Where do you find a conductor in an emergency?
NewsYou read about the jump-in tenor at Nice?
This is a conductor emergency at the capital of the USA.
Simone Young flew to New York to start rehearsals at the Metropolitan Opera. While getting over jet-lag, she decided to visit the museums in Washington DC.
Here’s what happened next:
‘While sitting at the hairdresser’s on Wednesday afternoon, I wrote to Nigel Boon (director of artistic planning) at the National Symphony Orchestra to see if he had time to meet me this weekend for a drink and a chat about future programmes.
‘What I didn’t know was that Christoph Eschenbach had withdrawn, due to illness, from this week’s concerts about 40 minutes earlier. Nigel wrote back, asking half-jokingly if I couldn’t take the train down that evening, and take over this morning’s dress rehearsal and the three concerts: various Mozart arias with Chen Reiss and Brahms 2.
‘So three hours later I was on the train to Washington DC. I am now back in my hotel room after the first concert with the wonderful National Symphony, with another at 11am tomorrow, and marvelling at the strange serendipity of it all!’
I could do with some of her hair.
She’s a pro!
A tip of the hat to Amtrak, as well. Without them, she would’ve had a much more difficult time in pulling this off.
I believe this shows that those who still oppose spending public funds on Amtrak – but not the billions on interstate and local roadways and highways – must learn to train themselves to think differently.
Excellent Brahms 2, well-deserved ovation.
We were at the Sydney Opera House recently for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s concert with Simone Young, in the Concert Hall, with a superb new acoustic after three years of redesign and repair. The program was Mahler’s Blumine, Siobhan Stagg with Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliées, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. We were blown away.
Simone Young goes to a hairdresser???!!!!!!!
It’s a great story but even more important is how wonderful the concert turned out. I happened to attend the Friday noon concert. Mrs. Young led a wonderful performance of Brahms 2nd and very appealing reading of three pieces by Mozart with soloist Chen Reis. Mrs. Young technique is perfect. She conducts with her entire body yet her bit is accurate and it was wonderful to see the way she handled the organ player in “Exoltate” and the wonderful dialogue she established with orchestra’s amazing timpanist Jauvon Gilliam. Bravo to Mrs. Young. Bravo to Chen Reis who displayed a wide vocal and musical spectrum and did it as I heard after three rehearsals with three different conductors. All around a great concert.
An amazing story.
She´s always been a tough lady…..She gave us musicians sometimes a hard time,but she is absolutely professional,and has a good heart and soul under her sometimes gruff behaviour…Love her.
She is really a pro and a very gifted conductor. There was a wonderful biographical documentary on her which I saw recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxnE9rAMFdA
It gives great insight into her and the life she has lead.
I didn’t go because I had no interest in seeing Eschenbach conduct (despite decent experience with the concerts I’ve seen him conduct). I might have gone if I’d known she had stepped in.