Conducting Electricity: Guest conductors help a symphony try new things

Courtney Lewis is back in the United Kingdom this week, which gives me the exciting chance to bring you this issue of Conducting Electricity and talk about our upcoming guest conductor, one of the biggest names among young American conductors, Karina Canellakis.

I’ve been with the Jacksonville Symphony for a little more than a year, and as director of artistic operations I am lucky to be part of the process of contracting guest conductors and curating their programs. This process is an important one for orchestras that can have a significant impact on both the audience’s experience and the orchestra’s growth. A music director conducts a portion of an orchestra’s season, but in most full-time orchestras they have weeks off, often affording them the opportunity to guest conduct elsewhere. For instance, Courtney will be making his subscription conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic next month, which is a wonderful milestone for conductors of any age. It is during these weeks off in the music director’s schedule that an orchestra has the opportunity to put a new face in front of the musicians and audience.

Each conductor brings something unique to the podium, including facets such as physical style, philosophical approach and the ways they communicate during rehearsal. It’s similar to the ways coaches have differences in the way they run practices, have their own philosophies about offense and defense and coach in their own style during the game. When Courtney thinks about who he wants in front of the orchestra when he is not conducting, these are some of the things he considers. Different traits can bring out the various strengths of the orchestra and help develop areas the music director is working to move in a certain direction.

We are thrilled to be bringing Karina Canellakis, an A-lister among young conductors, to the Jacoby Symphony Hall stage. From 2014-16 she served as assistant conductor at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to Maestro Jaap van Zweden, who will be taking over the New York Philharmonic as music director in the fall of 2018. In 2016 she received the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, a prize given annually to only one young American conductor who is early in his or her professional career. Sir Georg was one of the greatest and most influential conductors of the 20th century, and the award carrying his name is one of the most prestigious in the world for any young conductor.

These are enormous achievements for any conductor, but they are especially noteworthy for a conductor who is part of a growing number of young female conductors on the international stage. While the arts may not immediately come to mind when thinking of professions with gender barriers, the classical music world has had its share. It wasn’t until the 1997 that the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the top orchestras in the world, began accepting female musicians as permanent members of the orchestra. Similarly, it wasn’t until Marin Alsop came onto the scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s that a female held a major music directorship in the United States. It is quite significant that Karina is at the forefront of a generation of female conductors who are ensuring that the musicianship and leadership, rather than gender, are the merits by which they are measured on the podium.

Karina is bringing a program of beauty and fire to Jacoby Symphony Hall: Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Franz Liszt’s Les Préludes, and the 15th and final symphony of Shostakovich. Shostakovich has particularly special meaning for Karina, as it was his Symphony No. 8 that she stepped in to conduct at the last minute for Maestro van Zweden. An intimidating demand at the last minute for any conductor, this launched her for the first time into national and international headlines, and she her meteoric rise hasn’t slowed since.

I look forward to you joining us April 7-9 for “Canellakis Conducts Shostakovich.” Take the opportunity to come see another brilliant, young conductor on the rise in Jacoby Symphony Hall leading your Jacksonville Symphony.

Tony Nickle is director of artistic operations for the Jacksonville Symphony.