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Memphis Symphony Orchestra Extends Music Director Contract
MSO Signs Eight-Year Contract with Music Director Robert Moody
The Memphis Symphony Orchestra announced that it has extended its contract with Music Director Robert Moody, known for adventurous and inclusive programming and enthusiastic advocacy for the arts, for an additional eight years. The Board of Directors unanimously approved the contract that makes Moody Music Director through 2032.
“I couldn’t be happier to know that the musical journey with my family at Memphis Symphony Orchestra will continue! I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far. I realize that the growth of an orchestra is a slow and steady process. This long runway will give us all that needed time to accomplish many of our dreams and goals for MSO.” – Robert Moody
Robert Moody joined the MSO in 2016. Concerts beginning Saturday, September 30 mark his seventh season as Music Director. In addition to being the primary conductor of the MSO, Moody’s role as Music Director also includes guiding the overall artistic vision of the institution and acting as a leading community voice for the invaluable impact that music and the arts have on our community.
“The ongoing commitment of the MSO musicians, staff, and board are underscored by Bob’s contract extension. Equally gifted and passionate about the Greater Memphis community, we’re excited to have Bob continue as MSO Music Director.” Jason Farmer, MSO Board Chair
“Robert has been a great leader and musical partner. He shares our passion for music’s role in enriching our community. We look forward to all the music we will make together.” Caroline Kinsey, Principal Horn
As only the MSO’s fifth Music Director, Moody is recognized for his creative concert programming, his dedication to music education, and his engaging ability to communicate that whether you are a life-long classical music fan or this is your first time at a concert, this music belongs to you. During his tenure, he led a new initiative to ensure that each concert would feature an African American or Latinx composer or soloist, communities traditionally underrepresented in classical music. Moody also created the Orchestra Unplugged Series in collaboration with the Orpheum Theatre Group – half concert, half entertaining lecture that takes deep dive inside a single piece of music or composer. In Fall 2022, Moody conducted opera superstar Renée Fleming for her Memphis debut. And he has led the orchestra and Memphis Black Arts Alliance to over-capacity audiences for the Memphis tradition, Sunset Symphony.
Moody believes that music’s purpose is to bring people together. He has deepened relationships with artistic partners like Opera Memphis, Ballet Memphis, and Collage Dance Collective, leading the orchestra in performances for each organization. He understands the invaluable role that music plays in the development of the next generation. The MSO’s education programs reach over 30,000 students in over 50 schools in over 26 ZIP codes each year. In early 2023,
Moody led concerts for over 5,000 elementary age students from across Shelby County. While he has made Memphis his home, Robert Moody is in demand beyond the city. He is the long-standing Music Director of the Arizona Music Festival, and is in regular demand as a conductor across the US and the world, including concerts in South Africa and Hong Kong.
A South Carolina native, Moody holds degrees from Furman University and the Eastman School of Music. He is a Rotarian and has served on the boards of AIDs Care Services, Winston-Salem YMCA, WDAV Classical Radio, and the Charlotte Master Chorale. Moody and his partner, organist Jimmy Jones live in Memphis with their two dogs and one cat. Moody is an avid runner, swimmer, history buff, “Jeopardy!” addict, and snow-skier.
About the Memphis Symphony Orchestra The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, under Music Director Robert Moody, strives to enrich the lives of our diverse community through exceptional music and dynamic programs. Two hundred musicians and staff make up the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, providing educational programs, organizing community engagement events, and performing concerts. The MSO is supported by the committed volunteers of their Board of Directors, Symphony League, and Circle of Friends. Visit MemphisSymphony.org to find information about upcoming performances, ticket purchases, special events, community programs, and opportunities to support MSO.
Greensboro Symphony heads into season needing a conductor — but it’s part of the plan
News & Record
GREENSBORO — Back in fourth grade, a classmate jokingly added Robert Moody’s name on the signup sheet for students interested in a strings class, covering the fundamentals of the violin, viola and cello.
He didn’t know until the teacher later called the names on the list to go to that class.
“I was 9 years old, and I didn’t know how to explain that to a teacher, so I just got up and went to the class — and here I am,” Moody said.
More than 100 vetted candidates later and for Moody and a small group of conductors it’s come down to this: the Season of The Seven.
That’s seven top-level conductors — a distinction based on reviews, industry insiders and the folks who have sat in an audience and seen them harness a creative energy with a simple baton — vying to become the music director for the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.
The person chosen will take the symphony into a new era.
They’ll also have a hard act to follow: Dmitry “Dima” Sitkovetsky, a world-renowned violinist who was a magnet as conductor the last 20 years, drawing world-class musicians to play here and filling concert seats with record-breaking sales — all while raising the profile of the symphony, and by extension, Greensboro.
Each candidate will create a Masterworks concert of their own design to be performed at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts with the orchestra players. Moody is up first, on Saturday at 8 p.m.
From California to Colorado, the others that follow have varied backgrounds and are associated with various orchestras across the country.
Who will lead when it’s all over?
“We are waiting,” said symphony CEO Lisa Crawford, “to be wowed.”
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The list was narrowed to those seven after a survey of member musicians and what symphony leaders call a “deeply engaging” interview process including how they would follow Sitkovetsky.
The committee had initially agreed to whittle the resumes to six. One problem: They couldn’t agree on the last candidate.
“So we made it seven,” Crawford said.
Electric.
Engaging.
Exhilarating.
Those words could be used to describe most if not all the candidates.
Garson Rice, chair of the search committee, described all of the candidates as outstanding conductors and “equally as important, accomplished musicians.”
It’s what got them to this point in the competition.
Now, they’ll need to display something more.
While keeping a focus on classical music, over the years the symphony has sought to reach a wider audience, which has included offering “Cirque de la Symphonie” with aerolists, and expanding its reach into gospel, rock and other areas — such as music from video games, which was a sold-out show.
Upcoming concerts include collaborations with former “American Idol” Ruben Studdard, who is covering the catalogue of the legendary Luther Vandross, and music from the “Harry Potter” movies.
But, for now, the focus is on the candidates. What can they bring to the city? What will separate one from the rest?
Of course, a very big part of their weekends is going to be that intangible thing called chemistry.
The audience. The musicians. The Masterwork subscribers.
They will all have a say in that.
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Moody, who has a busy performance schedule with the Memphis Symphony that he now leads, has also been hoping for a “Jeopardy!” game show invitation.
He records episodes when he is away and then binge-watches them.
“I phrase every answer in the form of a question out loud — to the chagrin of my partner or whoever is in the room,” joked Moody, who is able to laugh at himself. “I’ve applied and made a perfect score on the practice test — so I don’t know why they haven’t called me yet.”
Moody is likely among the more familiar candidates to symphonygoers in the Triad, having spent 13 years as the music director for the Winston-Salem Symphony. He also spent five of them attending Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, where his partner Jimmy Jones was the choir director and organist.
”I’m crazy about the place,” Moody said.
A native of Greenville, S.C., Moody doesn’t come from a musical family and wasn’t raised listening to classical music.
“I didn’t grow up with Bach, Beethoven and Mozart,” he recalled. “I grew up with Pentecostal church music, country music and college football. And then I’m a kid from the 80s, so throw in all that a smattering of Journey and the Eagles and Kansas.”
His signature collaborations are a fusion of it all — and more.
Yet that strings class changed his life.
“They put a cello in my hand, and I realized I had an ability and love for it,” Moody said.
And he found his voice, literally, also as a singer.
In high school he attended a school of the arts and state performing arts summer program, where he picked up a baton for the first time.
“They had a conducting class and competition, and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Moody said.
Moody has degrees in voice and cello from Furman University and his conducting degree from the Eastman School of Music in New York.
While he had been on staff of various symphonies across the country and the guest conductor at a variety of companies, Winston-Salem hired Moody in 2005.
“Rising star” was attached to his name.
He and Sitkovetsky, then the Greensboro conductor, later merged their symphonies for two large-scale concerts, putting more musicians on the stage than they could ever do on their own.
About half the symphony players already performed with both Triad orchestras. Cooperation between the cities allowed that, Moody said.
“It ended up providing a life and a full-time lifestyle for players who wouldn’t be able to obtain it otherwise,” Moody said.
Moody is the former director of the Portland Symphony as well as having conducted the major orchestras of the world, including in Chicago and Los Angeles. Under his artistic leadership, the Memphis Symphony has experienced growth in programming, recording, new commissions and endowment to over $25 million.
As for Saturday’s audition, he has chosen to start with the work of Arturo Marquez, a Mexican composer who uses Latin undertones.
“He wrote what, I think, is one of the most exciting pieces to play on the opening of a concert,” Moody said. “Talk about something that just sets the audience on fire.”
The melody is slow but picks up — Moody likens it to parts of an iconic “West Side Story” musical.
“Marquez is like a gift from me to Greensboro because you might not have heard it before,” Moody said.
He will also have a guest musician — cellist Gabriel Martins.
The concert ends with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
“One of the most powerful, beloved pieces,” Moody said.
One thing he has yet to plan is a weighty issue: what to wear.
Moody says the traditional white ties and tails have all but disappeared except for galas or special programs.
“I’ve experimented, and I’m sometimes successful and sometimes not,” Moody admitted.
He’s tried a black smock of sorts that is akin to untucked shirts with no real collar, attire made popular by others.
“I’ve tried them, and I felt like I was dressed in someone else’s clothes,” Moody said.
He prefers suspenders.
“It’s like the old joke: Why do firemen wear suspenders? To keep their pants up,” Moody said. “When you are using the aerobics a conductor uses, they kind of do the best job of keeping my pants up.”
As for the job: Any candidate’s goal is to continue the Greensboro Symphony’s legacy. To grow it. To make concerts appealing.
“I want people who do not attend the symphony to think of it as something to do,” Moody said.
Lyric Opera Opens Season with Star Power
Libby Hanssen September 29th, 2024
Soprano Renée Fleming was the big draw for many at Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s opening performance of the season, but if some were disappointed at the lack of “opera-ness” in the program, I hope they appreciated the intricacies and fun presented in this show.
The title of the show—“The Brightness of Light”—was taken from Kevin Puts’ composition, based on the letters of artist Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband Alfred Stieglitz. The piece was written with Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry in mind, who premiered the piece with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Music Center in 2019.
Puts has concocted quite a painterly orchestral palette (while, yes, there are two characters/vocalists, it is much more an ensemble piece than a vocal showpiece). This was presented concert style, the Kansas City Symphony onstage, conducted by Robert Moody, who showed a commanding sensitivity and attention.
The piece followed the arc of O’Keeffe and Stieglitz’ relationship, from introduction to love, marriage to separation, acceptance to goodbye. The frenzied energy of their courtship was demonstrated in overlapping lines from the singers, the projections behind them showing a layered series of handwritten letters.
These projections, designed by Wendall K. Harrington, were a fascinating component of the storytelling, combining O’Keeffe’s drawings and paintings, their letters, narrative text, photographs and film, mapping out not only their relationship, but her development as an artist and changes through her life.
Fleming, singing O’Keeffe’s words, was not acting as O’Keeffe (Fleming’s cobalt blue off-shoulder gown matched the color of some of the painting, but was nothing like what O’Keeffe generally wore, in her artistic practicality) but demonstrating her longing, joy, frustration, loneliness, sense of humor and stoic individuality. O’Keeffe’s pride radiated in the steady gaze in photographs.
Gilfry, singing the fairly older Stieglitz, was overall assertive and declamatory, but brought an air of reminiscent regret as he reflected on their relationship.
The piece included dozens of surprising and enlightened orchestral moments, from the soft stirring of the strings under an oboe solo, to pulsing brass, a beautiful chorale in the horns; everything from a lovely piano melody set against O’Keeffe’s diaphanous charcoal drawings of clouds to a screechy, scratchy violin solo (played with determination by concertmaster Jun Iwasaki), offset by O’Keeffe’s revelation to Stieglitz of her amateur endeavors with music, a little break of humor in an otherwise serious piece.
It was a wonderfully rendered piece, an exquisite portrait of an American artist.
The second portion of the program was devoted to selections from the American songbook. Both Fleming and Gilfry have extensive experience with Broadway, and they put together a pleasing little arc of personal favorites from that genre.
The first few tunes were a little marred by a weird chirping sound, but the band played on, as it were, and eventually that distraction, wherever it had come from, ceased.
The projection screen became a background of color, shifting through the rainbow song by song, for a bright but unobtrusive backdrop.
Together they performed classics like “Almost Like Being in Love,” “‘Til There Was You,” and “People Will Say We’re In Love,” a particularly charming performance between two long-time friends.
The orchestra had two shining moments, with Leonard Bernstein’s Overture from “Candide” and the Waltz from “Carousel.”
Gilfry commanded the space (poor Fleming had a hard time maneuvering, given the length of her admittedly stunning coppery sequins garment) using every inch of the 20 or so feet at the front of the stage. From his formal tuxedo in the first half, he changed to a slick Rat Pack-ready gray suit, fitting for his rendition of Frank Loesser’s “Luck Be A Lady.” He was also riveting in “Some Enchanted Evening” and “The Impossible Dream.”
Fleming’s heartfelt version of “So Big, So Small” from “Dear Evan Hansen” was sincere, and offered a different perspective as an example from contemporary musicals. Her finale of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” didn’t have quite the flamboyance of a program closer, but you could tell it brought her satisfaction to include it.
Their encore, on the other hand, exemplified their friendly partnership with an exciting, loose performance of Irving Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).”
Robert Moody, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra’s new conductor, reflects on music and loss
July 21, 2024 The Baltimore Sun | By Mary Carole McCauley
Robert Moody, the newly appointed music director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, lost his beloved husband five months ago to a sudden heart attack. That devastating loss is changing everything about how the acclaimed conductor approaches his art form.
This fall Moody, 57, will become just the third music director in the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra’s history. His selection to head the 40-year-old cultural institution culminated a yearlong, international search that attracted 130 applicants from nine countries and 41 states.
“I can’t remember how many times I’ve told an audience from the podium that music heals, that music brings people together,” Moody said. “But I didn’t realize how incredibly true that is — and how much I didn’t understand what I was saying until now.”
Trustee Kim Golden said in a news release that Moody was selected unanimously by the search committee. The orchestra’s board voted to offer Moody a three-year contract following a sizzling May 9 concert that he guest-conducted, and that paired two modern works by Adolphus Hailstork and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich with an 1806 masterpiece — Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4.
“The strong connection between Robert and our musicians was undeniable,” Golden said. Moody will be helming a cultural organization that is packed with talent, but like other arts groups nationwide, is still regaining its footing following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The chamber orchestra performs five concerts a year and has an annual budget that hovers around $300,000. But for the past two years, the group has run a deficit, according to public tax documents, following five straight years of modest profits.
The “chamber” in the title refers to the ensemble’s relatively small — in orchestral terms — size. The 30 members on the roster are professional musicians from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Zéphyros Winds quartet, the Poulenc Trio, Towson University and other highly respected cultural organizations.
Moody has some ideas about how he can help stabilize the chamber group, based on some of the things he has tried over the past seven seasons as music director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, his main job. During Moody’s tenure, he said the Tennessee symphony added $25 million to what essentially had been a nonexistent endowment.
Moody also is in his 18th season as director of Arizona Musicfest, and his resume includes stints guestconducting gigs at some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as symphonies in Austria, Colombia, Germany and South Africa.
“I want to find out how the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra can be the most relevant music organization it can be in the 21st century,” Moody said. “Some organizations in this country are holding onto a 19th century model of what an orchestra should be. They either have already died or are faltering. I am obsessed with melding and mingling genres.”
In Memphis, home of the blues, Moody paired a performance of “The Soldier’s Tale” by Igor Stravinsky with music by the pioneering bluesman Robert Johnson, who according to an old and oft-repeated legend, is said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his mastery on the guitar.
“That’s the kind of programming to look out for in Baltimore,” Moody said.
He added that he is interested in “growing” the Chamber Orchestra, perhaps by programming more new concerts or adding performances of existing concerts, perhaps by extending the orchestra’s reach outside its performing home in Goucher College’s 973-seat Kraushaar Auditorium, and perhaps by forging “unexpected collaborations” with choral organizations and dance troupes.
He has worked in the past with such celebrated artists as the cellist Yo-Yo Ma (Moody began his musical training on the cello), and with composers Kevin Puts and Mason Bates. But his closest collaboration is with the famed soprano Renee Fleming, who he met in the early 1990s, when he was was working temporarily as an assistant Chorus Master at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and she was at the very beginning of her career.
“It feels odd to me to say that Renee Fleming is my friend,” Moody said. “I still have to pinch myself. But, we’ve worked together seven or eight times over the years, and we will work together three more times this coming season.
The soprano was especially close to Moody’s husband, Jimmy Jones, a gifted organ player, pianist and singer. The two men had been married for 18 years when Jones suffered a fatal heart attack in February at age 41. One of the first condolence messages that Moody received was from Fleming.
“Jimmy was the real thing,” said Moody, who now dedicates all of his concerts to his late spouse.
“I’m not being demure when I say that he was more talented than I am. He was on his way to becoming one of the most prominent organists in the U.S., Europe and Africa.”
And while it will never be adequate compensation for losing his husband, Moody said that the five months since Jones’ death have deepened his conducting skills.
“There is something about the rawness of death that has aided me in becoming a more authentic musician,” he said. “The older you get, and the more life happens, the easier it gets to start stripping away all that is unnecessary.”
The loss of Jones has given him a new clarity about where his focus should be, he said — in his work as well as in his personal life.
“If conductors have an Achilles’ heel,” Moody said, “it’s that we insert ourselves into the music. The process becomes much more about the human waving his arms than it should be.
“But I’m finding that now, I’m much more able to step out of the way of the music than I was able to do before.”
ROBERT MOODY ANNOUNCED NEXT MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE BALTIMORE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
June 25, 2024 | BALTIMORE, MD – The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra (BCO) has named internationally acclaimed conductor Robert Moody as Music Director. A frequent collaborator with many of the world’s leading composers, ensembles and performers including Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Mason Bates, Kevin Puts, Canadian Brass, Time for Three, among many others, Maestro Moody begins his three-year contract in the 2024-25 season.
“I am completely delighted that Robert Moody has accepted our offer to become the BCO’s new Music Director.” Search Committee Chair and BCO Trustee Kim Golden said. “After leading the Orchestra in a challenging program featuring two rarely performed modern masterpieces by Adolphus Hailstork and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and a sparkling interpretation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, the strong connection between Robert and our musicians was undeniable.
In addition to his position as Music Director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Robert Moody currently serves as Music Director for Arizona Musicfest, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and as Principal Conductor for Lakeland Opera (FL). Some of his 2024-25 season debuts include the Kansas City Symphony and Tulsa Opera alongside opera superstar Renée Fleming and internationally with the Tampere Philharmonic in Finland, and Timisoara Philharmonic in Rumania.
“I’m so honored to be asked to lead this magnificent Mid-Atlantic orchestra into its next chapter.” Robert Moody said. “From our very first rehearsal I sensed an incredibly strong chemistry between me and the players. This orchestra already plays at a level of artistry on par with some of the best orchestras in the country and the synergy we have are the perfect ingredients for exponential growth. I can’t wait to get started!”
Following a year-long search during the 2023-24 season that saw five finalists selected from a pool of more than 130 applicants from 9 countries and 41 states conduct the Orchestra, Moody will serve as only the 3rd Music Director in the orchestra’s 40-year history. The Music Director Search Committee was composed of BCO musicians, Trustees, subscribers, and Baltimore area community leaders who were unanimous in their selection of Robert Moody.
“Collaborating with Robert to present two very different and challenging solo pieces during the orchestra’s season finale concert in May was a very special experience for both of us.” Search Committee members Audrey Wright (BCO Concertmaster) and Chiara Kingsley Dieguez (BCO Principal Viola) said. “We’ve both worked with several different conductors from across the country, and all five Finalists during this past season, but working with Robert on a concert where both of us performed as soloists and section leaders demonstrated an extraordinary level of artistic excellence that will be a tremendous addition to our wonderful Orchestra.”
“I feel very fortunate to partner with a musical leader of Robert’s caliber and experience to bring the BCO to even greater heights,” BCO’s Executive Director Ben Newman added. The BCO’s 2024-25 season will be the first in Robert Moody’s three-year contract and will be announced in the coming weeks.
Mr. Moody Conducts at the Wuxi Grand Theater in China
On the evening of April 6, 2024, the concert “Bacchus” was staged at the Wuxi Grand Theater. This performance was conducted by Robert Moody, music director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in the United States, and performed by pianist Anna Malikova and the Wuxi Symphony Orchestra, creating a musical feast that spans borders.
The concert kicked off with the energetic overture to Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”. As one of the most common Mozart works peeformed, the ups and downs of the opening rhythm immediately captured the audience’s heartstrings. The lively and cheerful tunes and exquisite and beautiful melodies vividly displayed the warm, romantic and festive atmosphere of the wedding.
As the elegant and romantic melody of Chopin’s “Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor” sounded, Anna’s piano performance seemed like a beam of flowing light in a quiet time, echoing with the orchestra, tender, warm and healing, and the audience in the audience I was mesmerized by what I heard.
The second half was the finale of the concert – Beethoven’s “Seventh Symphony.” It has the most famous slow movement and one of the most famous allegro movements ever written by Beethoven. It is an important part of his nine symphonies that cannot be underrated.
Maestro Moody, who was conducting on stage for the first time in China, thoughtfully gave a pre-performance talk to the audience, introducing Beethoven’s creative background and performance insights.
Robert Moody’s conducting was full of passion, giving the performance extremely powerful energy and charm; the musicians performed skillfully and freely, vividly demonstrating the immortal power contained in the work that can make people transcend the sufferings of this world.
In the fourth movement, majestic, passionate and unrestrained tunes filled the entire theater, making the audience feel as if they were included in a massive carnival and celebration.
Finally, the performers encored a performance Dvořák’s “Slavonic Dance Op. 46, No. 8.”
The passionate melody and strong contrast of dynamics brought beautiful audio-visual enjoyment to the audience, and once again won great and passionate applause.
Go for the guitar but stay for the Shostakovich as the BPO takes us for a thrilling helicopter ride tonight at Kleinhans
By Peter Hall – February 3, 2024
THE BASICS: Billed as “Shostakovich & Six Strings” guest conductor Robert Moody conducts a fascinating “Desert Transport” by American composer Mason Bates (b. 1977), a somewhat meandering “Film Noir: Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra” by American composer Daron Hagen (b. 1961) and for the second half of the concert the stunning “wall of sound” Symphony No. 10 in E minor by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) at Kleinhans Music Hall. The concert repeats Saturday night, February 3 at 7:30. Tickets are available for walk-up at the box office, or by visiting www.bpo.org or calling 716-885-5000.
Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes including intermission
Friday morning’s “coffee concert” got off to an energetic start with conductor Moody picking up the mic to talk about a helicopter ride he took back around 2010 with composer Mason Bates when Bates was visiting Moody’s Arizona Music Festival. This must have been quite a trip because as they traveled around the entire state of Arizona Bates would tell Moody what the landscape below “sounded” like. The result was a 14-minute musical travelogue called “Desert Transport” which is just chock full of scintillating sounds.
Marijuana may be legal in New York State, but you can enjoy a drug-free high with “Desert Transport,” one of those pieces for orchestra that made me glad to have a subscription because I thought “I almost could have missed this.”
As they say “All music was once new” but will it stand the test of time? I hope that “Desert Transport” does. I’m not so sure about the second piece on the program titled “Film Noir: Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra” by Daron Hagen whose music has been on several previous BPO concerts. Over at Kleinhans, we’ve enjoyed Daron Hagen’s Concerto for the Left Hand (back in 2002), an opera, “The Shining Brow” (2006), his “Songbook” (a Violin Concerto in 2011), and “Bandanna Overture,” which was a world premiere in 2021. By the way, “Songbook” (featuring violinist Michael Ludwig) is available on the BPO’s own “Beau Fleuve” record label titled “Built for Buffalo” while “Shining Brow” (the opera about Frank Lloyd Wright) is available on a Naxos CD.
This concerto for electric guitar, features D.J. Sparr, the guitarist for whom the work was originally composed, and it brought together the myriad sounds of a symphony orchestra with the iconic instrument of rock, complete with its own various “enhanced” effects of wah-wah, fuzz, etc. I liked the opening “road-trippy” (the composer’s words) first movement called “Pacific Coast Highway” and really liked “Torch Song” which had a smooth, jazzy “noir” feeling. In the final two movements “You Should See the Other Guy” and “Maybe Not Today” I lost track of the guitar.
Since this guitar concerto was written for a consortium of symphony orchestras, it will certainly get played, and it might live on for the novelty of combining a six-stringed electric guitar with an orchestra. Of course, combining rock bands and electric guitars with the BPO is nothing new and for years we’ve been treated to the music of bands literally from A to Z (ABBA to Led Zeppelin). Look for the music of Phil Collins and Genesis on March 8 and then Fleetwood Mac on April 26.
But the big work on the program, a 46-minute tour de force, is the Symphony No. 10 by the famed Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich which features a huge orchestra starting with eight double basses to open the piece. What a growly sound they make! And the woodwinds are almost all “plus one.” The symphony is scored for three flutes (second and third flutes doubling piccolo), three oboes (third doubling English Horn), three clarinets (third doubling E-flat clarinet), three bassoons (two “regular” plus contrabassoon), five French horns (not just the four in the score), four trumpets (not just the three in the score), three trombones, tuba, tympani, percussion, and strings.
I’ve written many times that even the best stereo system (does anyone still have one of those?) can’t equal a live concert, and while the earbuds or the smart speakers we all have are convenient, they are but a pale imitation of what we could be hearing. And conductor Robert Moody brought out the best in the orchestra playing music by a master orchestrator, Shostakovich.
COMING UP NEXT, CONCERTS FOR KIDS
“Disney in Concert, The Sound of Magic” is billed as “A magical multimedia experience celebrating Disney at 100 and featuring animated sequences on the big screen synchronized to new orchestral arrangements of iconic songs, plus behind-the-scenes historical footage, artwork, and sketches.” That’s next Friday morning, February 9th at 10:30 am and also next Saturday night at 7:30 pm at Kleinhans.
For really little kids, while today’s (February 3) “BPO Little Kids” concert is sold out, you can still get tickets to the encore performance next Saturday (February 10) also at 10:00 am also at Kleinhans. It’s billed as “A special Saturday morning session for our littlest listeners, age 0-5, with their caregivers. Join BPO musicians and community partners for fun musical activities designed specifically for tiny ears and growing minds.”
Kleinhans Music Hall is at “3 Symphony Circle” Buffalo, 14201 where Porter Avenue, Richmond Avenue, North Street and Wadsworth meet at a traffic circle. Visit www.bpo.org or call 716-885-5000. Full-service bar in the lobby or across the lobby in the Mary Seaton Room. Masks are optional.
Big Swings from Hometown Conducting Candidate Robert Moody
By Josh Bottoms
October 7, 2023 – Greensboro, NC:
Greensboro Symphony‘s “Season of Seven” is upon us. In their search for a new music director, the symphony has invited a tour de force of seven conducting candidates from esteemed ensembles across the country. Looking for a maestro that represents the orchestra’s ideals of artistic range, global perspective, diversity, and dynamic leadership, I expect each of the seven candidates to bring a unique perspective to Greensboro. Kicking off the search with a homecoming was former director of the Winston-Salem Symphony and current director of the Memphis Symphony, Robert Moody.
Bringing a freshness and vigor to the podium that I haven’t seen in some years with the Greensboro Symphony, Moody opened the concert with a favorite among audiences, Arturo Marquez‘s Danzon No. 2. Influenced by Spanish and Latin American dance music, the piece is brimming with energy and earworm melodies; Moody matched the music’s gusto without also inviting a sense of overbearing machismo. While many ensembles take Danzon No. 2 at a blistering tempo, Moody made a bold choice to slow down the most turbulent section, highlighting the dissonance of clashing melodies instead of barreling through without clarity. From my seat in the house, Moody’s interpretation looked both clear and decisive, although at times, I got the impression the orchestra was sluggish in following his lead. Coordination between the podium and the orchestra tightened up during the Lalo Cello Concerto with soloist Gabriel Martins. Moody left plenty of space for Martins to take the lead, often communicating only a gentle sense of pulse.
After Martin’s tender encore, Moody started the second half sharing about his relationship to Beethoven and his interpretation of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. Having studied all nine Beethoven symphonies, Moody has found a reoccurring motive which he refers to as “The Growl,” a rocking, Jaws-like rumble in the lowest range of ensemble. By the time of this symphony’s composition, it was common knowledge that Beethoven was suffering from deafness, and although this was perhaps one of the lowest times in Beethoven’s life, the Symphony No. 7 is resolutely optimistic and forward. Reading between the lines, Moody finds that the sincerity of the work lies in the way “The Growl,” a depiction of Beethoven’s deafness, is consistently overwhelmed by the gaiety which permeates the totality of the work.
After an august opening, the any perceived sluggishness I felt during the Marquez dissipated as Moody and the orchestra finally connected. Maintaining their momentum, the ensemble moved through each movement attacca without letting any energy deflate. Even in the hush of the second movement, Moody carried the ensemble through with a sense of quiet determination. In my favorite movement of the piece, Moody perfectly captured the flippant lightness of the Presto with a fluttering left-hand gesture like wings of a little bird. Clearly gracious for the opportunity to work with the Greensboro Symphony, Moody’s excitement fueled the ensemble as both rushed boldly to the finale.
Flipping through their season program, the Greensboro Symphony has a mountain of excellent music to perform. I encourage attendees to stay observant, share their opinions, and meet with the candidates after their performances. Not only is this search an opportunity for the symphony to bring in an energized leader, but this is also an opportunity to bring in a world-class artist for the community. If the next six conducting candidates have as much charisma and skill to offer as Moody, GSO should enjoy a great season amid their search.
Memphis Symphony’s fall season highlights
As we seek shelter from the sweltering charms of the summer season, our thoughts turn to autumn. The leaves will turn, the air will grow crisp and our brilliant friends at the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (MSO) will commence their new concert season.
From premieres to timeless classics, the MSO is set to provide a musical feast for symphony enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Here are the highlights for fall 2023.
“Pictures at an Exhibition” and Chris Brubeck guitar concerto
Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023 · 7:30 p.m. · Cannon Center for the Performing Arts
Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023 · 2:30 p.m. · Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center
Robert Moody, conductor. Thomas Flippin, guitar. Vasti Jackson, guitar
Kicking off the season, MSO presents an attractive combination of pieces, including the world premiere of Chris Brubeck’s “Double Guitar Concerto.” Under the baton of Robert Moody, the MSO will, on this occasion, be joined by guitarists Thomas Flippin and Vasti Jackson.
In our interview, Moody was particularly enthused about this program. Chris Brubeck, Moody told me, wrote the piece to feature one classical and one blues guitar.
“It is a very nice tribute to Memphis. The classical guitarist is out of New England, his name is Thomas Flippin, a phenomenal player. The blues guitarist is the excellent Vasti Jackson, out of Mississippi. It is a 28-minute concerto and uses the orchestra beautifully as a sometimes classical, sometimes jazz linking mechanism between the classical and blues guitars. It is very virtuosic and has a big, satisfying ending. I think this will be the first of its many performances.”
The second half of the concert opens with Christopher Theofandis’ “Rainbow Body.” The piece has a duration of roughly 13 minutes and is composed in a single movement.
Its captivating melody draws loose inspiration from “Ave Maria, o auctrix vite,” a chant by the prominent 12th-century composer Hildegard of Bingen.
The piece derives its name from the concept of the Tibetan Buddhist “rainbow body,” wherein the body of an enlightened being is absorbed back into the universe upon their death.
The concert ends with the spectacular sounds of Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece, “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Moody conducts ‘Beethoven 5’
Friday, Oct. 13, 2023 · 6:30 p.m. · Crosstown Theater
Sunday, October 15, 2023 · 2:30 p.m. · Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center
Robert Moody, conductor. Caroline Kinsey, horn
Fate will come knocking at the door as the transcendent power of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67,” takes center stage in this MSO concert event. Composed between 1804 and 1808, this timeless masterpiece stands as one of the most renowned and frequently performed symphonies in the classical music repertoire.
Regarded as a cornerstone of Western music, its inaugural performance at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien in 1808 sparked its prodigious rise to prominence. Earning accolades from E. T. A. Hoffmann, who hailed it as “one of the most important works of the time,” Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony” embodies the essence of the Classical period with its four exquisite movements.
The concert also features Mason’s festive “Inspiration! Festive Overture” and Lazarescou’s “Impressions from the Black Sea.”
Master Series: ‘Carmina Burana’
Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023 · 7:30pm · Cannon Center for the Performing Arts
Robert Moody, conductor
Memphis Symphony Chorus. Lawrence Edwards, conductor
University of Mississippi University Choir. Donald Trott, director
Well, here comes fate again. Step into the captivating world of “Carmina Burana,” a remarkable cantata brought to life by Carl Orff during the years 1935 and 1936.
Drawing inspiration from a collection of 24 medieval poems known as “Carmina Burana,” Orff’s composition weaves a tapestry of musical narrative that continues to captivate audiences to this day.
I am sure you have all heard the opening “Fortuna” chorus, with its dramatic chanting against orchestral backing. It often adds drama and a sense of epic scale to movies, commercials, and reality shows.
This is undoubtedly one of the most popular works for choir and orchestra of the 20th century. It is also one of the most misunderstood ones. Being sung in Latin, “Carmina Burana” is often perceived as a thematically serious work. The texts cover a wide range of topics, however, as familiar in the 13th century as they are to us in our day: the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of spring, and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling and lust. Much of it is about drinking, sex and medieval monks. I hope the text translation will be provided.
If this is not enough, you can also hear Death playing the fiddle while the dead he called forth from their graves dance. That is the basic premise of “Danse Macabre,” a tone poem by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.
The MSO will be joined on this occasion by the Memphis Symphony Chorus and the University of Mississippi University Choir.
Are you curious now? Well, come and hear it!
Žak Ozmo
The Greensboro Symphony Presents Robert Moody, Conductor with Gabriel Martins, Cello
By Chris Eaton
Greensboro, NC (09/05/23) – A monumental season begins at the Greensboro Symphony (GSO) with the opening concert of the Season of the Seven Masterworks Series! The final stage in GSO’s Music Director Search begins with candidate, Robert Moody taking the podium alongside Brazilian-American cellist, Gabriel Martins on October 7th, 2023, at 8:00pm in the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts! This thrilling concert pays tribute to Hispanic Heritage and opens with a set of works that each draw upon Hispanic sources, beginning with Arturo Márquez’s exceedingly popular Danzon No. 2, and continuing with Édouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto in D Minor. The evening will close with one of Beethoven’s towering achievements: his beloved Symphony No. 7.
Currently in his 6th season as Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and 17th season as Music Director of Arizona Musicfest, GSO Music Director Candidate Robert Moody has formerly held positions as the music director of the Portland Symphony, as well as the nearby Winston Salem Symphony. Additionally, Mr. Moody has conducted many major orchestras including the Chicago Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. A South Carolina native, Moody holds degrees from Furman University (voice and cello) and the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his conducting degree with Donald Neuen. Moody and his partner live in Memphis with their two dogs and cat.
Lauded for his “rich, warm” and “mesmerizing” sound, Cellist Gabriel Martins has established himself as one of the world’s most compelling young musicians. His artistry has already been recognized through an extensive list of accolades including the Concert Artists Guild/Young Classical Artists Trust Grand Prize, the Sphinx Competition Gold Medal, the David Popper International Cello Competition Gold Medal, and the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians Silver Medal to name a few. These successes have led to a number of high-profile debuts including Carnegie Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and the Arkansas, Houston, Indianapolis, Memphis, and São Paulo Symphony Orchestras. In 2022, The Strad Magazine declared his New York City recital debut to be “flawlessly played…a deeply moving experience”, and Classic FM named him one of their “30 under 30” Rising Stars.
Often hailed as “Mexico’s second national anthem”, one would be hard-pressed to find a piece of contemporary Mexican concert music that can match the popularity of Danzon No. 2. Mexican composer Arturo Márquez was inspired to write the 1994 piece after visiting the dance halls of Mexico City and wrote it to pay homage to the diverse heritage of his country. Édouard Lalo’s 1877 Cello Concerto in D Minor is much loved by cellists the world over, and despite not explicitly using Spanish folk melodies, the rhythmic and melodic characteristics of the piece evoke the spirit of that country. The concert will close with Beethoven’s timeless Seventh Symphony, a work which was written in 1811-12 during a period that saw the considerable worsening of the composer’s hearing. Despite this, the Symphony stands as one of Beethoven’s major successes. Even at its premiere in 1813, the audience was enraptured by the energetic work and demanded the immediate encore of the second movement.
The opening concert of GSO’s Season of the Seven Masterworks is sure to excite! Don’t miss out when Music Director Candidate, Robert Moody and cellist, Gabriel Martins bring down the house—purchase your tickets today!
Call the GSO Box Office at (336) 335-5456 x224 or email at boxoffice@greensborosymphony.org
ROBERT MOODY CONDUCTS 3 ORCHESTRAS
Weekend Special • Peta Stewart
Three years ago conductor Robert Moody spent one month in South Africa, realizing a dream. Now finally after Covid shattered orchestral engagements internationally in 2020 and 2021, he is back to relive that dream, but more importantly to conduct all the orchestras: Two engagements with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra on 23 and 30 June 2022 and beginning his tour with the JPO on 9 June (Mozart Flute Concerto and Beethoven Symphony No. 7), and the KNZPO on 16 June (Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto and Beethoven Symphony No. 7).
That one full month of June 2019 was “one of the single most powerful and amazing experiences of my life. I was able to explore so many beautiful areas in and around Cape Town, from hiking Lion’s Head to visiting Stellenbosch, Cape of Good Hope and Boulders Beach, and of course the amazing food in so many stellar Cape Town restaurants. And I still don’t have the words to describe just how incredible it was to see leopard, elephant, giraffe, rhinos, hippos, and so much more on safari.
Moody is enjoying his 17th season as Music Director of Arizona Musicfest and 6thseason as Music Director of The Memphis Symphony Orchestra (Tennessee)
But safaris aside, it is Cape Town that remains in his mind.
“I’d always heard that Cape Town was a beautiful city full of culture. It surpassed my greatest hopes and of course CPO is a phenomenal orchestra, with truly wonderful colleagues who make the creation of music so rewarding. The hall is classic and gorgeous, and I especially am looking forward to having the epic Norman and Beard Pipe Organ join the music this time around.”
DAS AACHENER SINFONIEORCHESTER REIST MUSIKALISCH NACH AMERIKA. EIN VIELFÄLTIGES PROGRAMM MIT BEKANNTEREN WERKEN UND RARITÄTEN IM GUT BESUCHTEN EUROGRESS.
Aachener Zeitung • Pedro Obiera
Auf seiner sechsten Station hat das Aachener Sinfonieorchester in Amerika Halt gemacht. Im gut besuchten Eurogress präsentierte man endlich eine Werkfolge, die ohne programmatische Verrenkungen hielt, was das Motto „Amerika“ verspricht: Musik von fünf waschechten Komponisten des Kontinents. Wobei der versierte amerikanische Gastdirigent Robert Moody sehr geschickt bekanntere Stücke von Samuel Barber und Leonard Bernstein mit hörenswerten Raritäten mischte.John Corigliano, Jahrgang 1938, gehört zwar zu den bedeutendsten Komponisten Amerikas, wird in Europa jedoch trotz des engagierten Einsatzes von Stars wie Simon Rattle immer noch eher als Geheimtipp gehandelt. Wie lohnend die Begegnung mit seiner Musik sein kann, beweist er mit seiner Chaconne für Violine und Orchester, die einen Höhepunkt des Abends markierte. Dass das Werk ursprünglich als Musik für den Film „The Red Violin“ gedacht war, mindert nicht seinen Wert, sondern spricht eher von der hohen Qualität, die Filmmusik erreichen kann. Zu hören ist ein etwa 17-minütiger Variationszyklus über eine Folge von sieben Akkorden, der von einer schier unerschöpflichen Fantasie im Umgang mit Klangfarben, Stimmungen und Kompositionstechniken zeugt und dabei emotional berührt, ohne sentimentale Grenzen zu streifen. Eine dankbare Herausforderung: Der Solist Christoph Koncz meisterte die technischen Klippen und konnte sowohl den spirituellen Gehalt als auch die klanglichen Delikatessen des Werks souverän zum Ausdruck bringen, ebenso wie das von Moody glänzend einstudierte Orchester.Zuvor gab es als Einstand den relativ bekannten, von lateinamerikanischem Kolorit durchtränkten „Danzón“ Nr. 2 des Mexikaners Arturo Márquez und eine Tondichtung des weniger bekannten Komponisten Mason Bates. „Desert Transport“ heißt dessen recht originelles, wenn auch etwas langatmiges Werk, in dem Bates Eindrücke von einem Helikopterflug über die Landschaften Arizonas verarbeitet.Nach der Pause zelebrierten die Streicher der Aachener Sinfoniker in extrem gedehntem Tempo Samuel Barbers berühmtes Adagio, bevor sich mit den „Chichester Psalms“ von Leonard Bernstein endlich wieder eine Chorvereinigung in stattlicher Formation präsentieren durfte. Für Bernsteins jüdisch inspirierte, bewusst leicht fassbar arrangierte Psalmvertonungen standen gleich drei Chöre auf der Bühne: der Aachener Opernchor, der Sinfonische Chor und der in Bergisch Gladbach ansässige Konzertchor Tonart, einstudiert von Jori Klomp und Johannes Honecker. Die „Chichester Psalms“ verlangen dem Chor zwar keine allzu schwierigen Aufgaben ab, aber die Tür für anspruchsvollere Aufgaben ist geöffnet.Robert Moody wandelte stilsicher auf dem Grat zwischen religiöser Inspiration und effektvoller Oberflächenpolitur. Zusammen mit dem Countertenor Thomas Scott-Cowell, der seine kleine Partie souverän ausführte, dem Aachener Orchester und den Chören gelang ihm damit ein eindrucksvoller Ausklang des interessanten Konzerts.
IN TROUBLED TIMES, MSO BRINGS AN ODE TO JOY
The Memphis Flyer • Alex Greene
Sunday’s performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, op. 125, the “Ode to Joy,” by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (MSO), the Memphis Symphony Chorus, and the University of Mississippi Concert Singers, was a deeply emotional experience, in part because it held a mirror up to this moment in history.
For many, it began on the heels of “The Star Spangled Banner,” when the orchestra and chorus launched into another national anthem, “Державний Гімн України,” aka “The Glory and Freedom of Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished,” echoing orchestras and performers around the world who have done the same in recent weeks. The translated lyrics, projected on a screen above the players, gave a clue as to why the fledgling democracy has been giving the Russian Army a run for its money:
Still upon us, young brethren,
Fate shall smile!
Our enemies shall vanish
Like dew in the sun.
But the feelings evoked in the audience were clearly those of sympathy and solidarity more than the ire of the warrior. Breaking the spell somewhat, the orchestra then presented a short bon-bon of a piece, Michael Markowski’s Joyride, full of whimsical quotations of the Beethoven masterpiece that was to follow. To these ears, hearing a somewhat coy preview of some of the grandest motifs in the Western classical canon was a distraction, but perhaps for musicians who have played Beethoven’s Ninth all their lives, it was a welcome palate cleanser.
And then, speaking for a moment, conductor Robert Moody brought our thoughts back to the philosophical, reflective, and historical dimensions, especially when he noted that MSO member Andre Dyachenko was born in Ukraine. (The principal clarinetist simply held his instrument aloft in a nod to the acknowledgement).
And then Moody leaned into this historical moment. “Of course, music cannot stop a tank,” he said, “any more than it can stop a virus.” But, noting that Beethoven began composing his Ninth Symphony in 1822, Moody said that such music persists by appealing to the better side of humanity — a force to be reckoned with. The piece has been performed for 200 years, and will be performed for another 200, he said, precisely because it brings out our best.
With that, the game was afoot, as the MSO collectively braced themselves and leapt into the percussive themes of the first movement under Moody’s emphatic gestures. And the performance that followed was supremely sensitive to the work’s dynamics, from the timpani’s bombast to every sudden shift to waves of flowing strings. The blending of the tones of the horns, strings and woodwinds was especially adept.
All of it served to remind us of the world class institution Memphis has on its doorstep. And that was amplified further when the vocal soloists, Laquita Mitchell (soprano), Taylor Raven (alto), Limmie Pulliam (tenor), and Joshua Conyers (baritone) came to the front and galvanized the house with the flowing German poetry of lyrics based on Friedrich Schiller‘s writings.
The epiphany of Beethoven’s pioneering work was felt anew, as if the Memphis audience was witnessing its premiere, especially when the combined power of two choral groups stood to deliver their passages with overwhelming passion and precision. The message of hope and transcendence embodied by “Ode to Joy” was made all the more powerful by the translations that appeared once again on the screen.
Joy, bright spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire-inspired we tread
Within thy sanctuary.
Thy magic power re-unites
All that modernity has ruptured,
All men become brothers,
Under the sway of thy gentle wings.
The somewhat unconventional translation (i.e., replacing the usual “custom” with the term “modernity”) served as an invitation to take the words to heart in these terror-filled times. The fact that “Ode to Joy” has been adopted as the European Union’s anthem linked it with the contrasting lyrics and gravitas of Ukraine’s national anthem, and brought home the current era’s struggles, which hold all who oppose authoritarianism and terrorism captivated. Somehow, as Dr. Donald Trott and Dr. Elizabeth Hearn (directors of the University of Mississippi Concert Singers) and Dr. Lawrence Edwards (director of the Memphis Symphony Chorus) joined Moody and the MSO players in a bow, all of that historical passion was expressed in the long, well-deserved standing ovation.
ROBERT MOODY CHANGES THE TEMPO OF THE MEMPHIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Memphis Magazine • Anna Traverse
Allegro.
We could begin with a scene of Robert Moody standing before an expectant Memphis Symphony Orchestra: Bows poised above strings, flutes flourished and ready. All eyes on Moody, the conductor and, as of this month, music director of the MSO. All the pieces in place.
Or we could begin with a piece of possum cake. Moody and I have been talking only a few minutes when he mentions the possum cake. He is originally from Greenville, South Carolina, but, he explains, his mother’s family is from a farm community in South Carolina called Possum Kingdom. “I did not make it up,” he says.
Just this spring, to focus exclusively on Memphis, Moody has ended long-term relationships with several orchestras around the country. One of these was the Winston-Salem Symphony, where he became music director in 2005. At his farewell party, Moody was fêted with a life-sized possum-king cake (not to be confused with king cake; to my knowledge, there was no tiny plastic baby possum baked within). “Please tell me you have a photo,” I say. Moody produces his phone to show, sure enough, the sweetest (and, well, only) piece of possum fondant royalty I’ve ever seen: a prickly looking number complete with rakishly askew crown, and slightly unsettling eyes.
It’s an early summer, already sultry morning at Memphis Botanic Garden. The MSO players are assembled on stage for one final rehearsal before playing this evening with Wynonna (as in Wynonna Judd) for the Summer Symphony at the Live Garden, performed the final weekend in May, when the Sunset Symphony used to take place. Moody is casual, sandals and bright summer plaid, backstage in a trailer, talking marsupial cake.
For Mother’s Day, Moody drove the frosted creation to his 87-year-old mother, who grew up in Possum Kingdom. “There’s a major family reunion in September,” says Moody, “so we put it in the freezer. It is going to be the pièce de resistance.” What’s more, he goes on, “Apparently, it’s strawberry cake. So if it’s the least bit red or pink on the inside … well, it’s right out of Steel Magnolias.”
Leitmotif: Music changes lives.
Moody makes this statement – “music changes lives” – four times over the course of our conversation. His own life serves as an example; he did not grow up in a musical family. “You can probably presume no Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart in Possum Kingdom,” Moody notes wryly. His father was a mechanical engineer, “an incredibly intelligent man, but could not carry a tune in a wheelbarrow.”
But when Moody was in the fourth grade, a strings teacher came to his class for a demonstration: violin, viola, cello, bass. “Wouldn’t it be fun to play a string instrument? Sign on this sign-up sheet if you want to be involved,” Moody recalls hearing. “I didn’t sign up.”
A few weeks later, when the strings teacher returned for the first class, 9-year-old Moody’s name was called. Huh? “A girl in my class — my fourth-grade girlfriend, Sherry — she started laughing, because she remembered she had written my name down as a joke, thinking it would be funny.” Not knowing how to explain the backstory to the teacher, Moody simply “got up and went to the class, and here I am now.”
He chose the cello (his instrument to this day), and discovered an aptitude. And it didn’t hurt that the first Star Wars movie came out that year. The first thing Moody learned to play was the familiar theme: “ba ba ba BA ba, ba ba ba BAAA ba…”
“In my mind,” Moody says, “the two things are pretty well connected: my love of music, and my love of the grandiose scale of things, like those great big movies.”
Adagio.
Moody comes by it honestly, his keen sense of how the MSO can be “an orchestra for everybody — not just a small segment of the community.” In Greenville, he attended an arts-focused public high school. (“Greenville, South Carolina, is one of the first cities in the nation to have a public high school for the arts. I’m awfully proud of that,” he says. “They were the fourth: New York, L.A., Houston … Greenville.”)
He was studying the cello, thanks to the intervention of that fourth-grade girlfriend, as well as voice. His cello teacher was encouraging him to focus on cello; his voice teacher, on voice. But then the Chicago Symphony came to town as part of a national tour. They were playing Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, conducted by Georg Solti, whom Moody did not yet realize was one of the world’s foremost conductors at the time.
Moody was seated in the balcony with his classmates, and when the orchestra reached the finale, he wept, overcome by the power of the work, the performance, the synthesis he had witnessed. “I remember looking at that guy [Solti], thinking, ‘I want to do that.’” Music changes lives.
An orchestra, Moody explains, “is the greatest synthesizer in the world. More colors, more types of music can be played by an orchestra than by any other ensemble.”
“The job of the conductor is to know the piece of music so well” — Moody mentions later in our conversation that he is working his way through a piece the MSO will play in the summer of 2019 — “that he gets a group of 70, 80 musicians to interact with him, and with each other, in such a way that the whole becomes much greater than the sum of its individual parts. If the conductor were not there, it’s not just that the starts and stops would be a little sloppy. So many different colors, from French horn to oboe to cello to percussion. And to be able to shape that, and bring out the color of one group when they have the theme, and let others be out of the way a little — like an ocean wave, rise and fall …”
A symphony can wake anyone’s tendency toward synesthesia. Moody isn’t mixing metaphors here — colors and waves and shapes — he is describing the listening experience, the way the sensory experience constantly evolves. The way that, sitting in that balcony seat in Greenville, South Carolina, he was transported on waves of color to another time and place, a new world of possibilities.
Scherzo.
Every orchestra is possessed of its own distinct personality. The Vienna Philharmonic, per Moody, can play Johann Strauss’ waltzes better than any other orchestra in the world. Memphis, it will surprise no one to hear, does things a little differently.
“Memphis has this great, kind of sultry side to it that Memphians, as best I can tell, are quite proud of — the down-and-dirty, Delta side of things. This orchestra, they know exactly how to capture that.”
I ask Moody for an example of a piece in which the Memphis Symphony Orchestra has captured that sultry, gritty, down-and-dirty side of things. I’m half-expecting him to cite some recent performance when a Delta bluesman has joined the orchestra on stage, or they have played something on the pop side of the musical spectrum. Perhaps he’ll mention the time, early in his relationship with the MSO, when — for an Elvis program — he rode onto stage on a Harley. But no.
“Ravel’s Bolero,” Moody responds, without hesitation. He expands: He has heard orchestras all over the world, endowed with exponentially larger budgets than that of the MSO, play Bolero in “a very pristine and perfect way.” But, according to Moody, none can touch the Memphis Symphony’s rendition, “because Memphis gets the sensual side of it.”
The symphony has performed with Lil’ Buck, the Memphis-native jookin’ artist of international dance renown. Next year, they’re planning to perform a salute to Stax legend David Porter. But what stands out as the most quintessentially, necessarily Memphis rendition: Ravel, a French composer of the early twentieth century, often associated with the Impressionists. More than the notes on the score, it’s about that great synthesizer, suffused with the emotion and honesty, rawness and revelry of Memphis.
“Music that’s meant to give off a certain scent,” Moody says. That’s what Memphis plays best. We play music by sense of smell: of course we do.
When Moody’s relationship with the MSO began, the symphony was reeling from a long string of budget struggles that started during the 1990s. For years, financial success would be followed by financial crisis, followed by a swell of support from the community, followed by success — then yet another crisis. “There’s a history of a sort of roller-coaster ride,” Moody says. Those struggles only intensified during fallout from the financial crisis of 2008. Musicians had accepted pay cuts to keep the organization, designated a 501(c)(3), afloat. An extensive endowment campaign was undertaken. And the symphony’s administrative offices were moved onto the University of Memphis campus in 2014. This move served to cut costs, yes, but also helped to expand a larger partnership between the MSO and the U of M.
In Memphis, unlike in some other cities, the music director of the symphony is responsible for more than just, well, directing the music. He’s also heavily involved in ensuring a healthy financial future for the MSO. “I can’t state strongly enough how important it is that I’ve got a major partner in crime in Peter Abell, the new CEO. He’s brand-new. I’m brand-new,” says Moody.
And the MSO is far from unique in having been beset with financial problems in recent years. Google something like “symphony orchestra financial problem,” and you’ll soon be scrolling through a stream of articles with titles like “What Is Killing the Orchestras of the United States?”, “Orchestras in Crisis: Outreach is Ruining Them,” and “Why No Symphony Orchestra in the World Makes Money.”
It’s a work in progress, but, as Moody points out, the symphony is poised to close its 2017-18 season in the black for the first time in years. And, what’s more, “Peter [Abell] was able to double the annual-fund giving this year over last year.” Together, Abell and Moody are dedicating their energy — “the most energy I’ve spent in my career” — to making sure that the symphony is set on a path forward with “the correct financial, not just artistic, footing.” In Moody’s view, the symphony will remain on that sure, steady footing not merely by playing well in concerts at the Cannon Center, and not merely by asking for community support. Community support goes both ways: The community will support the orchestra that supports it.
While building the stable financial foundation Moody knows the organization needs, he emphasizes the importance of the message that the MSO will be good stewards of community investment. More than art for art’s sake, the message to the community is, “Give us a shot. Let us show you that we are becoming one of the most relevant twenty-first-century orchestras in America. And here I go again,” Moody says, “music changes lives.”
Sonata.
Time for a confession: I have been a delinquent symphony-goer. A younger version of me considered herself to be middlingly serious about the flute, but I haven’t seen that version in the mirror in a number of years, and the flute has taken up residence in the recesses of the hall closet somewhere between the gift wrap and the suitcases. I have happily accepted symphony tickets from friends and colleagues faced with last-minute scheduling conflicts, but only rarely, since moving back to Memphis in 2010, have I taken the initiative to put myself in a seat and experience the symphony’s transformative beauty.
But in the spring of this year, I attended the MSO’s “Bernstein at 100” program. Moody conducted, and Jamie Bernstein — Leonard Bernstein’s daughter — was on stage to narrate the “Kaddish” section of Bernstein’s Symphony No.3. A boy soprano — Emmanual Tsao — appeared on stage, tiny but fearless, to sing a sweetly haunting solo during the Chichester Psalms.
Moody is working to bring more people to the symphony, and to bring the symphony to more people. His goal: for the symphony to extend itself to reach Memphians aged “4 to 104” as a force of unity. “You can divide that demographic” — 4 to 104 — “any way you want,” Moody says. “Area of the city, racially, socioeconomic status. You can divide it in multiple ways, but the one greatest unifier on the planet is music. Religion is not. Politics are certainly not. Music is really universal.”
One key to reaching more people is reaching them young. That’s why the symphony works with teachers in the Shelby County Schools system to provide children an easy entrée into music. The Orff-Orchestra Partnership, as it is called, brings the full orchestra into “just about every elementary school we can in the county,” inviting students to join not only in music-playing but in music-creating, too. Students play recorder, bells, percussion, and so on, alongside MSO musicians. “It’s a really phenomenal program,” Moody says, “and can be a national model of the way we interact.”
For another recent concert, a major choral work required a 100-voice children’s chorus. The children came from half a dozen area elementary schools. Their presence — and that of their proud families, in the audience — “changed the racial makeup of the stage and the audience, not just a little but a lot. That’s a celebratory moment for us,” Moody notes.
Involving children and young people is about more than celebration, though, and more than demographics. It’s about cultivating their talent in all manner of ways. Moody’s journey from audience member to sought-after conductor is far from the norm, he knows. “We aren’t looking to create a world of Yo-Yo Mas,” after all. Studying music offers myriad benefits beyond cultivating the next generation of musical prodigies. Higher standardized-test scores, higher chances of graduating high school and attending college, lower incidence of disciplinary problems — all can result from picking up an instrument, learning to play.
“The city is in a powerful renaissance right now,” Moody observes. The example he gives is — true to form — not one you might expect. It’s not about music, or one of the rehabilitated giant buildings often cited as evidence of a rousing Memphis renaissance. (Though Moody does hope to bring the symphony to some of those structures not often associated with classical music, like Crosstown Concourse or the New Daisy.) No, what he mentions are the brightly painted trolleys that have come back online in downtown Memphis.
“Seeing that spark of electricity kick back in, I keep thinking about the symphony. That’s where we are: The spark of electricity has kicked back in. We’re up and running. And we want to spread the news, get more people feeling part-of. I want people to say, ‘This is my MSO. I’m a proud Memphian, and this is my orchestra.’” There doesn’t need to be a lot of fanfare. The trolley cars were gone, and then one day, there they were again, cheerfully making their way down the street: some simple grace of quiet reinvention. Moody thinks the Memphis Symphony might just be similar.
After our conversation, when night falls over the lawn of the Botanic Garden, the orchestra will play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. There will be a few thousand people recumbent, listening. There will be fireworks. “But,” Moody says, “we don’t need to reintroduce ourselves. We don’t need fireworks. We need to do the job, day by day. And that’s what we’re focused on.”