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Unknown: my great pleasure to welcome you to the 1998. That's hard to believe Cabrillo Music Festival. It's great to be back. It's wonderful to see everyone or I did see you when the house lights were on. And it's great for me to once again work with

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these outstanding musicians in the orchestra and the incredible composers that you're going to hear this week. I'm not sure exactly how this theme of these concerts this weekend happened. It's sort of like one of those drive by themes. You know, it's

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sort of every concert has to do with big cities, and tangos. I have no idea what the connection is, but maybe you'll feel it at the end of the weekend. The first piece on the program is by Richard Daniel poor, it's called towards the splendid city. And

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Richard and I share sort of love hate relationship that only native New Yorkers can have with New York City. The piece is mostly dominated by this incredible, anxious energy. Kind of like that makes you a little nervous. And I hope it

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doesn't make you nervous. And there's a moment later that Richard was telling me about, I don't know how many of you have been to New York or driven into the city at night and when it's a clear evening and you go across the 59th Street Bridge,

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it's a beautiful sight. All the lights of the city it looks almost clean. Kind of otherworldly, but mostly the pieces dominated by thematic sounds like this. So hope you enjoy A bunch of my I found some

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that some guy in North Carolina was making that I couldn't find them anymore. So I was telling my dad Oh, I'm really worried because I don't have any more buttons. I can't find this guy. And so my

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dad said, Oh, let me see, maybe I can make the same thing. So my dad made me some and then he said, Do you know how many we need just in case I die or something? So he made me think I'm safe for a while?

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Are they all the same? They're all they're all wood. Right? Why is it you prefer to I've seen conductors use buttons. And I've seen connectors not used buttons.

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what's the what's the name of the tongue gives a better focal point for the orchestra, especially if you do a lot of new music, contemporary music, where the meter changes like that first piece, we played

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the Daniel pour the meter changes every bar. And I think when musicians are trying to, you know, finesse their parts and look up very quickly, it's much easier to see one point of focus rather than just your hands. Right? It's very hard to

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tell. But you use your hands to I mean, the other hand of course is free to use for expressive stuff, right?

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It's exciting to have another this is your seventh year. No. Cabrillo Music Festival and it's elegant this year. It's really elegant. I think that we have some great composers on board this year, a

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lot that are returning composers. We actually did a couple other pieces by Richard Daniel poor before but we haven't gotten him out here yet. So I tell them all programs something big, really big of his to get him out. But tonight

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Chris Caliendo and Michael Dougherty are both new to the festival. So that's exciting. We read earlier we're reading program notes here about Daniel poor his work that he actually did the composing

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outside of New York, but he I guess he's back in New York, stuck in New York. He lives in New York, but he's had a lot of residency is actually right. The reason he couldn't be with us right now is

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because he's in residence at Marlborough. In Vermont and so that sounds that probably is why the piece towards the splendid cities such in such a good humor because he didn't he wasn't actually living in New York.

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It is very humorous and light, actually. I was expecting something much more arduous, brutal way for the next for Michael Doherty's B strain metropolis. Talk about Michael

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Doherty with us a little bit. Do you encountered him though? How did you come to the he was the winner of them his piece won a competition that my orchestra, Concordia runs by annually. It's an American composers award. And the pieces are submitted

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anonymously. And his piece one and so I performed it at Lincoln Center. And then I took it with me a couple of places. This was 10 years ago. So I just become associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony in Virginia. So I took it down there. And

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Michael joined me and but then I, for some reason, you know, how does you just I got hooked on a few other composers. And Michael was doing different things. And I followed his career, but I didn't have the opportunity to program anything

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until I really thought of doing quite a bit of his stuff this summer. So I haven't seen him in 10 years. But really, it's fun to get back together again. And he keeps composing. And he's very prolific as you know, he

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writes a lot of music. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's amazing to have written an opera. I mean, that's the thing that he was telling me that that takes a lot of time and a lot of coordination with many, many people. But he did an offer for

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Houston Grand Opera called Jackie O, which was very, very well received. Have you heard? I have the CD of it. I haven't heard it live. And he's working right now on a commission for the National Symphony actually a percussion Concerto for Evelyn

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Glennie and she's commissioned some terrific work so you know the piece that we're playing tomorrow night, the schwertner percussion concerto was commissioned by Glenny and I just premiered the Chris rouses percussion concerto, which she

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also commissioned, and she is my soloist with the London Symphony. So she's, she's contributing to that repertoire. So Michael Dougherty is going to be the next percussion concerto writer

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and tomorrow night's work that you're also premiering minorities. Yeah, that's called Motown metal. And that will feature just the brass section and a few of the percussion players that

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will play metal instruments. And the rest of the orchestra isn't there. No. Oh, it's Yeah, no one's no stranger to big brass number in loud, I guess. It's not so much loud is kind of rockin. It's a

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really, it's got a Motown sound. And I think influenced by his I don't know exactly if he spent any time in Detroit, but he must have driven through a couple times. Right? And the tomorrow night's concert is being I mean, it's

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not only Motown metal, but there are a few other works. So there they'll be the whole orchestra there for Oh, sure. That's only the Motown metals only seven minute piece to Oh, that opens the second half. But the rest of the concert, everybody

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and for the tomorrow afternoon for meet the composer's how many composers are going to be here? Let's see. I know at least we have at least three and I think there may be even I think our percussion solos up tomorrow

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evening, john kacica, who's with the St. Louis Louis Symphony will join us. And I'm sure we'll dig up a couple other people. Tell me about what you're you're going to do some more European tours this year. Your

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your Oh, my son and my guest conducting Yeah, life? Yes, I'm doing. I think it's eight, eight orchestras in Europe this year, which is very exciting, beginning with the orchestra to Perry on October 7, and then I'm going up to London and doing a

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triple opera bill American opera and concert opera and a few of the other cities I'm going to Amsterdam and Dusseldorf and back to Scotland a couple times and saving my money for Monte Carlo tried to do some gambling there. So try to that will be

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hard. I don't think it'd be hard for me. So it's very nice supplement to what I'm doing in the state. No matter and of course you're also a violinist yourself. What's the experience of premiering a work like you did

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tonight? With violin does it make you want to get in there and play it yourself? No, not at all. Not at all. I think Oh thank God I'm not having to do that. It's a it's a different experience to have the pressure of actually making the

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sound yourself and being responsible for that. I mean, conducting you're responsible for everything and everything's your fault. But you know, making the sound is is really a The hardest thing to do, and I think that's what makes a good

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conductor, when you always remember that you're not making the sound, that it's the musicians that are doing the real work. Another thing that I experienced in my life is there's certain

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recurring things that I need to do all the time. And every time I have come up to doing that, again, I have to generate the enthusiasm to do it again. Do you? Does that just come real easily to come again to the Cabrillo Music Festival and

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conduct another two weeks here? Oh, sure. It's it doesn't feel like repetition at all. Because each year is a very different focus and a different theme. And I think, you know, the musicians, generally a lot of

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them return. But we have several new players as well. And so that gives a new, a new viewpoint. And then of course, with the composer's being different every year. That's another inspiring aspect. So no, it's never an old kind of experience. I just

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wanted to ask you one question about the technical thing about poly rhythms that so many contemporary composers, not so many, but it is one of the things the orchestral musicians have to cope with. Right? And they are all experts in this. Is

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that correct? Sure. How do they get that expertise other than at the Cabrillo Music Festival? Summer? Well, you know, it's interesting when he asked about, you know, multimeters. And for people listening who might not be musicians, it means when you

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go from something that feels like it's informed to something that feels like it's in three, and, you know, back and forth and really rapid transition five and seven. The tricky ones, which are when you feel like one leg is shorter than the other,

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those are the tricky ones. But you know, doing a festival like this makes it's almost like training for the Olympics of polyrhythms. You know what I mean? Like, at the end of it, I think everybody feels Okay, now we're ready to, to go to the

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real contest in a way. I think that these days though, orchestral musicians are much more versatile in that kind of rhythmic dexterity, because the composers right like that. An interesting experience, once I started with Leonard Bernstein,

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and he used the koussevitzky parts his teacher was because of isqi. And because of its key, couldn't conduct the rightest spring or chose not to conducted any original version, he rebars it so it was very square. So it was sort of infor, and Bernstein

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had these parts. And he took them to the kids at Tanglewood and said, these are the parts were we'll use, but the kids kids couldn't play it in that square, easy way. Because for for this generation, no playing button, second button. It's not

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a problem, you know, it's something they've grown up on. And to try to square it out and make it easy, actually makes it much harder nowadays. So I think musicians are really, I do say experts in this kind of rhythmic language, but people listening

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should know that it's really an incredible skill. I mean, it is like the Olympics. I mean, playing an instrument is so challenging. And these, these people have practiced since you know, 234 years old and practiced every day, and they

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still practice every day, several hours. And, you know, the kind of athletic prowess that you need to really play in this room well is, is far greater than anything you would need for an athletic competition.

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About your own little jazz combo string fever. Have you had any chance to work with that this year? Are you two, we've done a lot. I've been a little bit busy, but we started working on a new CD. So we we lay down four tunes, and I hope

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to get back to it actually, my my parents both joined us. So that's nice. I'm trying to get back to it while they're in town in New York. It's hard to get everybody together, you know, to rehearse and do that sort of thing. But we have plans for

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next season. So we'll do a couple things. Well, you're gonna bring them to the agreement, not to Cumbria again, but maybe on the east coast.

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You have one CD already out, which is entitled fever pitch, right? Will it be also on the same label this new CD? We're not sure about that yet. But this is going to

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be a CD of all standard tunes. You know, like my heart belongs to daddy and in the mood. So, yeah, we're working on it. Keep on it. Well, I better get rolling for the second half, I guess. Thanks, Barry. Nice to talk with you later.