1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,600 Hello everyone and thank you for joining me for a special episode of YQG In Bloom. 2 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:17,680 My name is Tracy Martens and I am your host and we are here this evening at the Historic 3 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:24,080 Capital Theatre and I am interviewing our conductor for the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, 4 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:25,080 Robert Frantz. 5 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:26,080 How are you doing? 6 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:27,080 I'm great Tracy. 7 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:28,080 Thank you for having me. 8 00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:35,080 I'm so excited to have you because I'm very new to the orchestra and one of the ladies, 9 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:38,440 Lauren, had invited some of us content creators. 10 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:43,640 It was the first time that I had ever seen anything like this and it was just your rehearsal 11 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:49,280 and then we came to the superheroes and I'm like, it just blew me away. 12 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:51,800 So tell me, what was your first impression at the rehearsal? 13 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:52,800 What did you notice? 14 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:53,800 I was shocked. 15 00:00:53,800 --> 00:01:03,320 I mean, okay, they had Ben Davis from Broadway, so starstruck already. 16 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:09,440 And I was very overwhelmed by the amount of instruments, especially now looking at this 17 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:12,040 place with none of them in it. 18 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:15,040 It's like, how do you guys fit it all in here? 19 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:16,040 Everybody has their place, Tracy. 20 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:18,040 Everybody has a place. 21 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:20,440 Yeah, but it was beautiful. 22 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:21,660 It was beautiful. 23 00:01:21,660 --> 00:01:27,520 And then I enjoyed it even more from the balcony for the superheroes. 24 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:32,080 And I was shocked at how interactive you are with the audience. 25 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:36,840 Is that something that all maestros do or is that your niche? 26 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:42,160 Well, I can't speak for everybody, but I can say that for me personally, I love that interactive 27 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:43,160 quality. 28 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:44,480 I feed on that. 29 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,760 I want to know what the audience is thinking and how they're feeling and I want to get 30 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:52,960 their vibe and their energy about what's happening and also quite frankly, I do enjoy getting 31 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:53,960 a laugh. 32 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:59,160 And so if I say something or do something funny, if I have a little shtick or whatever, 33 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:03,240 then it's fun for me and it motivates me and it kind of keeps me going. 34 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:10,480 You know, I grew up watching the Carol Burnett show and obviously Carol Burnett is total 35 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:11,480 genius. 36 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:12,480 Oh gosh, yes. 37 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:16,000 But what was really impressive about Carol Burnett was that question and answer period 38 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:19,480 where she was just off the cuff at the end of each show and she was just letting anybody 39 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:23,200 ask her a question and just be really natural. 40 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:28,040 And I always just imagine that I'm just having a conversation with people in my living room 41 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:30,140 when I'm talking to people in the audience. 42 00:02:30,140 --> 00:02:33,800 We were up in the balcony, as I said, and there was a bunch of kids around us and they're 43 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:38,440 all dressed up in their costumes and they were glued to it and I was shocked because 44 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:44,640 they were quite young and for them to like something like a symphony. 45 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:50,240 Well I think what most people don't know is that when you think of whether a child is 46 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:56,400 going to like classical music or not, usually adults look at that through their adult lenses. 47 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:58,560 Kids just are having an experience. 48 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,240 They're in a space, they hear great music, they see a lot of stuff going on, they're 49 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:04,640 curious, they're inquisitive, they love it. 50 00:03:04,640 --> 00:03:09,040 So if we don't tell kids that they're not supposed to like classical music, then they 51 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:10,980 just naturally like it. 52 00:03:10,980 --> 00:03:13,200 And so I think that's a really important lesson. 53 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:20,040 And then the second thing is what I find with audiences that are new to us is that sometimes 54 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:21,040 there's some trepidation. 55 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,160 Okay, I grew up Catholic, right? 56 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:26,960 And so you know, when you ever took anybody to a Catholic church, they were like, okay, 57 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,360 when do I genuflect, when do I stand, when do I sit? 58 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:31,640 And I'm like, just relax, it's going to be okay. 59 00:03:31,640 --> 00:03:32,640 But it's nerve wracking. 60 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:38,680 And I think people have a similar feeling when they come to the symphony, like, oh, 61 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,640 how well I know what to do, when do I applaud, when do I do this, when do I do that? 62 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:48,240 But my feeling is, if you just come with a sense of curiosity, that we'll take care of 63 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:49,240 the rest. 64 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:53,800 And there's so many cool things that we can express with our instruments through music, 65 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:55,360 you know, lots of emotions. 66 00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:01,200 So you talk about the superhero concert, obviously, that was a sense of grandeur, a sense of really 67 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:06,880 rising to the occasion and expressing like these superhero sized emotions. 68 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:07,880 Yes. 69 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:14,040 But sometimes an orchestra can express something very intimate or express something that you 70 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:18,520 could only imagine in your head, but you could never use words to say, or the orchestra can 71 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:22,180 make you laugh or make you cry or make you think. 72 00:04:22,180 --> 00:04:24,480 And that's really what great art is about. 73 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:28,700 One thing that I never understood is a maestro conducts. 74 00:04:28,700 --> 00:04:30,880 What exactly am I doing? 75 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,560 Well, yeah, because what are you doing? 76 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:38,080 So there are a couple of practical things, considerations of being a conductor. 77 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,200 One is my job is to keep everyone together, right? 78 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:45,880 So how fast or slow the music is, how loud or soft, all of those things are determined 79 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:50,360 by the single focus of the conductor bringing everyone together. 80 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:54,300 The second component of a conductor really is the rehearsal process. 81 00:04:54,300 --> 00:04:57,160 It's almost like the part of the iceberg you don't see. 82 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:01,840 When you come to a concert, you really just see the top 10% of what it is that I do. 83 00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:08,040 And 90% of my work is outside of the performance in either my personal preparation or in rehearsals 84 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:09,480 with the orchestra. 85 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:14,600 When I'm rehearsing the orchestra, what I'm doing is I'm looking at the score and trying 86 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,760 to figure out the intention of the composer. 87 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:20,440 What did the composer mean when they wrote this or that? 88 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:24,800 I'm listening to what the musicians are playing, and then I'm making a decision about whether 89 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,520 or not I think what they're playing matches what I think the intention of the composer 90 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:29,680 is on the page. 91 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:31,760 And so there's this cycle that's created. 92 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:38,200 And so we're working together, the orchestra and I, to really bring that score to life. 93 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:42,480 Then the third thing that a conductor does, and this is the hardest thing to quantify, 94 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:50,880 is that when you think about a performance of a play or a movie or a symphony or a pop 95 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:55,600 concert or whatever, there really is a beginning, a middle, and an end. 96 00:05:55,600 --> 00:06:01,960 And the pacing of that architecture in time is determined first and foremost by the composer. 97 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:03,360 They wrote it down. 98 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:10,820 But then the conductor has to understand that journey and take the audience and the musicians 99 00:06:10,820 --> 00:06:12,840 on that journey with them. 100 00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:18,600 And so that's really the bulk of what I do, is try to figure out, okay, so let's say I 101 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:23,720 have two-thirds of the way through a crescendo gradually getting louder. 102 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,040 How big of a crescendo is it? 103 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:27,520 Is this all the way to the max? 104 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:29,360 Do I hold back just a little? 105 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:31,120 Is there something else coming later? 106 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:35,680 I have to have an idea of where I am, but also how it fits into the big picture. 107 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:40,780 When it comes to, like you say, Beethoven or anything, are you able to take any liberties 108 00:06:40,780 --> 00:06:45,960 to make it your own or do you stick right with the sheet music? 109 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:47,600 So it's a great question. 110 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:52,920 So I don't think in terms of how do I make this Beethoven, the Robert Franz version of 111 00:06:52,920 --> 00:07:00,520 this Beethoven, but what I think is how do I, through my scholarship, through my understanding, 112 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:04,480 through my study, how do I perceive this music? 113 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:07,300 What do I perceive that Beethoven meant by it? 114 00:07:07,300 --> 00:07:11,640 Because of that, it comes out a certain way. 115 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,800 Because I'm a human and I have my own history and my own background and I bring that to 116 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:17,000 every performance. 117 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:22,440 So each conductor approaches the score differently based on their background. 118 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:29,000 And so I don't really think about my interpretation so much as much as I think about what information 119 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,280 do I have that helps me bring it to life. 120 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:37,440 For instance, to go back to the Superheroes concert for a second, I was really taken by 121 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:39,680 the music from the movie Thor. 122 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:41,860 I had not seen the movie Thor. 123 00:07:41,860 --> 00:07:45,760 So I rehearsed the music and then on Saturday afternoon between the dress rehearsal and 124 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:48,520 the concert, I was just relaxing at home like I do on a concert day. 125 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:51,020 And I thought, I'm going to watch the movie. 126 00:07:51,020 --> 00:07:53,020 So I watched Thor. 127 00:07:53,020 --> 00:07:54,020 Great movie. 128 00:07:54,020 --> 00:07:56,000 It was really, really fun. 129 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:02,920 But the music was a bit slower, maybe considerably, than I had been performing it. 130 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:09,600 But when you listen to the music without the movie, the intention, it doesn't hold up as 131 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:11,440 well at the slow tempo. 132 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:16,200 In the movie, there's a lot of other visuals and suspense that's going on. 133 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:21,440 So in that case, even though the composer doesn't say it, it really made sense to me 134 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:26,360 in a concert performance to perform the music slightly faster than they did in the movie 135 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:28,320 because of the other things that were going on. 136 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:30,920 Now how long have you been a conductor? 137 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:31,920 A long time. 138 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,960 So I would say at least 30 years. 139 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:40,440 So what happened was I started music when I was eight years old in a public school in 140 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:44,060 upstate New York where I grew up playing the cello. 141 00:08:44,060 --> 00:08:49,480 In grade six, I switched to the oboe and I became an oboist in high school. 142 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:53,800 And then I went to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and did a bachelor's 143 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:55,840 degree in oboe performance. 144 00:08:55,840 --> 00:09:00,560 About halfway through, I guess I was about 20 years old, I stood up in front of an orchestra. 145 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:01,560 I took a conducting class. 146 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:05,000 I stood up in front of the orchestra and raised my hand. 147 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:11,920 The orchestra went ta-da, ti-da, and right at that moment, I was like, OK, this is the 148 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:13,440 coolest thing I've ever done in my life. 149 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:14,680 This is what I want to do. 150 00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:20,320 So then I started studying conducting, private lessons, and then I did a master's degree 151 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:21,680 in conducting. 152 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:23,080 Then I graduated with two degrees. 153 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:25,680 I had a bachelor's, an oboe, and a master's in conducting. 154 00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:29,800 Zero hope of getting a job because in order to get a job, you have to have experience. 155 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:31,760 In order to get experience, you have to have a job. 156 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:32,760 As usual. 157 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:37,160 So I thought, well, if nobody's going to hire me, I'll just start my own orchestra. 158 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:38,160 How hard can it be? 159 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:41,720 And the great thing about being 24 is that you don't know the answer to that question. 160 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:44,640 Now that I'm past 24, I know the answer to that question. 161 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:48,560 It doesn't mean I don't do it, but it's a different question. 162 00:09:48,560 --> 00:09:51,760 So I started an orchestra, a professional orchestra, and learned how to raise money, 163 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:54,600 sell tickets, run it, and that was my first job. 164 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:56,920 So that was 32 years ago. 165 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:04,240 So you know the ins and outs of all of it, right from being the performer to ticket sales. 166 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:05,240 Starting it from scratch. 167 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:09,540 I ran, I mean, I was a one-man band for that orchestra, I'll tell you. 168 00:10:09,540 --> 00:10:15,360 This is probably how you have brought so much to the Windsor Symphony in the 10 years that 169 00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:16,360 you've been here. 170 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:18,000 And by the way, happy 10th anniversary. 171 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:19,000 Thank you so much. 172 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:20,000 Thank you. 173 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,720 Yeah, because you have done, I mean, a lot. 174 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:27,360 Lauren sent me a bunch of stuff and I'm just shocked. 175 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:30,040 I think in a very entrepreneurial way. 176 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:32,200 And I love the idea. 177 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,040 So I love the art form, obviously. 178 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:38,220 Music is everything to me, but it's also a business. 179 00:10:38,220 --> 00:10:42,300 And I'm really intrigued by the idea of how you take something that is so beautiful and 180 00:10:42,300 --> 00:10:50,560 so intrinsically powerful as music and you blend it with a job, like with a business. 181 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:53,360 And how do you make those two things come together? 182 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:56,600 And so that's just always been how I thought. 183 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,480 And so it was a natural progression for me. 184 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:05,040 So for instance, here in Windsor, when we're looking at a new project, I can look at the 185 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:09,080 budget and go, OK, well, this is what it's going to cost and this is how we, you know, 186 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:13,360 this is, I can work with our executive director in a meaningful way. 187 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:17,600 You realigned the chamber and the orchestra. 188 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:19,840 People know now that we have a symphony. 189 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:20,840 Right. 190 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:21,840 Yeah. 191 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:25,400 So when I arrived here in 2013, it was a very different time. 192 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:29,680 It was the end of the economic downturn. 193 00:11:29,680 --> 00:11:32,560 Windsor and Detroit have been hit very hard. 194 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:34,680 The symphony was part of that. 195 00:11:34,680 --> 00:11:39,520 There was a whole thing about bingo funds and laws changing and all of that. 196 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:45,840 All of those things combined really made it a very treacherous place when I arrived in 197 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:49,220 terms of just the inner functioning of the orchestra. 198 00:11:49,220 --> 00:11:54,760 And so the positive to that was that it meant that everything went out the window and we 199 00:11:54,760 --> 00:12:01,120 had to rebuild from scratch the entire organization, which meant that we could ask ourselves, is 200 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:07,960 this important, if so, who is it important to, to whom and what do we want to where do 201 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:09,880 we want to pour our resources? 202 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:15,560 And so over the course of my 10 years here, what we've done is we've really assessed to 203 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:19,960 the best of our abilities what the needs are in the community. 204 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:26,960 And we've crafted our our performances, our product, if you will, to accommodate that. 205 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:32,640 So for instance, the Chamber Orchestra concerts that you're referring to, where we have about 206 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:38,160 20 musicians from the Windsor Symphony perform, they perform here on stage now. 207 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:44,480 But the audience also sits on stage and they sit in a circle around us at bistro tables. 208 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:46,360 We put bars in the wings. 209 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:48,840 So we have food in one side and drink on the other. 210 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:50,760 They're an hour long concert. 211 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:52,440 They're very informal. 212 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:53,440 They're fun. 213 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:54,820 There's a question and answer period. 214 00:12:54,820 --> 00:12:56,400 There's a lots of engagement. 215 00:12:56,400 --> 00:13:02,760 And we found that people in our community really respond to those concerts. 216 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:05,480 Now how often do you guys do that during the year? 217 00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:08,380 So we do four pairs of them this year. 218 00:13:08,380 --> 00:13:12,000 So we do a Thursday night at 730 and a Friday morning coffee concert. 219 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:16,300 So we replace the bar with a coffee bar Friday morning at 11. 220 00:13:16,300 --> 00:13:19,580 Both of those sell out one to two weeks before the concert. 221 00:13:19,580 --> 00:13:22,100 So the book each of the pair. 222 00:13:22,100 --> 00:13:25,320 So next year, we're going from four pairs to five pairs. 223 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:27,760 So we'll have five weeks of those kinds of concerts. 224 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:32,240 And we're even going to experiment with some Wednesday right after work type concerts. 225 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:35,760 Because we think there really is not only a market, but there's a group of people in 226 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:39,360 town who really enjoy having that kind of experience. 227 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:43,760 So you walk in not the front of the Capitol Theater, but the stage door. 228 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:46,640 The shell for the orchestra is down and gone. 229 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:51,980 And so you see the raw bricks and wiring and everything in the theater. 230 00:13:51,980 --> 00:13:57,160 Which to us in the orchestra is just kind of part of life. 231 00:13:57,160 --> 00:13:59,480 But to our audience, it's like a whole new world. 232 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:04,260 Like to see this, because when you come to concerts, you see it's very sort of fancy 233 00:14:04,260 --> 00:14:06,380 and wooden and all buttoned up. 234 00:14:06,380 --> 00:14:08,860 But when it's all gone, it is raw. 235 00:14:08,860 --> 00:14:13,560 And it's really, there's something super fun about being in that environment. 236 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:16,760 It feels not only casual, but it feels real. 237 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:20,440 Well, you get to see all the behind the scenes. 238 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:22,300 We are an acoustic ensemble. 239 00:14:22,300 --> 00:14:24,600 We do not mic the orchestra. 240 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:29,600 So when you come to the Capitol Theater, you're hearing just the actual sound of the instruments. 241 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:35,440 And the way the shell works on the stage, this wooden shell, is it's like a big megaphone. 242 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:40,080 And we're sitting inside of a big, like almost like one of those big things of an old phonograph. 243 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:44,080 And it's shooting the sound out to the audience and enveloping you. 244 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:48,000 Yeah, but you've got to have people that maintain that and take care of it. 245 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:49,540 But I like that. 246 00:14:49,540 --> 00:14:56,720 You guys are catering to all different genres, like your family series, the PB&J concert 247 00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:58,680 that you had started for kids. 248 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:02,240 Yeah, so when I first arrived, we had these peanut butter and jam concerts. 249 00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:03,920 We're super cute, super fun. 250 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:06,640 It was like a group of 20 or 30 kids that would come. 251 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:11,440 And we do it in one of our back rooms back here and have a small ensemble play. 252 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:18,880 And so about seven or eight years ago now, we brought them onto the stage with our orchestra. 253 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:22,360 And now we have anywhere from three to four hundred people per show. 254 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:25,760 And we do two shows because we can't fit them all in one hall. 255 00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:31,320 And they're concerts that are designed for kids ages four to eight and they're guardians. 256 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:37,440 And we really make sure that kids are amused at that age, but also that parents and grandparents 257 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:39,540 also feel connected. 258 00:15:39,540 --> 00:15:44,560 Because I don't know about you, but I know when my girls were young, the things that 259 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:49,440 I enjoyed the most were the performances and the things that we could do that had multiple 260 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:50,440 levels. 261 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:51,440 Yeah. 262 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,920 And the things I enjoyed the least were the things that didn't. 263 00:15:54,920 --> 00:16:00,080 So we make sure that our family concerts have multiple levels so that there are jokes and 264 00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:04,640 humor for the adults that the kids don't necessarily get and that there's a lot of fun stuff for 265 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:06,640 the kids to do and experience. 266 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:08,320 And it all sort of works together. 267 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:13,000 And in that way, we really fulfill our mission, which the mission of the Windsor Symphony 268 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,560 is to connect people through music. 269 00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:21,760 And what we see in those family concerts is multi-generational groups, four year olds, 270 00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:27,920 40 year olds, 80 year olds enjoying something together, really experiencing it together. 271 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:31,840 Kind of like the experience you had as superheroes, where you saw those kids with their guardians 272 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:34,880 really connected and engaged with the orchestra. 273 00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:40,920 Yeah, it is wonderful to see all age groups enjoying something that has been around for 274 00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:48,640 so long and I'm finding that in Windsor, Essex County that there's a resurgence of the interest. 275 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:54,200 It's kudos to you and to everybody that works with you because you have not just you, but 276 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,480 the youth orchestra and the community orchestra. 277 00:16:57,480 --> 00:16:59,880 Like there's a lot of different things going on. 278 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:02,320 So there's a little bit of something for everybody. 279 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:07,960 We have a big family and we like to say that if you want to make music at any level, there's 280 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:09,400 a place for you here. 281 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:14,840 So we have junior strings for young string players, youth orchestra for strings, winds, 282 00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:17,020 brass percussion in high school. 283 00:17:17,020 --> 00:17:21,360 We have a community chorus, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra chorus, which you can be any age 284 00:17:21,360 --> 00:17:22,360 to sing in. 285 00:17:22,360 --> 00:17:26,200 And we have the Windsor Symphony Community Orchestra, which is an amateur orchestra. 286 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:31,160 Those four ensembles plus the Windsor Symphony Orchestra make up the entire umbrella of the 287 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:33,520 Windsor Symphony Orchestra family. 288 00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:38,960 Really you can come to the Capitol Theater and partake and really participate if you wish 289 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,640 at just about any level. 290 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:42,640 And that's wonderful. 291 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:49,120 And in fact, that you have the Capitol Theater in order to do it is great, but you don't 292 00:17:49,120 --> 00:17:50,120 just do it in here. 293 00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:53,240 You guys, some of them, they take it outdoors. 294 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:54,480 In fact, you will be too. 295 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:55,480 Yes, that's right. 296 00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:59,960 So this summer we're going to be performing at Seacliff, the park in Leamington down on 297 00:17:59,960 --> 00:18:02,240 the lake and the full orchestra will be down there. 298 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:03,560 I'll be conducting. 299 00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:08,760 But I think Tracy, one thing that people may not be aware of is that we perform over 125 300 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:14,840 concerts a year and over half of those are outside of the Capitol Theater. 301 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:22,520 So for instance, we do 32 concerts, pairs of concerts, mind you, in elementary schools 302 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:24,360 around Essex County. 303 00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:28,480 And what we do is we have a relationship with the public school board and the parochial 304 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:29,720 school board. 305 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:35,440 We have committed to visiting every one of the elementary schools once every three years. 306 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,280 So we're in a three year cycle with elementary schools live. 307 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:43,680 And so we take the orchestra into the schools and do concert performances for them there. 308 00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:48,160 Then we have, that's for kindergarten through grade three, grade four through six come here 309 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:51,320 to the Capitol Theater to see a concert. 310 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:53,800 And for those who can't come, we digitize it. 311 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:58,680 So we make a virtual concert and the assistant conductor puts together the glue and makes 312 00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:01,620 it into an actual learning experience. 313 00:19:01,620 --> 00:19:07,880 And then we have a program for grades seven through 12 where they can come and see me 314 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:11,240 and the orchestra perform one of the big symphonies that we're doing during the year. 315 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:16,560 So really if a school was interested, a child was interested, there really is a contact 316 00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:21,300 point once a year, kindergarten through grade 12 with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra now. 317 00:19:21,300 --> 00:19:22,480 And it's for everybody. 318 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:25,760 So that's what's really cool because we have these relationships with the public school 319 00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:29,760 board and the parochial school board. 320 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:33,680 They make sure that every child, no matter where they come from, no matter what part 321 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:38,840 of the county they live in has equal access to great art, great music. 322 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:41,640 And to me, that's what it's all about. 323 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:42,640 For sure. 324 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:47,240 Because what better way to express yourself than through music. 325 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,540 And no matter what kind of music. 326 00:19:49,540 --> 00:19:54,960 And I think it's also exciting because I mean, I was in a band and in the school band in 327 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:55,960 high school. 328 00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:56,960 What did you play? 329 00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:57,960 Clarinet. 330 00:19:57,960 --> 00:19:58,960 Clarinet. 331 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,960 But I might have even been more excited about it if I would have seen. 332 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:03,960 Absolutely. 333 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:09,160 It being played here and hearing what really could come out of it other than the horrible 334 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:12,000 squeaks that came out of my clarinet. 335 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:13,120 But it's like it's the same thing. 336 00:20:13,120 --> 00:20:19,560 Like if you play hockey and you go see an NHL game, you're like, oh, that's really cool. 337 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:20,680 I can connect with that. 338 00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:22,120 I want to be like that. 339 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:23,720 And that's the exact same thing with music. 340 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:24,720 No question. 341 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:25,720 That's perfect. 342 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:28,920 You were doing the outdoor concerts as well. 343 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:29,920 Yes. 344 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:34,600 And aren't you guys in conjunction with WIF this year? 345 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:35,600 We are. 346 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:40,000 So we have 15 concerts that we call main stage concerts. 347 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:45,680 That means 15 weekends we're performing various kinds of programs on the stage. 348 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:47,320 Five are classical. 349 00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:50,120 Five are those chamber on stage concerts I told you about. 350 00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:53,560 And then five are what we call pops, which means they're more popular oriented. 351 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:56,180 Like Super Heroes was one of the pop series. 352 00:20:56,180 --> 00:21:02,640 Next year in October, we begin the season with the Golden Age of Film, which is an exploration 353 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,060 of great film scores from 40s and 50s. 354 00:21:06,060 --> 00:21:12,120 So it'll be like Gone with the Wind and Casablanca and Ben Hur and the Eric, this swashbuckling 355 00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:15,400 films of Errol Flynn, that kind of music. 356 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:18,200 Those scores are so grand. 357 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:19,920 There's like they don't write classical music. 358 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:21,600 They don't write film music like that anymore. 359 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:24,640 Like that's just it's an era gone by. 360 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:29,400 But what's really exciting about it is it's the week before WIF starts and the Windsor 361 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:32,800 International Film Festival celebrating their 20th anniversary. 362 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,080 So we're celebrating with them. 363 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:36,600 That's going to be great. 364 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:41,360 And you guys also in the background, you put up various stuff. 365 00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:44,640 I know through the Super Heroes we saw that. 366 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:51,000 So during COVID, we developed a production studio here at the Capitol Theater. 367 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:52,800 And this actually happened just before COVID. 368 00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:54,400 And it happened not because of COVID. 369 00:21:54,400 --> 00:22:00,020 It happened because we started being the main tenant and landlord of the Capitol Theater 370 00:22:00,020 --> 00:22:03,240 for the city over 10 years ago now. 371 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:09,080 And in order to when we weren't using it, rent it out more and have it be more flexible, 372 00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,760 we needed the technology to be at a higher level. 373 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:16,400 So unbeknownst to us pre-COVID, there was a whole production studio that was set up 374 00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:21,800 upstairs and all of these cameras and all of this equipment that we got here at the 375 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:25,400 theater so that people who rented the theater could use that equipment. 376 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,160 So COVID, we switched over to digital concerts. 377 00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:29,980 So we used it then, obviously. 378 00:22:29,980 --> 00:22:34,920 And now that we're post-COVID, we're still enjoying all of that technology. 379 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:43,560 So for instance, we have the technology to show videos, GIFs, pictures on the back screen 380 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:46,000 behind the orchestra during a show. 381 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,820 So are any of the movies going to be playing? 382 00:22:48,820 --> 00:22:50,200 So one. 383 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:55,680 So there's a movie, a Buster Keaton movie, and it's the original movie that was performed 384 00:22:55,680 --> 00:23:01,240 on opening night of the Capitol Theater back in 1920-something when the Capitol Theater 385 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:02,240 opened. 386 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:08,480 It's a 20-minute short, Buster Keaton, and we're going to perform that live, orchestra 387 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:11,400 live under the silent film. 388 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:17,400 All of the others will just be the music soundtracks without clips from the movies. 389 00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:19,760 That will be really exciting to see. 390 00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:20,760 It's fun, huh? 391 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:22,280 It is going to be fun. 392 00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:23,280 I can't wait. 393 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,400 Now you got me all excited. 394 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:32,720 I'm waiting for January with Abba and then the one in the summertime. 395 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:36,000 But I see here that you also created a Christmas CD. 396 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:37,000 Yes. 397 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,560 So a few years ago now, we... 398 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,600 Okay, I'll tell you how it started. 399 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,960 Santa Claus, who happens to be a friend of the WSO. 400 00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:46,960 Oh, thank goodness. 401 00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:47,960 I know. 402 00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:52,120 He bought me a book called 12 Canadian Days of Christmas by Elaine Becker, one year, first 403 00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:53,320 Christmas. 404 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:57,720 And it's an adorable version of the 12 Days of Christmas, but like with beaver tails and 405 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:01,600 moose and Mounties and Stanley cups and things. 406 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:07,680 So we took an arrangement of the 12 Days of Christmas and we changed the words and we 407 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:08,680 sang it. 408 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,480 The audience fell in love with it. 409 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:12,040 It was super cool. 410 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:18,180 So after that, I thought to myself, we know some great composers. 411 00:24:18,180 --> 00:24:23,120 If we could get someone to write a brand new version of this that was specific to this 412 00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:25,400 book, what would that look like? 413 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,740 And Elaine Becker had other Christmas books that were Canadianized. 414 00:24:28,740 --> 00:24:31,120 So we commissioned three of them. 415 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:34,800 We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Deck the Halls, and then 12 Canadian Days of Christmas. 416 00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:37,080 And we premiered them and performed them. 417 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:39,640 But then I thought, people really need to hear these. 418 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:45,640 So we went out, we did some fundraising, and we found some supporters, really generous 419 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:49,080 supporters who funded a CD project for us. 420 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:55,180 So our CD is called Christmas A, and it's all Canadian versions, not all, but a bunch 421 00:24:55,180 --> 00:24:57,780 of Canadian versions of Christmas songs. 422 00:24:57,780 --> 00:24:59,680 It's really super adorable. 423 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:01,240 That sounds cute. 424 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:08,480 Also on that actually is a piece for narrator and orchestra by local author Kara Kutstra. 425 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,320 And it's called Bobby Orr and the Hand Me Down Skates. 426 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:14,360 And she wrote this book with Bobby Orr. 427 00:25:14,360 --> 00:25:19,360 And we got her to agree to let us compose an orchestration for it. 428 00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:24,320 And so there's a version of it for narrator and orchestra on the CD of Bobby Orr and the 429 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:25,320 Hand Me Down Skates. 430 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:26,320 Oh, that sounds cute. 431 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:27,320 Yeah. 432 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:29,180 Oh, I'm going to have to find that. 433 00:25:29,180 --> 00:25:30,180 It's easy to find. 434 00:25:30,180 --> 00:25:34,560 Apple, iTunes, anywhere, Spotify. 435 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:39,160 Where you buy your sound. 436 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,980 This isn't your only symphony that you work with. 437 00:25:42,980 --> 00:25:44,640 You work with a lot. 438 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:45,640 Yes. 439 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:46,800 I was blown away. 440 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:51,560 So it's really common in the business for conductors and musicians, by the way, to play 441 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:52,660 in multiple groups. 442 00:25:52,660 --> 00:25:57,200 So for instance, many of the musicians in the Windsor Symphony also play in like the 443 00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:01,780 orchestra in Hamilton or Niagara Falls or London Symphony, like other orchestras. 444 00:26:01,780 --> 00:26:04,660 So it's pretty normal, seeing with conductors. 445 00:26:04,660 --> 00:26:09,440 So I have two other positions that I juggle with the Windsor Symphony. 446 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:16,580 Now, my home is in Windsor, but I travel to Boise, Idaho, where I'm the music director 447 00:26:16,580 --> 00:26:22,360 of the Boise Baroque Orchestra, which is an orchestra that focuses on music from the 18th 448 00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:23,360 century. 449 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:26,020 It's a very specialized, stylized kind of music. 450 00:26:26,020 --> 00:26:31,080 But composers you would know, Vivaldi, Telemann, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn. 451 00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:37,200 It's a pretty rich bunch of pieces of repertoire. 452 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:38,960 So I do that in the summer. 453 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:43,420 And those actually are really fun because they're outdoor concerts at a chateau in rural 454 00:26:43,420 --> 00:26:44,420 Idaho. 455 00:26:44,420 --> 00:26:46,320 And so it's a French garden. 456 00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:47,440 It's beautiful. 457 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:52,720 And then I recently became the music director of the University of North Carolina School 458 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,560 of the Arts Symphony Orchestra, which is my alma mater. 459 00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:01,160 It's in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and I go back and forth a few times a year, four 460 00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:02,880 times a year. 461 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:07,800 And then you've also been guest conductor for like all over the world. 462 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:13,200 Whenever there's a week empty, my manager and I will say, OK, who do we want to pinpoint? 463 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:14,840 Where can we do this? 464 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:16,160 And so I've been really fortunate. 465 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:20,840 I mean, I've been in this business for a long time, and I feel really fortunate that I've 466 00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:21,840 been lucky. 467 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:23,360 I've worked hard. 468 00:27:23,360 --> 00:27:33,280 I've had good breaks, and I've really tried to maintain a sense of connection, passion, 469 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:35,680 and direction about what I want to accomplish. 470 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:44,000 And because of those things, my career has, you know, knock on wood, has really been three 471 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:45,000 decades. 472 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:46,000 Yeah. 473 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:53,760 And so being a conductor, you realize the importance of conductors, and in Windsor, 474 00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:59,400 you helped make it so that the part-time conductors are getting paid full-time because they're 475 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:00,880 basically working full-time. 476 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:01,880 Yes. 477 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:03,040 So it's nonstop. 478 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:08,440 So what happened was when I first got here, we had an assistant conductor that was part-time, 479 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:15,880 and we ended up really building out the portfolio of that position with the community orchestra, 480 00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:20,880 with the youth orchestra, and with doing a lot more education concerts in the schools. 481 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:24,840 So that allowed us the opportunity to hire a full-time assistant conductor. 482 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:30,380 And so now there are two conductors on staff, myself and an assistant conductor, and we 483 00:28:30,380 --> 00:28:34,800 pretty much split, you know, about 100 of the 125 concerts. 484 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,320 We do have a couple of other guest conductors, and some are without conductor, but about 485 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:39,480 100 concerts we split. 486 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:41,920 Oh, so there's also other guest conductors? 487 00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:42,920 There are. 488 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:44,800 So we bring in other conductors from time to time as well. 489 00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:46,520 I mean, there's so many concerts. 490 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:49,880 The orchestra really needs fresh blood as well. 491 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:51,400 I can't be at everything. 492 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:52,400 The assistant conductor can't. 493 00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:55,040 We can't do everything. 494 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:58,680 So yeah, so that keeps it fresh and new and interesting. 495 00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:04,720 And I know a lot of the different musicians, they're not from the Windsor. 496 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:06,520 They're from all over Ontario. 497 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:07,520 That's correct. 498 00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:13,160 So I would say probably 25 or 30 percent of our musicians live in town, and the rest live 499 00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:14,840 up and down the 401. 500 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,880 And so we have a lot of people from Toronto and London and Kitchener, Waterloo and Hamilton 501 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,120 and Niagara Falls and all sorts of areas. 502 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:27,900 And because of that, they are an incredibly talented group of people who make their living 503 00:29:27,900 --> 00:29:29,380 at playing music. 504 00:29:29,380 --> 00:29:30,380 So they're freelancers. 505 00:29:30,380 --> 00:29:31,560 They play all the time. 506 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,800 So they're not doing like another job and do this on the side. 507 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:38,520 Every week they make music with a different orchestra, and that's how they make a living. 508 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:39,520 It's incredible. 509 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:42,760 That's a lot of dedication, and you can tell. 510 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,400 And we're really fortunate in Windsor because of that. 511 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,760 It means that the orchestra plays at an exceedingly high level. 512 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:54,520 And because of that, because of how great the musicians are, we can do 125 concerts 513 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:57,200 because we don't have a lot of rehearsal time. 514 00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:01,640 So the Superheroes concert you saw only had two rehearsals. 515 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:05,560 Generally we have three or four rehearsals for a classical concert and one or two for 516 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:07,040 a Pops or a Family concert. 517 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:08,040 Wow. 518 00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:09,040 Yeah, I know. 519 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:10,040 It's fast. 520 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:11,040 Toronto's fast. 521 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:12,040 That's crazy. 522 00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:18,600 I couldn't imagine learning their specific pieces in one or two practices. 523 00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:21,500 Just to get it all together and flowing. 524 00:30:21,500 --> 00:30:25,000 So what happens is the musicians get the music one or two weeks ahead of time. 525 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:26,000 They practice their part. 526 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,520 They come with their part learned. 527 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,160 And then we very quickly put it together. 528 00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:32,160 It's working. 529 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:33,160 It's wonderful. 530 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:34,160 Thank you. 531 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:35,160 That's sweet. 532 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:41,280 Now, is there a piece or a symphony or what is there one thing that you've wanted to do 533 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,160 that you haven't been able to do yet? 534 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:44,640 Well, that's a really good question. 535 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:46,760 Kind of like a bucket list, right? 536 00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:47,760 Kind of. 537 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:48,760 Yeah. 538 00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:56,560 So a long time ago, I became at one with the fact that by doing this as a career. 539 00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:58,620 Okay, let me say this in this way. 540 00:30:58,620 --> 00:31:02,360 My dad told me, he said, are you sure you don't want like a regular job? 541 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:03,360 This is when I was a kid. 542 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:05,440 He had a regular job to do music on the side. 543 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,400 I said, no, I want to do it for a living because it's going to be a lot different when you 544 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:09,400 do it for a living. 545 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,120 And I was like, no, it'll be fine. 546 00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:12,120 But he was right. 547 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:17,760 It is so different because when you do it for a living, there's a deeper understanding. 548 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:19,800 It really hits me in a very profound way. 549 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:25,280 But I don't really think of it in terms of I really want to do this piece or I don't 550 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:26,400 want to do that. 551 00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:30,480 I think of it as what piece would be the best piece of music to do on this concert? 552 00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:31,920 And then I go for it. 553 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:37,080 And so the art of making music is more important to me than the actual piece. 554 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:43,160 Having said that, there are some pieces that I have not conducted and next year we're opening 555 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:48,040 the season with a piece by Bela Bartok, a Hungarian composer. 556 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,160 It's called the Concerto for Orchestra. 557 00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:53,200 I learned it years ago, but I've never gotten to conduct it. 558 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,240 And I'm conducting it twice next year, two different orchestras. 559 00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:57,240 Very excited. 560 00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:03,440 And so there are pieces still at my age that I'm still learning. 561 00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:06,760 Like there's so many new pieces I've conducted. 562 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:07,960 I keep track of this. 563 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,400 Over 750 pieces in my career. 564 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,480 750 pieces of music over. 565 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:19,320 And still there are hundreds, maybe thousands of pieces that are standard that I have not 566 00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:20,320 done. 567 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:21,320 Oh my goodness. 568 00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:24,920 And then you guys are also doing pop and you're doing so many other things. 569 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,600 I mean, like you could continue on forever. 570 00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:29,600 And I love that. 571 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:33,600 Like it really is for me, it's very, it keeps, it's how my mind works. 572 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:34,600 It keeps it going. 573 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,200 It's like, it's very interesting, right? 574 00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,600 Because I think, okay, I, you know, I do a concert on Sunday afternoon, Monday morning 575 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,800 I wake up and I'm like, okay, so next up we've got this and let's think about this and how 576 00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:43,800 does this go together? 577 00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:47,440 Cause you know, when I was a kid, you do a concert and then for three weeks you'd be 578 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:48,440 in a glow. 579 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:50,280 You'd be like, oh, that was so great. 580 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,240 Now I'm like Sunday, I'll have a drink after the concert. 581 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:55,280 And then Monday morning it's on to the next one. 582 00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,640 And it's, it's not a sad thing. 583 00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:03,500 It's the most profound, like rewarding aspect that I could imagine with my life. 584 00:33:03,500 --> 00:33:04,500 My dad was right. 585 00:33:04,500 --> 00:33:08,200 I know it was going to be different, but he wasn't right in the sense that it was so much 586 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:09,840 better than I could have ever dreamed. 587 00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:15,360 Well that's the misnomer that a lot of people have is never make your passion your job because 588 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:16,720 then you're going to start to hate it. 589 00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:21,320 And they don't realize that maybe you're going to find parts of it that you didn't even know. 590 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:22,520 And you love it. 591 00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:23,520 You're just nonstop. 592 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:29,880 You do it year round, all around the country, all around the world, even during COVID. 593 00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:36,800 And if you make your passion your job, then it never feels like a job. 594 00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:37,800 It really doesn't. 595 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:41,640 I mean, I still honestly, Tracy, I'll wake up and I'll pinch myself and be like, okay, 596 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,480 so today I'm going to go conduct a piece of music for a living. 597 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:46,080 Like that's what I do for work. 598 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:47,080 It's awesome. 599 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:48,360 And it is. 600 00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:50,960 Especially when he can wear a space helmet. 601 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:51,960 Yes. 602 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:56,900 Although that was a little tricky, but yes, I've worn trickier costumes. 603 00:33:56,900 --> 00:33:59,680 What is the weirdest costume you've worn? 604 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,680 Probably the two person camel. 605 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:08,920 So I was conducting a concert of Arabian music and I was in a two person camel. 606 00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:12,640 I was the front person and we didn't want to have someone stuck behind me for the whole 607 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:13,640 concert. 608 00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:19,280 So they built a frame around my waist that went back to the butt of the camel, down the 609 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:23,040 legs and they put roller skates on the back two legs. 610 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:28,200 And so what was funny about that costume was it was fur and it was hot, hot, hot, hot. 611 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:31,280 And I had not taken into account how hot it would be. 612 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:35,360 So I got up to conduct the first piece and I'm standing there in complete fur head to 613 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:36,600 toe. 614 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:41,840 It was so hot that I started to get dizzy and I thought, okay, fainting in front of 615 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,700 you know, 3000 people is probably not the best way to go. 616 00:34:44,700 --> 00:34:47,640 So I started doing Zen breathing in the middle of the piece. 617 00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:49,960 Then I thought, okay, when I'm done, I'll get a drink of water. 618 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:51,000 I'll be fine. 619 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:55,540 So I looked down and as a joke, and we all thought this would be funny, instead of putting 620 00:34:55,540 --> 00:35:00,760 a bottle of water, they put one of those big containers of water that you use like in an 621 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:04,200 office with a straw that was that big around. 622 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:08,020 So I went down to try to get some water out of it and the straw was so big I couldn't 623 00:35:08,020 --> 00:35:09,020 create suction. 624 00:35:09,020 --> 00:35:10,380 So I couldn't get any water. 625 00:35:10,380 --> 00:35:15,160 So I had to conduct the concert with no water, just about to pass out. 626 00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:17,880 So then in between concerts, it was double. 627 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,680 I went back, they had an air conditioned area for me. 628 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:24,760 So I took the top part of the costume off and I was standing in the air, just panting, 629 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:25,760 drinking water. 630 00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,280 And I'm like, you've got to put a regular human sized water out there for me, please. 631 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,120 And so the second show was fine. 632 00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:32,200 That was hot. 633 00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:33,200 And where was that? 634 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:34,200 In Houston. 635 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:35,200 Yeah. 636 00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:37,200 I used to be the associate conductor of the Houston Symphony. 637 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:41,040 I was for 14 years and I would do three or four concerts a year where I would always 638 00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:42,080 wear a costume. 639 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:43,640 So I've been a giant chicken. 640 00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:46,200 I've been Dr. Seuss. 641 00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,280 I've been, you know, you name it. 642 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,120 So you really get into this job. 643 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:51,700 I love it. 644 00:35:51,700 --> 00:35:52,700 Love it. 645 00:35:52,700 --> 00:35:57,080 And then until probably a couple of years ago, I hadn't even heard about the Windsor 646 00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:58,080 Symphony. 647 00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:04,120 And now it just, everywhere you go, you're seeing the advertisements and to see both 648 00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,120 the concerts that were like sold out. 649 00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:08,120 And it's wonderful. 650 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:09,120 It's exciting. 651 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:10,120 Season tickets. 652 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:16,680 And it's nice to see a new breed and a new generation of people that are enjoying classical 653 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:18,080 and new music. 654 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:20,240 Well, we love having you. 655 00:36:20,240 --> 00:36:21,240 It's wonderful. 656 00:36:21,240 --> 00:36:22,240 And I can't wait until next year. 657 00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:23,240 It's awesome. 658 00:36:23,240 --> 00:36:24,240 Yeah. 659 00:36:24,240 --> 00:36:26,200 And what are your plans for the summer? 660 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:31,600 So for the month of June, I teach in Idaho, actually. 661 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:36,880 I have to a camp that I started called the Idaho Orchestra Institute, which is for high 662 00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:38,860 school and college age students. 663 00:36:38,860 --> 00:36:40,480 And then I do a conducting workshop. 664 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:41,960 So I teach conducting. 665 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:47,520 And then in August is the summer music festival for my Boise Baroque Orchestra. 666 00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:51,600 So I'll be there for the month of August doing Sunday evening concerts. 667 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:57,040 May and July I have off from conducting, which is perfect because I really need the 668 00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:00,920 time to prepare for next season and kind of get things going. 669 00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:03,240 And your season starts in September here? 670 00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:04,240 Yes. 671 00:37:04,240 --> 00:37:08,060 So we start third week of September and we go through the first week of May each year. 672 00:37:08,060 --> 00:37:12,120 And then there is still the summer with the other? 673 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,200 We'll do about five or six concerts at the end of July. 674 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:21,720 A small ensembles like Quintets, five people in Amherstburg and on the river here in Windsor. 675 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:24,080 And then we do the one orchestra concert in Leamington. 676 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,760 And that's what we do in the summer is just a very small amount because honestly, the 677 00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:31,820 staff is also getting ready for those 125 concerts during the year. 678 00:37:31,820 --> 00:37:32,820 It's a lot. 679 00:37:32,820 --> 00:37:33,820 It is. 680 00:37:33,820 --> 00:37:36,160 You guys keep it going year round, which is fabulous. 681 00:37:36,160 --> 00:37:37,160 That's right. 682 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:42,160 And I want to thank you so much for the 10 years that you've given us and how much you 683 00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:48,720 have improved the symphony and the experience of the symphony. 684 00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:51,520 And you've created a convert out of me. 685 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:53,800 So thank you so much for being here today. 686 00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:55,200 I really do appreciate it. 687 00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:56,200 Thank you, Tracy. 688 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:57,280 I appreciate it too. 689 00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:01,440 And thank you again for watching another episode of YQG In Bloom. 690 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:06,980 My name is Tracy Martens and I hope you enjoyed this interview this evening with Robert Frantz. 691 00:38:06,980 --> 00:38:16,320 You guys have a good night.