Youngest jump-in conductor since Maazel, aged 9
OrchestrasInterlochen Arts Academy informs us: Matthew Straw is jumping in as a last minute replacement for Christian Reif with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen on Sunday evening. Matthew is the youngest conductor to debut with the orchestra since Lorin Maazel who made his fabled debut there at age 9 in 1939.
Matthew Straw is 26. Not quite so young.
pictured: Maazel, aged 8, with Mayor La Guardia
Twenty-six? Far too old to be starting out these days.
Especially if you’re Finnish.
If he was Finnish, at this age he would be a MD only at 11 different orchestras, so he would have a plenty of time for some side gigs.
The Interlochen Arts Academy is the boarding school for high school aged kids that starts in September. The summer institution that is the subject of this post, which I attended between 1968 and 1972 and to which I owe more than I can say, is now called the Interlochen Arts Camp (it was the National Music Camp when I was there).