continually risen. "The general environment here is becoming less instrument-focused and more musically focused, which is wonderful. Students are trained to become complete musicians, and they also are aware of their place as musicians in the world. There is an increasing importance being placed on the idea that students can be ambassadors for the future of music."Given the musical climate in our society today, the need for such "ambassadors" is keenly felt. At the threshold of the 21st century, the economic and social attitudes towards the arts in America places classical music somewhere back in the recesses of the collective public consciousness, and orchestras across the country are struggling to stay afloat. According to Falletta, the most important role that orchestras can have in their communities is educating audiences. "Orchestras need to be more open and more creative and be able to reach a greater population through education. And they need to be educating adults as well as young people. Concerts can be made more well-attended through things like preconcert discussion and postconcert question-and-answer sessions, to encourage further understanding." To dispel the alienation that many adults feel from classical music, Falletta suggests that orchestras create more casual concert situations in which audiences may feel more comfortable. "Concerts can be at different times that more conveniently fit into people's lives: earlier in the evening, or during the day."
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Juilliard Symphony
JoAnn Falletta, Conductor
Alice Tully Hall
Thursday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m.
Free tickets available in the Juilliard Box Office.
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In addition to their responsibility as educational resources, Falletta believes that orchestras play an important economic role in their communities. "Orchestras can improve the economic health of a region and improve the quality of life in an urban area. Orchestras must be viewed not only as artistic resources, but also as educational and economic ones."In her tireless efforts to bring music to a larger public, Falletta also communicates her passion for music through writing. She is a regular contributor to Portfolio magazine in Virginia and Traffic East magazine in Buffalo. Her articles have appeared in Symphony magazine and Virginian Pilot. Love Letters to Music is a book of her poetry about the musicians with whom she has worked over the years. "I have always loved to write. I see writing about music as a way of opening doors to more people who are not educated in the language of music but who understand words. Words can never take the place of music, which expresses things that cannot be expressed in any other way. But words can be a doorway, an entryway, to music for many people. Through writing I can reach out to more people to encourage an interest in music."To speak with Falletta is an experience that can only leave one filled with hope for what she may bring to today's audiences. With this hope comes a personal sense of urgency, a responsibility to do one's part in bringing about the changes of which she so eloquently speaks. A great deal of the time that we spend in school may be shadowed by Armageddon-esque daydreams of our futures as ravaged artists in a culture-starved wasteland. But Falletta paints a vision for the future of the arts that is infectiously optimistic. She reinforces that love for the arts without which none of us would be here. I have no doubt that her visit to Juilliard will bring about more than musical discovery for those students fortunate enough to work with her. She imbues all that she says and does with an importance and a sense of duty that goes far deeper than brilliantly executing the music. To JoAnn Falletta, the importance of what we, as musicians, do lies in the nuance and beauty of it. And with her guidance, perhaps we each may be encouraged to re-examine the subtlety of our own motives as we embark on our personal journeys of musical ambassadorship.Sarah Crocker is a master's student in violin.
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