Classics in Commercials: Mahler for Gucci in a sucky commercial.

A new commercial for Gucci Guilty (a cologne) features Gustav Mahler's Adagietto (from his Fifth Symphony) as the musical backdrop. Actor Jared Leto is the star of the ad. (Loved him in Dallas Buyer's Club). But this commercial really sucks if you ask me. I don't know what's going on and it's "style" or attempt at "style" falls flat. It is stylish shit.
That being said, Mahler's Adagietto is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, and even if it is part of a horrible ad, at least Mahler's music is given an appearance in mainstream media.
Mahler wrote the Adagietto for his wife Alma....a love song of symphonic magnitude. Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul McCartney, Layla by Eric Clapton and Something by George Harrison are beautiful love songs. But as great as they are, they are dwarfed by what Mahler composed for Alma.
The Adagietto is part of Mahler's Fifth Symphony...the fourth movement. It was composed in 1901-1902 and premiered in 1904.
I did some digging to see if there was any real world connection between Mahler and Gucci. They were contemporaries.Gucci lived from 1881-1953. Mahler lived from 1860-1911. I can't find any reports that they actually met or that Gucci heard any of Mahler's music, though I think there is a chance he did. Both men visited London, but not at the same time. Mahler was there in 1892, and Gucci lived there from 1898-1905. Gucci moved back to Florence, Italy to start his company in 1905. Mahler visited Rome in 1907 and conducted the Adagietto in a concert there. It is possible Gucci could have taken a train to Rome for that performance.....

Here is the commercial:

It's better if you only listen to the sound.

Artist's Profile: Dickran Atamian, aka Jack Price, or vice versa.

__________________________________________________________________

There was a time in my life when I studied the piano. It was a only for a short period of time, and this may be the only photograph ever taken of me playing.

(That's my sister, Ellen, in the background). This was 1976. I was eleven years old and I was not very good. I had already been studying the violin at the University of Texas String Project for four years and I knew how to read music. I didn't think the piano would be as hard as it turned out to be! My parents arranged for me to take piano lessons. My teacher was a young man named Dickran Atamian who was then a student at the University of Texas. Mr. Atamian had just won the prestigious Walter M. Naumburg Piano competition in New York City and was about to embark on a career as a world famous concert pianist. I was with him for a few months before he went off to conquer the classical music world.
Fast forward forty years. I am still a violinist, but alas, my piano studies did not continue for very long. The other day I was listening to a recording of Chopin Ballades performed by Abbey Simon.

I was reading the liner notes on the back (remember liner notes???) Mr. Simon won the Walter M. Naumburg competition in 1940....Naumburg....Naumburg...that meant something to me...but what was it???? Later that same day, I kid you not, while looking through some old photographs, I found the picture above of me playing the piano. Naumburg....piano....piano lessons....Dickran Atamian! It all came together. I had studied with a world renowned pianist, ever so briefly, but none-the-less, a big brush with greatness that had escaped my memory.
So I did some research about Dickran Atamian. He was only 19 when he won the Naumburg Prize. He did indeed have a wonderful career...performances with all the great orchestras in the world, critically acclaimed recordings, including a groundbreaking recording of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring transcribed by Sam Raphling. Recitals at Carnegie Hall. You name it. I wanted to re-connect with him after all these years to see if he even remembered me. And to see if he still loved classical music.
I did some research and learned that Dickran Atamian is alive and well, and that he also goes by the name Jack Price. Huh? What's up with that? Well, that is part of an amazing story. A story of one man with two careers and two identities. Jack Price of Price Rubin & Partners Artist Management and Mr Dickran Atamian, world renowned concert pianist. Mr. Price very graciously responded to my e-mail, and he said he did remember me. More importantly, this very busy man gave me an hour of his time to catch up on old times and share some of his thoughts and reflections about a wide range of topics.

Tim Hazlett        The other day, I was listening to an album of Chopin Ballades performed by Abbey Simon. While reading the liner notes, I saw that he won the Naumburg Prize in 1940. That instantly reminded me of you.

Jack Price           Yeah, he won the Naumburg too. (1940) As a matter of fact, he was on the jury when I won. (1975)

TH         Wow, cool. So who are you?? (laughing)

JP           I have a lot of names….that’s an interesting story. I’ve been doing a lot of interviews lately…so your piece may get some steam because of all the different ones I’m doing. I have a publicist called the NALA, it’s in LA actually, and they promote all of our stuff, and they started out with my story. In March they did a story on my ten years in retirement as a pianist, and 32 years in management. I did it for 22 years without anyone knowing…they didn’t know I was Jack Price.

TH          That schizophrenic story on your website was amazing.

JP            I left Columbia Artists and all the big guys...Harold Shaw, Bill Judd and ICM…the four biggest at that time and probably ever. The only other manager you could have had would have been Sol Hurok, and Shaw at ICM was an outgrowth of Hurok because Hurok left in like ’72. The Hurok agency divided between Shaw Attractions and International Creative Management (ICM). So that would have been the only other management that I hadn’t been with. So I decided they’re not doing it right…they don’t know what they’re doing with a bunch of people who are not branded, so I decided to manage myself. And that’s when things really worked. The year I won the Naumburg (1975) everybody was “Oh yeah you’re going to be with Shelly Gold and these people”…but they don’t do the work…unless you’ve got millions of dollars to hand them. If you’re going to give them five million dollars, they’ll work for you. Anybody will work for you if you pay them five million dollars.

TH           I was doing some research awhile back and saw several ads for Sol Hurok’s company, and he in fact managed Isaac Stern…one of the all-time great violinists….and now his son is conductor of the KC Symphony.

JP            Michael Stern used to live in Ann Arbor when I was artist in residence at the University of Michigan from ’91 to ’96. I taught there, not as a faculty member, but as an artist in residence. It was a special position…it was so special that after I left they discontinued the program. They’d had enough of artists and artistic mentalities like mine, who are very demanding and opinionated and who don’t really relinquish their opinions…they stick to them. But I’m not really like most artists. I have a more entrepreneurial nature than they do. And I’m much more organized and much more realistic, and I’m less of a dreamer.

TH           You made a great point about how very few people ever remember the names of artists who win major prizes like the Naumburg.

JP            They remembered mine because in those days; A) the Naumburg meant something and B) there weren’t nearly as many competitions as have proliferated over the last 30 years. Now there’s one in every corner. Every medium…dance and music…there are too many of them, and there are too many winners, so nobody knows their names. Nobody cares. All they care about are their pool chemicals and lawn chemicals. They care more about what chemical they’re going to put on their lawn than whether Yo-Yo Ma is playing with the symphony this weekend. Nobody cares. Even with a big name like him, despite that fact that calls obviously come in for him, he still has to do a fair amount of selling. Whereas someone of his stature in another field wouldn’t have to do anything.

TH           I was not sure what to call you...Jack Price or Dickran Atamian?

JP            You can use the names now interchangeably because everybody knows my identity now. (Dickran Atamian and Jack Price) Six years ago we let the cat out of the bag about who Jack Price really was. But I didn’t let the cat out in ’06 because I wasn’t ready to let people know that Dickran Atamian was Jack Price. But it turned out that we got way better results with the management when people knew that I was Atamian because they know Atamian. So the branding of Atamian helped the branding of this new Jack Price character which, of course, I got from a real Jack Price which you probably read about on the website.

TH           I did, yes…it is fascinating.

JP            Jack’s the one who gave me the persona and the business. He gave me the name to use as a business and he gave me the name for DBA as Jack Price. I didn’t get the dividend. I didn’t get the company. He retired and of course he kept all his money. And he did not finance me. But I built it from nothing. He just gave me the name.

TH           And all because you both liked to eat steak!

JP            Yeah right…he heard me play the Khachaturian Concerto in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. It’s a pretty good orchestra and it was a big success. And he comes out of the audience…this big guy…telling jokes all night. And he took me out to dinner and the next thing you know he’s asking “what’s Columbia Artists doing for you?” and I go “well, they get me big dates. I’m with Leontyne Price’s manager”, which you know, Leontyne was a big name at that time. And Leontyne Price was with Nellie Walter, who was the Vice President of Columbia Artists Management Inc., who was my manager. So, I got dates, you know, through Price and name association. Not enough to live on….I really didn’t make a living until about 1994, from playing the piano. It took many years from the time you are talking (1975). It took about nineteen years to really start get going.

TH           Did you continue teaching through that period? Was that part of your income?

JP            No. I was lucky to play dates and have sponsors…fairly well known sponsors that had a lot of money that paid my rent. I had one guy who didn’t even tell me his identity who paid my rent in New York for a while. I had another sponsor…this is in the days when you studied with me…his name was Dr. Boyd who was a gynecologist in Augusta, GA who sponsored the Boyd Competition. I won the first prize in ’73 with the Brahms second concerto and then he sponsored me to other competitions. It was his airfare that got me to New York when I won the Naumburg. I paid him back after I won. If it wasn’t for Boyd sponsoring me in these formative years, I would have probably never have gone to the Naumburg. Sponsors are very important to artists. If they don’t have them it’s difficult.

TH           After a career as a concert pianist and a recording artist and now in your career as an artist management company entrepreneur…do you still enjoy listening to music?

JP            Oh yeah. The music is all I enjoy. I do enjoy making deals…I’m a deal maker…I just took on a major partner, James Dietsch, who has as much the same story as I have had. We are about the only two in the entire business who ever went that route where we had major AA careers. His was at the Met, La Scala, and Covent Garden. He was a major baritone, and he played with all the major conductors. You can read about  him on the website. And then he turned into management full steam because of four or five strokes that he had. That didn’t happen to me…I just got sick and tired of the business in 2006. I just couldn’t quit cold turkey, but I could not stand walking in front of another audience. I loved playing, and I love the music, but I don’t like performing every other night, or whatever it was. And I don’t like traveling at all. After 9/11…five years later I quit. I knew 9/11 would have an effect on people’s daily life, but I didn’t know it would affect my entire life. It made my life miserable. I hate airports and I hate being searched…taking my belt and shoes off…I just said forget it. And you can say “Oh, you must not love the music very much…you must not love your art.” Well, that’s not true. I loved it. But I’m a person who’s not into hassles. I don’t know if you remember that from when I taught you…I was very young then…but I don’t like hassles and I don’t like to be inconvenienced. I know it’s a major flaw, and I admit it readily. So with those two problems you can see why I quit. I just don’t like it. That’s all I can say about it.

TH           I’m a big baseball fan….

JP            Yeah, me too.

TH           I thought so because you referenced Dave Kingman in one of your video segments.

JP            Dizzy Dean too…I talked about Dizzy. Paul Dean, his brother, rented from us…my father owned some apartments in Phoenix. Dizzy became a good friend and sponsored my third grade little league baseball team. He taught me a lot about pitching, playing second base, hitting and fielding. And about life.

TH           Baseball is a metaphor for life in many ways.

JP            It is!

TH           Who is your favorite team?

JP            My favorite team has always been St. Louis. My father played on their farm team…he played minor league ball, and so he met Dizzy of course. The Cardinals have just been part of my family. I loved what Whitey Herzog brought to them in the ‘80s. That personifies what I consider a great team. Teams now just buy the players they need to win the pennant. It’s just a money machine. It’s like Moneyball.

TH           So, unlike many professional athletes who go through withdraw when their playing careers end, you didn’t experience that when you stopped playing concerts?

JP            No, I didn’t have any withdrawal because I was so fed up. I made my last recording with Grzegorz Nowak and the Poznan Philharmonic…the Brahms First Piano Concerto which was phenomenal…it’s like my last will and testament. When I played the final note of that concerto, I knew it was the greatest thing I had done. I love my recordings, but that last one is very special and it’s my favorite piece in the world. It’s a phenomenal orchestra...one of the great orchestras…and the conductor is my favorite conductor. It’s my last installment if you will, and I’m just fine with it. I play occasionally at church, or I’ll fill in on the organ. I am now thinking about accompanying a singer for her lieder concerts…I’m not going to divulge her name or when it might be, but she has inspired me to come back a little bit to the piano, but only to accompany. We might do some Chopin, Schumann and Liszt songs, but that’s on a very low level from playing major concertos. I’m not letting anyone publicize it because I have the management to deal with and I have no intention of competing with my artists.

TH           Do you ever just sit down and practice…or play?

JP            No. not at all. I never practice. Not one second of any day. I don’t want to practice anymore, and it’s in the nervous system anyway. I’ll put it this way…if some guy comes up to me and says “I’ll give you ten million dollars seed money to build your career and go beyond where you had it” I would refuse it. That’s how much I hated it. (laughs)….That’s going to be the title of your article…Atamian Really Hates Concertizing. (laughs)

TH           I’m happy to hear that you still love music even though you hate concertizing! I know more than a few people who make a living in music who don’t really like it anymore.

JP            Here are a few other points about that. Number one; there are so many bad pianos on the road. Yeah, once in a while I’d get a great one, but even at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the pianos are just in bad shape. Technicians have no idea…they couldn’t tune “Come to Jesus” in whole notes if they wanted to. They just don’t know what I know. And the only person who agrees with me is Alfred Brendel. He does his own “inside the piano” work. He does his own regulating…he regulates the action and the hammers before each concert and he’s up until four in the morning the night before a concert fixing the piano. I’m not going to do that…you couldn’t pay me enough to do that.

TH           I love Brendel.

JP            Here’s a great Brendel story. Alfred’s a great guy. I played Brahms Second for him once when I was studying with John Perry there at UT when you were there. It was the funniest thing….I wrote the word “fucker” over a chord because I never could get it. And Brendel said “what is this word “fucker”. A friend of mine who was accompanying me was laughing so hard he fell off the bench. Second; the travel used to be great. I loved it at first…the hotels and flying…they were great. But now I can’t stand airports anymore. It was always the prelude to playing the concert…you’d go “Ah yes, I’m on the way to conquer Kansas City” for example.  I played there a lot by-the-way. Incidentally, Kansas City was the last place I played before I won the Naumburg.

Then you’ve got the conductors. Need I say more? Conductors….I either love them or hate them. They’re not all going to be like Nowak or Mazel. They’re not all like that. Most are not at that level. And then there are the people that run the orchestras and series’. It just got so depressing. Like, getting off the plane and being greeted by some Executive Director that had no intention of ever attending the concert. They don’t even show up to their own concerts! You talk about apathy…you’ve got apathy written all over the heart of this industry. And the music is so great, right? You wonder “what the heck are they doing in it if they hate it!?!”

And lastly, my kids were young and I wanted to devote a lot of time to them. ’06 just seemed like a good year to retire.

I didn’t burn out on playing; I burned out on the atmosphere of extra-musical things. Anything that wasn’t musical turned me off. Chatter back stage, dingy dressing rooms….you go in the corner of a concert hall and what do you see? Nothing but dust and dirt. It was depressing just to even practice in the Hall before a concert. You are alone most of the time…in the hotel, in the Hall….you’re alone. That doesn’t mean I hate the music. I hate everything else.

TH           Do you still listen to classical music?

JP            Oh yeah. I play it in my car all the time. I listen to my artists; I listen to artists that I like. I listen to myself…I have a lot of archival recordings….500 or more archival recordings. My archives are going to be taken by the University of Tulsa’s Lorton Center. All my reviews, clippings, interviews, programs …along with all of my recordings…live and studio…will be put in a climate controlled room so that students…anybody worldwide…can come check them out if they want.

TH           How did you end up in Tulsa?

JP            My kids moved here with their mom when we divorced, and I followed. I wouldn’t think of not being near my children.

TH           Here’s a small world story. I remember as a kid back in Austin, about the same time period I was studying with you, my Dad would always take me to Sound Warehouse to look at records. One afternoon we went there for an in-store performance by a smoking hot classical guitarist named Liona Boyd. She was so kind..I got to meet her.

JP            Oh yes, Liona is with us. Oh man was she hot. She still is! Liona is great. We just signed her a few months ago. Interesting fact about her…she holds the distinction of appearing on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at least six times. There is no classical artist that can boast of that…nobody. She’s a very sweet person.

TH           Who are your top 3 composers?

JP            Brahms is first….by virtue of the First Piano Concerto. I would say it embodies everything I love about this art. It’s the most complete piece for me. What more can you say when it has everything? Second place would have to go to Schubert, who used to occupy the first position, but no longer does. And then third would have to be Mozart. I’d love to put Beethoven and Schumann there, but they don’t quite make it. So Schumann fourth and Beethoven fifth. And then Bach would have to be sixth. And beyond that would have to be Chopin, Liszt, and the rest of the crew…Tchaikovsky…I like Tchaikovsky a lot. I don’t like Rachmaninoff as much although people always loved the way I played it. But to me, neo-romanticism is just not as original. But anyway...there you go. Brahms is number one.

TH           Random question…which version of Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations do you prefer…the 1955 or 1981?

JP            Probably the early version, but you’re not talking to a Gould fan, that’s for sure. Here’s what I think about Gould; is he putting us on? Or is that the way he really plays? That’s what I think when I think of Gould. I just really don’t get it. His recordings of the Well-Tempered Clavier (Bach)…I mean come on! It’s so distorted rhythmically. He can’t be hearing the harmonies that way because the harmonies would never dictate that kind of policy. I just don’t hear it that way. But you know, he’s different. But I think he’s different for different sake. I don’t think its honest playing. I really think he’s putting us on. But, having said that, he plays the piano in an exemplary way….his trills are like a McCulloch chainsaw. Who can play them that loud, and evenly, and consistently for that long? (laughs). The question is, do you really care or want to? But I don’t like his sound and or what he has to say. But he has the most even fingers I’ve probably ever heard in my life. He had an amazing technical prowess. But let me tell you who my favorite pianist is. Without a doubt it’s Emil Gilels. He’s my favorite pianist. His playing is unbelievable and he’s always been my favorite. Even with Bolet (Jorge Bolet) and Arrau (Claudio Arrau) being my teachers…they don’t come close. He takes chances like nobody. This guy was a maniac at the piano. Not only that, but beauty of sound, technical perfection when it was perfect…yes he missed notes when he really took a lot of chances…but I’d take his chances any day over Gould’s perfection. He had an unbelievable arsenal of fingers, but he just believed in music and he believed in pulling off musical ideas that seemed impossible. I admire that. I think that’s what it’s all about…taking chances. In my opinion, that’s what life is all about….taking chances.

TH           Was there a special moment in your childhood when you first connected to classical music?

JP            My first experience...you might not call it classical, but it was….I was at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix. The promoter in Phoenix in my day was Buster Bonoff. Bonoff was the local impresario. He did not do a lot of classical, but he brought Liberace one night. I was very young, and opening for Liberace was Marni Nixon, the great soprano who sang all the songs in My Fair Lady…she was in the Sound of Music too...in the movie. Marni is one of the greatest talents. At Oberlin, when I went there, she gave a whole recital of 20^th century contemporary composers….off the wall contemporary composers, and her technique is just phenomenal. She’s one of the greats. Marni Nixon was my first inspiration and it was the antithesis of the Liberace experience. Liberace came off stage, my father took me back because he knew Bonoff, and I got introduced. And he said “Ah, you’re a pianist…Good Luck!” And he wrote me this stupid Liberace signature. But what impressed me was the dichotomy of style between this humble, fabulous Marni Nixon, and this overblown beast called Liberace. Liberace was not encouraging. He didn’t know what kind of a talent I was. He had no idea who was coming backstage, and I don’t think you treat people like that. I’ve made it a point since I met Liberace and Marni Nixon that first time to always treat a fan or a person coming backstage with dignity, with a humble thankfulness that they showed up to hear you play. That right there is something…that they came to hear you man! They could have done anything that night. Anything! I think that Liberace embodies the opposite of what I’d like to be remembered as….a grateful artist who liked the fact that people came to hear him and appreciated it. That part of the industry I simply miss the most…the audience and the orchestras. I loved the orchestras I played with. I may not have gotten along with the conductors all the time, but I’ll tell you, I don’t think there’s one orchestra I didn’t love. Because they’re the players man. They’re the ones doing the work.

TH           I’ll just put a plug in for Kansas City if you haven’t been here in a while.

JP            It’s a fantastic orchestra, yeah. Kansas City is a fabulous town. I played a recital at Rockhurst University very shortly after I won the Naumburg. I like Kansas City very much. I also gave a masterclass at the conservatory once. Do you remember Stevenson’s Apple Farm? That was my favorite restaurant. John Perry took me there for the first time in 1972 and I went back many times until it closed.

TH           Last big question…do you drink coffee?

JP            Yeah, I love coffee!

TH           Me too, so when you come to KC, we can get together at one of the many great coffee shops we have here. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. It was very enjoyable.

JP            My pleasure. I enjoyed it too.

Here is the link to the Price Rubin & Partners Artist Management website where you can read more about the history of this organization and see the many great artists on their roster:

http://pricerubin.info/index.php

And here is a link to Dickran Atamian's website:

http://www.dickranatamian.com/

Here is Mr. Atamian's recording the First Movement of Brahms" First Piano Concerto he referenced in our interview.

Here is a video of Mr. Atamian playing Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring:

Classics in the Movies: Gallipoli (1981)

I went to see a movie in 1981 that has haunted me ever since. It was called Gallipoli, directed by a then "up and coming" director named Peter Weir. (Weir went on the direct many other popular films including  A Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Dead Poets Society, Green Card, The Truman Show and Master and Commander. I lived in Omaha at the time, and I remember going to the Dundee Theater with my parents to see this movie that I had never heard of, and had no idea what or where Gallipoli was.
The reason I am writing about it here is Weir's use of classical music. Against a backdrop of the first world war, two young Australian men are coming of age (played by Mel Gibson and Mark Lee). Before becoming soldiers, they share a love of running.....one of my favorite things as well. The first part of the movie features some great running sequences.
The Gallipoli Campaign lasted from February 19, 1915 through January 9, 1916. The Gallipoli peninsula lies along the Dardanelles straits in what is now Turkey. The goal of the allies was to take Gallipoli and then capture Constantinople (Istanbul today). As with many battles in WWI, trench warfare ensued and both sides suffered horrendous casualties. The Allies ultimately failed to achieve their objective and the Ottoman forces celebrated what turned out to be their last major victory before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The final scene of the movie is a breathtakingly beautiful and sad convergence of running, the futility of trench warfare, and the senseless loss of young lives, all played out to the Adagio in G minor by Tomaso Albinoni in the background. Take a look.

If you have not heard Albinoni's Adagio in G minor, please take time to do so. It is one of the most beautiful pieces in the classical repertoire:

Artist's Profile: Jackson Thomas, Founder, Executive and Artistic Director of KC VITAs

Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about seeing the Kansas City Symphony perform the 9th Symphony of Beethoven. Of the many things that stood out from that evening, it was the the 120 person strong chorus that really won me over. The human voice connects with emotions that instruments are not able to touch, which is one reason I have always loved choral music. A friend of mine who is a singer with a new local choral group reached out to me about KC VITAs (Thank you Gayle!), a choral group here in KC that came to life last year (2015). She connected me to the Founder, Executive and Artistic Director, Jackson Thomas, whom I sat down with recently to talk to. This amazing young man has created something very special here in Kansas City. They are preparing for their second set of concerts on August 5th and August 7th. Here is our conversation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TH  Who is Jackson Thomas?  Tell me a little about yourself.

JT  What a loaded question! (laughs) I grew up in Carrollton, Missouri, which is an hour and a half from here...northeast… a little town between Marshall and Chillicothe. I went to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (vocal performance major). I thought I wanted to be a professional opera singer, and that was the only thing I could do to be happy. While I was there I had roles in opera and musical theater, and then studied abroad in Berlin. I almost got a major in German because of that...I was two classes away but I wanted to make sure I took opera history! I moved back here after I finished…I have some family in the area. I took a year of preparation as I call it before Grad school. I realized half way through my junior year that choral music was where I was going. That was something that I just always went back to over and over and over and realized that if opera didn’t happen that I would be OK with that. I think lots of musicians go through similar things….you never know what it is. But I definitely know that I haven’t had more moving experiences than I have had being in front of an ensemble.

TH  How did you develop a love for singing?

JT  My family is incredibly musical. I don’t know of anybody in my immediate family who can’t sing. So they were always very supportive of that and wanted me to do it. I also played saxophone and was a drum major for several years. My teachers in school were a husband and wife team and they were really good about getting people where they needed to be. They saw talent in me and connected me with teachers. I started private vocal study at the University of Central Missouri with Dr. Roden. This groomed me for that next step of collegiate study.

TH  How old were you when you realized that you could sing?

JT  About 5^th grade. I knew before then that I could at least match pitch, but it was 5^th grade when I really began to sing.

TH  Was there any magical moment in your formative years where you realized that you loved music?

JT  What’s funny is I was waking up every day…I know this sounds cheesy…but I was always waking up with a song in my head. I didn’t think it was weird until I talked to other people and that didn’t happen. Early on I thought I wanted to be a teacher. I used to say, “I do not want to do opera…they can’t make me do it” until I went to my first opera at the Lyric and saw La boheme. I remember sitting in the audience and saying “that’s what I want to do”….(laughs).

TH  Did you study conducting in school?

JT  I did, and that was incredibly instrumental for me. Conducting was something that seemed to come very naturally to me and others said it was something I should consider doing. And it was in college that I started my first group.

TH  What brought you to KC after you graduated?

JT  I graduated in 2014. I have family in the area and I knew I wanted to move back here for a year before auditioning for Grad schools to study choral conducting. I started teaching and getting into several different choirs here and then I auditioned at seven universities all over the country for Grad school (that was insane!) I decided on KU, so I am now half way through that program working on a Master’s degree in choral conducting. I’m a full GTA (graduate teaching assistant) so I teach and last semester I conducted the Vocal Music Collegium, which is an early music ensemble. I also co-directed the KU Women’s Chorale and the Concert Choir. This year I will be the Director of the KU Men’s Glee Club, which has never happened to a Master’s student.

TH  Wow, that’s very cool.

JT  I am very excited about that for sure.

TH  How did KC VITAs start?

JT  During my first year back I knew I wanted to start a choir. A friend of mine and I were talking one night and I realized it was going to be harder than in Lincoln…there are so many choirs here already.

TH  Is Kansas City fertile ground for choirs? More than you realized perhaps?

JT  Oh yea….and I am still learning about groups that are here that I didn’t realize existed. Or that they have been around for so long. So some friends of mine that I sang with in AGO (American Guild of Organists. This is a national professional association serving the organ and choral music fields). agreed it seemed like Kansas City was missing something that focused on new music. I actually dabble in composing myself. I wouldn’t call myself something that I’m not, which is why I say I “dabble”.  But I was friends with a lot of composers at UNL and I realized that these new pieces they were writing were great, and nobody is performing them. So I knew I would have plenty of pieces to perform, and the three of us made a pact that we would work hard to make this happen. We just went with it and started asking people all around. We started in May of 2015. I put an ad out on Facebook for compositions too. And how big it got was an accident. I am pretty relentless...persistent (laughing) until they give me an answer. I had six people give me premieres of some sort, Four of them were world premieres. We ended up with 21 singers last year for our first performances. This year we have 28. Patrick Neas from the Kansas City Star wrote about us and I think that was a big reason we were so successful. We ended up having 400 people at our concert….and we only printed 200 programs! We got a standing ovation at the end. It was really exciting.

TH  What did this success tell you about the arts community in Kansas City?

JT  Not only are they supportive of music, but its filling a gap…there is a need. Afterwards we got together and realized that we need to make this more “real”. I was footing the bill for everything, and people aren’t going to donate to something that they don’t really know, so we looked into the 501(c) (3) which has been huge.

TH  What is your “title” for this organization?

JT  I am the Executive Director and Artistic Director….as well as the Founder. I also serve on the Board at this point.

TH  Tell me about the name…KC VITAs….where did that come from?

JT  KC stands for Kansas City….of course….VITAs stands for vibrating internal thyroarytenoids.

TH  What does that mean (laughing)..?

JT  That’s literally your vocal chords….the tissue that make up your vocal chords.

TH  That’s pretty creative…did you think of that?

JT  I did. I knew I didn’t want to be called some cheesy Italian name….I was really into vocal pedagogy at UNL…the science behind the voice, and I just thought that it fit in a few ways. It satisfied my nerdiness, but also VITA conveniently means “life” in a few languages… so new life…new music.

TH  How many scores did you receive from composers hoping to have their music performed?

JT  Last year, I put out a call for scores and received music from 15 people. This year, over 50 people submitted music….and that’s 50 different composers…some of them would send more than three compositions.

TH  That’s a lot to sort through!

JT  Indeed. And we are not just a chamber choir…not all of the submissions were choral works. Some were art songs. We are really a new vocal works organization, and our concerts are not going to have just choral works on them. They’ll have art songs too, and I will have other forms of vocal music as well.

TH  Art songs?

JT  Yes…it’s a fancy way to say just a song with voice and piano. Not an aria because it does not belong to a large work…just solo voice and piano.

TH  Will any of the composers be here for the concert?

JT  Several of them will be. We have composers from all over the country…Florida, South Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. I would love to require all of them to be here (laughing)! So we have eight world premieres this year. What we really want to focus on is that we are giving young and rising composers a chance for their music to be performed and not charge them to do so. Other arts ensembles may also be willing to perform your works, but then you will get a bill!

TH  How often do you all rehearse?

JT  Once a week…Tuesday night for two hours…7-9 pm. I try to be very respectful of their time because I am very lucky to be in front of them. Last year we had five choral pieces, but this year we have nine.

TH  Where do you see VITAs going?

JT  Right now VITAs is a summer organization. I would love to see it go year round. I’d like to continue to have our showcase in the summer, but also do a Fall concert. Believe it or not, I have been given a lot of Christmas music! Out of that, I could make a great Christmas program.  And then in the Spring, perhaps do a large work.

TH  What are your interests outside of music?

JT  I make my own beer. Traveling and hiking are also huge interests of mine too. And if I had time, I also compose music. I also have 3 cats…Walter, Edith, and Bradley.

TH  OK, now the hard questions. I talk to a lot of musicians who tell me they don’t listen to much music. When they have free time, which is not often, they don’t want to listen to music….they want a break from it. Do you listen to music for enjoyment, outside of work?

JT  Oh my god, yes all the time.

TH  What’s on your playlist at the moment?

JT  I do a lot of exploring, but I’m into anything where I can hear a real voice. I really like Ben Rector. I listen to a lot of musical theater…probably way more than I want people to know about (laughing)..

TH  Do you have a favorite musical?

JT  My favorite musical is Cats. I played the lead role.

TH  Who is your favorite jazz singer of all time?

JT  That is a hard question.

TH  I always say Ella Fitzgerald.

JT  I was trying to be  more creative than that, but I was going to say Ella Fitzgerald (laughing)…

TH  I’m not surprised!

JT  I know it’s watered own, but I like Michael Buble a lot. If I could be a jazz singer, I think I would be happy. Nnenna Freelon is fantastic and I really enjoy her music too.

TH  What about classical music?

JT  Juan Diego Florez is my favorite tenor…hands down. I saw him in Berlin, and I think he’s awesome. I love Renee Fleming. Stephanie Blythe is wonderful. Deborah Voight…I really love her.

TH  What about classical composers?

JT  Rienberger….Joseph Rheinberger…wow. I think he’s totally underrated, especially in the choral world. His Mass for Double Chorus in E-Flat is…wow. Um…(thinking)..I know this sounds weird, but somebody I really like, at least in the sacred repertoire now, is Dan Forrest.  I am directing Requiem for the Living next year at St. Paul’s. I’m really moved by that. Moving backwards, Handel is my favorite composer.

TH  Will the upcoming KC VITAs concerts be recorded?

JT  Yes they will, and we will produce another CD from the live recordings.

TH  I can’t wait to hear it! I really appreciate you taking time to talk with me! Good luck on August 5th and 7th.

JT  You’re welcome! Thank you.

Here is a link to the KC VITAs website:

http://kcvitas.org/index.html

Reflections: Father's Day, KC Symphony, Beethoven, Fear, Joy, and taking time to look at what's right in front of me.

Last weekend the Kansas City Symphony gave their final concert of the season. The Beethoven 9th Symphony was on the program and I had been looking forward to it all year. I needed it. I needed it for my soul. I have been carrying some deep emotions for many months and I know that I need to deal with them. Hearing the Beethoven 9th performed in Helzberg Hall would surely be the therapy I needed.....it was.
The night before (Friday), my family took me to a Royals game. They surprised me with club level seats and a parking pass. And Friday nights at the K feature a fireworks display after the game. It was a great evening. It was wonderful to be with both of my sons and my wife.The Royals won the game resoundingly. Shortly after the game, the lights dimmed and the fireworks began. The darkness came alive with color and explosions. But I could not keep my eyes on the fireworks. I was sitting on the end of our row and we were all turned slightly to the right to see, which meant that I was looking right at Cheryl, Ethan and Jack's back. The colorful lights created a halo effect over them. Right there, in front of me, was my family. My greatest love. My greatest accomplishment in this life. My greatest joy....standing right there in front of me. I didn't watch the fireworks....I watched them. I gave thanks to God for them. I prayed that this moment would never end, though I knew it would.

The next night my mom and I went to the KC Symphony concert. Like I said, I had been looking forward to this since last Fall. The Beethoven 9th Symphony is such a transcendent work. I knew it was going to be awesome in the hands of Maestro Stern and this amazing group of musicians and singers. But first we were treated to another work of Beethoven, his Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Cantata for Chorus and Orchestra op. 112. I had not heard this before, but I knew of it. Several months ago, I heard Felix Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. It has become one of my "new favorites" for the time being. It is simply beautiful. And while reading about it, I learned that Beethoven had also written a work by the same name based on a poem by Goethe, but I had not taken the time to listen to it yet. How lucky to be able to hear it for the fist time with a choir of 120 voices as one thanks to the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, and the power of the KC Symphony. Next on the program was the second symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich. Again, this was new music to me. While I have heard most of his other symphonies, this is one I had never heard. Maestro Stern spoke briefly before it was played and explained to us how this piece is connected to the other works of the evening when on the surface it seemed so out of place. He spoke about humanity...humans trying to make sense of their world and to do something to make it better. After hearing this symphony, I totally got what he was saying. This very unusual symphony did fit right into the program. After the intermission, it was time for the 9th. Maestro Stern dedicated this performance to the victims and families of the Orlando massacre. His words were powerful and heartfelt. The performance was too. I noticed that the bass section had grown by one bass. (seven total) You can never have too much bass I've always said. Along with our cello section, our bottom end is a force to be reckoned with....so strong, rich and powerful.
My head was spinning at this point. 120 voices singing together as one is enough to blow the roof off of any hall. Beethoven's music...this music....seems to channel our very humanity through sound waves. My heart was in my throat. Tears of joy filled my eyes. And as the finale reached its crescendo, I looked to my left and saw my mother crying tears of joy...of life....and just like the night before, I found myself stepping outside of the moment, and I watched her and thought about everything she had done for me...given to me. And if that wasn't enough, she had mentioned right before the performance how much my dad would have loved this orchestra...this hall..and that she had dreams that he was conducting from above the suspended ceiling that hangs over the stage. My dad passed away in 2006, and as I have mentioned in this blog many times, he loved music..classical music, more than anyone I have ever known. I too could see him this evening and I know he loved what he was hearing.
So back to Friday night....to my oldest son Jack. As I watched him, now almost 20, tall, handsome and strong, I was still dealing with what happened on February 13th. I have decided to write about it as I process the emotions that still challenge me. He had knee surgery on February 6th. All went well and he was back at school on the 13th when he began to feel bad. Over the next several hours he began to struggle breathing. One of his friends took him to the emergency room where they discovered he had blood clots in his leg and both of his lungs. At 12:15 am, I jumped in the car and drove to St. Charles to be with him. Blood clots can be fatal...and often are. I felt so helpless as I raced across I-70 in the middle of the night. "Hold on Jack" I kept shouting out loud. When I arrived and found my way to his room, he was in bed with tubes and monitors attached to him. But he opened his eyes and saw me and I took his hand and told him I was here for him...that he was going to be OK. I told him how much I loved him. He was in the hospital for 3 days. Thankfully he got to the hospital in time to be given blood thinners. And thankfully, this was not his time to go. It was his time to live. I was so scared. I stayed with him the entire time he was in the hospital and brought him home when he was discharged.

The fear and emotion I felt that week are still with me. I know how fragile I am, how fragile we all are. But when it's our children who are sick or hurt, there is no preparing for the emotions that we face.
I knew that the Beethoven 9th performed live would help me deal with my emotions....that's what I meant when I said "I needed this." Beethoven is able to say things through his music that no one else can say. And humans playing his music in front of you is more powerful than anything that comes through a speaker at home or in your car. This is medicine that has to be in the same room with you as its administered.

Father's Day. My song for Steve (my dad).

Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there. My dad passed away in 2006 after a long battle with diabetes and leukemia. The very first entry of this blog from February 2014 tells the story about my Dad (James Stephen Hazlett) and how he opened the door to classical music for me. For this I will always be grateful.
My dad was dull...at least that was the running joke in our family. He loved classical music, most of all Bruckner and Mahler. He owned more versions of each Bruckner and Mahler Symphony than anyone else on the planet I believe. I used to get on his case about why he did not listen to Bach or Vivaldi??? And how could he turn his back on Elvis, Sinatra and the Beatles? He wore the same clothes, the same watch and the same shoes throughout his life. We thought he was dull....but it was with respect and affection that we said this. He loved crew cuts, chopped steak, watches, Law and Order, Pizza Hut, Kung Pao Beef, Starbucks espresso, and Paris, France.
I deviated from my classical music path in my early teens...I discovered the Beatles, started playing the guitar, discovered jazz, started playing the upright bass and so on. I wanted to write songs and perform in public. I wrote this song shortly after he passed but never shared it with anyone except my mom and sister. But today I am sharing it with you.
Happy Father's day dad. I miss you always.

Classics in Commercials: My friend Stuart, Beethoven, and Android

I love to talk about classical music to anyone who will listen, and it's especially nice to meet new people who share a similar love of it. Stuart Gauld is one such person in my life. Last year, he and his wife Sarah started running in the Saturday morning running group I also run with (The Kansas City Track Club KCTC - Lee's Summit chapter). Over coffee one morning, after a run, our conversation somehow landed on music, and he told me that despite having no formal musical education, he loved classical music....especially vocal music..a la Luciano Pavarotti. Since then we regularly talk about music and share thoughts and suggestions with each other. Just yesterday he sent me a message asking if there was a particular recording/performance of the Beethoven Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor "Moonlight" that I liked the most. I had to think about it a bit because I don't think there is a pianist of note who hasn't recorded it...and there are many excellent interpretations. I suggested some new (Lang Lang, and Yuja Wang, and some old...Rudolph Firkusny, Van Cliburn, Vladamir Horowitz, Alfred Brendel, and Murray Perahia. There are many others of course, but I went with these.
Later in the evening, as I was watching my beloved KC Royals blow another lead late in the game, a commercial came on that featured the music of Beethoven...the 3rd movement of his Sonata no. 14! Small world for sure. It was a commercial for Android. It's called Monotune. Here it is:

There is also a "The Making of Monotune" that is interesting:

Ji Liu (born 1990) is the young pianist who stars in the commercial. I don't really care about the product per se...but it is very nice to see any company pick classical music as part of an ad campaign, so for that I do applaud Android.
Beethoven composed this Sonata in 1801. He did not call it the "Moonlight" Sonata. This term was given to the work by a music critic, Ludwig Rellstab (at least according to Wiki) in 1832. Given the feel and mood of the Sonata's very famous first movement, "Moonlight" certainly seems appropriate if you ask me. This ad features the third movement, "Presto agitato."