Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing from iHeart Radio. That's the third movement of Rockmnonov's
Speaker 1: Symphonic Dances Opus forty five. This is the Netherlands Radio
Speaker 1: Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by my guest today, Karina Canalakis. The
Speaker 1: recording is a special preview of an upcoming album, Rock
Speaker 1: Mononoff the Bells and Symphonic Dances from Pentatone Music, available
Speaker 1: this June. Karina Canilochus has achieved many firsts as a
Speaker 1: conductor in the classical music world. Not only is she
Speaker 1: a world class conductor and violinist, she's also the first
Speaker 1: woman to be appointed principal guest conductor of the London
Speaker 1: Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. Canilacus
Speaker 1: was also the first woman to conduct the Nobel Prize
Speaker 1: Concert in Stockholm and the first woman to be named
Speaker 1: chief conductor of any Dutch orchestra. As both a violinist
Speaker 1: and conductor, Canilacus has conducted or performed with major orchestras
Speaker 1: such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the
Speaker 1: Bavarian Radio Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic. She is currently
Speaker 1: the first female chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic
Speaker 1: Orchestra and a principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic.
Speaker 1: But before all the accolades and prestigious postings across the world,
Speaker 1: Carmina Canilacus grew up in a family of musicians, crowded
Speaker 1: into a small New York City apartment.
Speaker 2: It's sort of like one giant room with doors in
Speaker 2: it basically, I mean, just one of those things. Yes,
Speaker 2: and we just.
Speaker 1: It was a studio that.
Speaker 2: We literally shared everything. I mean, you know, soundproofing, whatsoever. Yeah,
Speaker 2: my brother and I shared a room until I went
Speaker 2: to colleges. It was interesting. Yes, that's what made you
Speaker 2: the artist, was character building.
Speaker 1: Yes, Now your parents played what they both.
Speaker 2: Played piano, But my dad became a conductor and was
Speaker 2: a conductor sort of. He always said he's famous in
Speaker 2: the Tri State area because he conducted the Brooklyn Philharmonic,
Speaker 2: the Westchester Symphony, Queen Symphony, so he was he was local.
Speaker 2: But he has multiple sclerosis from quite a young age,
Speaker 2: which is why he didn't really do the whole international
Speaker 2: travel thing.
Speaker 1: This illness set in when he was how old.
Speaker 2: Oh, a teenager already, and it was sort of on
Speaker 2: and off, you know, and.
Speaker 1: So it does not impact his piano play.
Speaker 2: It did eventually. Yeah, so you know, you see baby
Speaker 2: pictures of me. He's already walking with a cane and
Speaker 2: then he got a wheelchair and everything. But he did
Speaker 2: everything from the wheelchair. I mean really, they built a
Speaker 2: ramp for him up to the podium. He was, you know,
Speaker 2: washing dishes. Oh yeah, to conduct he was washing dishes
Speaker 2: at the kitchen sink, you know, with two kids running around,
Speaker 2: three orchestras, everything from a wheelchair.
Speaker 1: So was he still with us?
Speaker 2: He is, He's you know there, he's still there.
Speaker 1: Right, So when you're in this, was there a piano
Speaker 1: in that apartment?
Speaker 2: No, two pianos?
Speaker 1: So two pianos? Yes, four people, two children, two adults.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a full house. It was a cacophony.
Speaker 2: I mean really literally every single day there were multiple
Speaker 2: people practicing at the same time. My mom, her poor
Speaker 2: piano students, would come over and she'd be giving him
Speaker 2: a piano lesson. Meanwhile I would be screeching away in
Speaker 2: the extreme when of my brother in the parents' bedroom.
Speaker 2: I mean really sitting on the edge of the bed
Speaker 2: practicing cello. It was It was interesting.
Speaker 1: When you were growing up on the Upper West Side,
Speaker 1: did you go to like a public school for grade school?
Speaker 2: I went to Bank Street School, which is a private
Speaker 2: school because it was walking distance. Well at the time,
Speaker 2: it's now on one hundred and twelve, so it was
Speaker 2: a four block walk, which was easy for my dad
Speaker 2: with the wheelchair and everything right down the street. But
Speaker 2: then I went to Stuyvesant High School, so that was
Speaker 2: a public magnet school, and that was great.
Speaker 1: Because because of your musicianship.
Speaker 2: Well it's actually a math and science school, and you know,
Speaker 2: you have to test to get in and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Why what I do?
Speaker 1: Of course, you went to study math and science.
Speaker 2: But it's funny because I loved math, but I also,
Speaker 2: you know, I loved I was very sort of interested
Speaker 2: in studying in school. I was a little bit of
Speaker 2: a nerdy kind of teenager. There was a nerdy side
Speaker 2: of me, and there was a side of me that
Speaker 2: was very rebellious and out with the boys and kind
Speaker 2: of so it was an interesting mix of of personality.
Speaker 2: But I loved the violin, and that took over and
Speaker 2: it was actually pretty difficult to be at Stuyvesant. The
Speaker 2: last couple of years were a struggle because they didn't
Speaker 2: want to let me out to have practice days and
Speaker 2: things like that, and I just to go somewhere else.
Speaker 2: For you you got to go, you know, practice for
Speaker 2: my weekend recital or whatever. You know. I didn't want
Speaker 2: to be doing calculus homework. I wanted to be practicing
Speaker 2: my violin. And what happened, well, my mom would write
Speaker 2: me sick notes all the time, Basically she's sick and
Speaker 2: is some violin lessons exactly?
Speaker 1: And that's what happened.
Speaker 2: That is literally we played.
Speaker 1: How long did that last?
Speaker 2: Well, that was the entire you know, junior and senior
Speaker 2: year went like that. At high school, yeah, because that
Speaker 2: was the only way. I mean, if you want to
Speaker 2: get you know, I went to the Curtis Institute of
Speaker 2: Music in Philadelphia. It's extremely competitive to get Oh yeah, well, so.
Speaker 1: You finished eleven and twelve, you're playing hockey, you're sneaking
Speaker 1: off to do your lessons, and then what's decided whiles
Speaker 1: you're rolling through that period of eleventh and twelfth grade
Speaker 1: and these difficulties, had you made your mind if you're
Speaker 1: going to go to a Curtis type thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was a shift. The first year in high school.
Speaker 2: I still I loved studying French, and I loved math,
Speaker 2: and I loved everything. But then it became clear to
Speaker 2: me that I found out about this magical Curtis Institute
Speaker 2: of Music place, you know, where all these people that
Speaker 2: I idolized had gone to the school. Right, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: you know, if only I could go there. So I
Speaker 2: actually I auditioned my junior year. I did not get in.
Speaker 2: I was in the finals. I did not get in.
Speaker 2: They said I was rushing the last movement of Tchaikovsky concert,
Speaker 2: so I didn't get in. I was devastated. And at
Speaker 2: that point I said, I'm going to do everything in
Speaker 2: my power to just practice I don't know, five six
Speaker 2: hours a day. And I did that for the next year.
Speaker 1: I had of where were you that year?
Speaker 2: I was? That was that Stuyvesant year where I was,
Speaker 2: you know, getting the sick notes all the time. And
Speaker 2: I went to senior year. That was senior year. The
Speaker 2: audition was like February of my senior year and I
Speaker 2: got in, and that was I mean, I can't you
Speaker 2: explain to you the feeling. I couldn't even believe when
Speaker 2: my parents got the phone call from Gary Graffman, president
Speaker 2: of the school. We would like to offer Karina spotted Curtis.
Speaker 2: I mean it was I came home from school, I
Speaker 2: got off the subway, I came in the door, and
Speaker 2: they said, you got into Curtis. You know, it was
Speaker 2: like my life is made.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, when you go to a school like that
Speaker 1: is how many year three or four?
Speaker 2: I was there for five years. Actually it's normally four.
Speaker 2: You can extend. It's sort of a little bit loosey
Speaker 2: goosey in terms of how long.
Speaker 1: You say, so a fifth year there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1: And when you when you're standing you the conductor in
Speaker 1: front of an ensemble anywhere during your career, what percentage
Speaker 1: of people in that room go on to a master's program?
Speaker 1: You went on to Juilliard. How many people are getting
Speaker 1: those advanced degrees in music now who will have a seat,
Speaker 1: they have a chair somewhere.
Speaker 2: I would say that right now, we're in a situation
Speaker 2: where there are many more people who are amazingly qualified
Speaker 2: for these top orchestra jobs than there are actual positions,
Speaker 2: and so it makes getting job in an orchestra anywhere
Speaker 2: in the world. This is not just an American problem.
Speaker 2: This is also the case in Europe. It's so unbelievably competitive.
Speaker 2: You know, you go behind a screen and play for
Speaker 2: a committee of nine people, and it's it's really a
Speaker 2: sort of cold, ruthless situation because you getting, Yeah, you're
Speaker 2: behind a screen. You either get enough votes or you don't,
Speaker 2: and that determines whether or not you get a position.
Speaker 2: And you know, some people are not cut out for
Speaker 2: that kind of an audition process. They're a little bit
Speaker 2: more artistic. So my brother, for example, has never played
Speaker 2: in an orchestra. My brother Nick is a fantastic cellist.
Speaker 2: He's at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center here in
Speaker 2: New York. He runs Chamber Music Sedona. He's a soloist
Speaker 2: and a chamber musician. Orchestra was not his thing. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I think graduates from these conservatories they all
Speaker 2: do their best, but they're not everyone is cut out
Speaker 2: to win these auditions for major orchan.
Speaker 1: So not many people, would you say, in the classical
Speaker 1: world now who have a chair somewhere necessarily have a
Speaker 1: master's degree that to more training beyond.
Speaker 2: I would say any people get a job straight out
Speaker 2: of the so called bachelor's program they do. Many people
Speaker 2: will audition when they're twenty twenty one. Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 2: especially Curtis Juilliard, some of these schools in Europe. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they'll win a job while they're in their very early
Speaker 2: twenties and then work their way up from one position
Speaker 2: to then a better orchestra and a better orchestra.
Speaker 1: When you decided you wanted to go to Juilliard, you've
Speaker 1: been five years already at Curtis your dream? What made
Speaker 1: you want to go to school more? What would you
Speaker 1: gain from that?
Speaker 2: It was all about the teacher. I think for a
Speaker 2: lot of violinists, you sort of you fall in love
Speaker 2: with a certain teacher. You hear about a teacher who
Speaker 2: you think is going to give you something. Now is
Speaker 2: we're talking about a teacher. This is very sophisticated music making.
Speaker 2: At that point, you know how to play the violin already,
Speaker 2: you've been playing it since you were a little kid.
Speaker 2: But there are so many other elements, also psychological elements
Speaker 2: to playing an instrument and being able to stand on
Speaker 2: a stage in front of hundreds of people and lay
Speaker 2: with a beautiful sound without getting nervous without having the
Speaker 2: nerves affect your physical body. It's the same thing with conducting.
Speaker 2: When you get up there, you need to be physically
Speaker 2: relaxed and try to sort of just be in the zone.
Speaker 2: And that takes You have to have the right teacher.
Speaker 2: You've got to have some It must be like acting.
Speaker 2: Some people bring out the best in you, right. If
Speaker 2: you're around those people more often, you will become a
Speaker 2: better violinist or a better conductor. So that was the motivation.
Speaker 2: I wanted to study at Juilliard with a man named
Speaker 2: Donald Weilerstein, whose daughter, Alisa Weilerstein is A. Yeah, she's
Speaker 2: a very close friend of mine and Rapa, they're both
Speaker 2: really close friends of mine. At that point, I wanted
Speaker 2: to do violin competitions and whatnot, and I thought, you know,
Speaker 2: New York was a New York is New York. There's
Speaker 2: no place like it on earth. You know, if you're
Speaker 2: in New York as a young violinist, you have so
Speaker 2: many opportunities. First of all, you can go out and
Speaker 2: you can constantly be getting student tickets for Carnegie Hall
Speaker 2: and the Met and Lincoln Center, chambersag Society and all
Speaker 2: the things New York Philharmonic. But also, you know Juilliard was.
Speaker 2: You know, you get gigs, you know, you can actually
Speaker 2: start getting professional experience, such as well playing concertmaster in
Speaker 2: the Haddenfield Symphony in New Jersey, which I did while
Speaker 2: I was even a student at Curtis. You know, I
Speaker 2: had chamber music gigs. You know some of them are
Speaker 2: You know you put your violin case in the kitchen
Speaker 2: and go play the wedding.
Speaker 1: The same thing. Don't turn anything down.
Speaker 2: You'll be absolutely not ready. You learn from every single
Speaker 2: thing you do. Also, the friends you make doing those
Speaker 2: kinds of gigs you will keep for the rest of
Speaker 2: your life.
Speaker 1: Now, while you are at Juilliard, you get the phone call,
Speaker 1: I guess you get contacted about the Berlin Academy. What's
Speaker 1: the proper name of that.
Speaker 2: Organization, The Carian Academy of the Berlin Fulharmonic. I was
Speaker 2: only at Juilliard for four months because then I left
Speaker 2: and moved to Germany and moved to Berlin. You know,
Speaker 2: this audition was in the beginning of October. Found out
Speaker 2: about it through again somebody I had met at chamber
Speaker 2: music fust a violinist named Simon and Bernardini who plays
Speaker 2: in the Berlin Philharmonic. And he said to me, there
Speaker 2: aren't many Americans doing this program, you know, come take
Speaker 2: the audition. And I flew over to Berlin, took the audition,
Speaker 2: won the audition, moved to Berlin in January of two
Speaker 2: thousand and five, and started playing in the Berlin Philharmonic.
Speaker 1: And your family would go see the Berlin when they
Speaker 1: came to New York. Yes, who was conducting the Berlin Then?
Speaker 2: When I was in high school, I went and I
Speaker 2: saw them with a bottle.
Speaker 1: Well, a bottle, yeah, bottom, ye, a bottle with lucerne.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. If you want to have a really
Speaker 2: like nerd out fun, look at the different lengths of
Speaker 2: the same symphony. How long it is?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have I have thirteen Maller ninths in my phone.
Speaker 2: So the Chaikovsky six with Bernstein. I'm very into that
Speaker 2: piece because I just read I just recorded that piece
Speaker 2: and released it. It's unbelievably. I used to talk about
Speaker 2: this with Alan Gilbert.
Speaker 1: How minutes?
Speaker 2: How did he do that? How did he keep the tension?
Speaker 1: Mazelle with the phil Harmonic playing the Maller ninth, the dagio,
Speaker 1: he has five minutes the most brisk one is high. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Seegar Stram is a good one. But Lauren Mazelle plays
Speaker 1: it like he crushes every drop. Great thing. That's incredible.
Speaker 2: But if it's genuine, then it comes from that conductor's
Speaker 2: soul and that's just the way that they hear it.
Speaker 2: Then you know, if it's convincing enough, I think, and
Speaker 2: you know, you can do anything, but.
Speaker 1: You're standing there. I mean, this is your job. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're standing there in front of an ensemble. You're gonna
Speaker 1: conduct something. Let's say you're gonna do the Mallar five.
Speaker 1: Something people are very common when people know the adagio
Speaker 1: from the Mallar five, you're gonna you're gonna play that?
Speaker 1: And do you say yourself, it's my responsibility to play
Speaker 1: this at a certain pace. Is it my responsibility to
Speaker 1: play this a certain way and not get succumbed to
Speaker 1: the feelings too much? I'm gonna slow the thing so
Speaker 1: far down.
Speaker 2: Sure, that's a really good question. I mean that's a question.
Speaker 1: How much is your mood rule?
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing is that you know, I think
Speaker 2: it's it's dangerous to be indulgent when when it comes
Speaker 2: to especially slow movements of famous pieces. But even with
Speaker 2: Beethoven symphonies, you know, there are metronomer markings and there's
Speaker 2: a whole there's a whole controversy about, you know, like
Speaker 2: were they accurate or not? What kind of a metronome
Speaker 2: did he have? Was it broken, was it weird, was
Speaker 2: it irregular? We don't know, but I do think. I mean,
Speaker 2: some of the metronal markings are simply impossible. You cannot
Speaker 2: play it that fast. And there are all kinds of
Speaker 2: theories about the Ninth Symphony, the metronal markings in the
Speaker 2: Ninth Symphony, what that was supposed to mean. But you know,
Speaker 2: that's part of my job. I have to interpret that.
Speaker 2: I have to decide how fast or slow this thing
Speaker 2: is going to go. It's entirely up to me, and
Speaker 2: that's a huge responsibility. And there have been many performances
Speaker 2: in my life, especially right now. My main job is
Speaker 2: a radio orchestra. So every single thing we do in
Speaker 2: Amsterdam from the Concerka about is live radio, which is
Speaker 2: sometimes traumatizing because in the moment of that performance, you're
Speaker 2: in a certain mood, you feel the audience, the player,
Speaker 2: there's a certain vibe in the harmst there is there's
Speaker 2: a chemistry, there's an atmosphere in the live concert hall.
Speaker 2: Then you listen back on to the microphone and you think, no, why, no,
Speaker 2: what so it was so slow or it was so fast?
Speaker 2: God did I take it? So I just listened to
Speaker 2: a recording that I did of maller one in Japan
Speaker 2: this past summer. It was at the Pacific Music Festival,
Speaker 2: which was founded by Leonard Bernstein right at the end
Speaker 2: of his life. And it was a fantastic experience because
Speaker 2: it's a young orchestra. Their auditioned from all over the
Speaker 2: world between the ages of you know, twenty and thirty,
Speaker 2: so young professionals. But the principal wins were all from
Speaker 2: Berlin Philharmonic and the principal strings were all from Vienna Philharmonic,
Speaker 2: so we were together, they were. It was a side
Speaker 2: by side. The philosophy is used from Vienna, Berlin and Vienna.
Speaker 2: And did they play together, well, not often. It was
Speaker 2: very interesting, like the sort of the response to the
Speaker 2: beat and everything was really fascinating. But the last movement,
Speaker 2: because it was young people and there was so much
Speaker 2: excitement saying the last moment was insanely fast and I
Speaker 2: just listened back to the video. You know, they send
Speaker 2: you these things and they say, will you approve this
Speaker 2: for YouTube whatever? When you listen and you think it
Speaker 2: didn't feel it felt just perfect in the moment. But
Speaker 2: was that too fast? You know, this is our whole life,
Speaker 2: you know, was that too fast?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 2: Would I take that tempo next time when I do
Speaker 2: the piece? I'm doing the piece in a few months,
Speaker 2: Will I take it that fast next time? It depends
Speaker 2: also on who you have in front of you, the
Speaker 2: response of the orchestra, the age of the players. You know,
Speaker 2: there's so many others had too much green tea or something, yeah,
Speaker 2: green tea. But it was I mean in the moment,
Speaker 2: I mean the audience went completely berserk. It was. It
Speaker 2: was so exciting because also, you know, you're rooting for
Speaker 2: these young people. This this young horn player doing his
Speaker 2: first smaller one playing principal horn, sitting next to Sarah
Speaker 2: Willis from the Berlin Phulhmonic playing second horn. So it
Speaker 2: was an amazing experience for these young people and you're
Speaker 2: rooting for them, and when they play, well, it's just
Speaker 2: everyone was you know, it was a fantastic experience.
Speaker 1: Conductor and violinist Carina Canlocus. If you enjoy conversations with
Speaker 1: classical music conductors at the top of their game, check
Speaker 1: out my episode with Maestro Rafael Piari.
Speaker 3: When I go into an orchestra, especially for the first time,
Speaker 3: it's all about let's see how the sound of the
Speaker 3: orchestra reacts to my beat, and let's see what we
Speaker 3: can do together. Every orchestra has a specificity and there's
Speaker 3: something that is different and with everybody, and yet it
Speaker 3: will see how with the chemistry that would happen on
Speaker 3: the stage, how much it could be.
Speaker 1: Ben It's like a dancer party.
Speaker 3: You know how fast you can do and how you
Speaker 3: can go from one place to the other, makeup twirl.
Speaker 3: Beyond that, it is just all about that kind of
Speaker 3: trust happening.
Speaker 1: To hear more of my conversation with Rafael Piari, go
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing dot org. After the break, Cana
Speaker 1: Locus talks about growing up in a house of musicians
Speaker 1: with two pianos in a one bedroom apartment. I'm Alec
Speaker 1: Baldwin and this is Here's the Thing That's Bella bar
Speaker 1: Talk's Concerto for Orchestra and my guest today, Karina Canelakis
Speaker 1: conducting the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. This recording this courtesy
Speaker 1: of Pentatone Music. Canilacus's conducting career began in twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: when she started her first professional conducting job as an
Speaker 1: assistant conductor for the Dallas Symphony under conductor Yap van Staden.
Speaker 1: Only a few months into her post, Canilacus would find
Speaker 1: herself standing in for von Staden as an emergency substitute conductor.
Speaker 1: When Canilacus led the Dallas Symphony performing Shostakovich's Symphony Number
Speaker 1: eight with no rehearsal. Now a seasoned conductor, I was
Speaker 1: curious what her preparation for a performance looks like.
Speaker 2: I mean, definitely, the finding a call place is crucial
Speaker 2: for me, and I feel like doing nothing for about
Speaker 2: three hours before the performance. I do a nap, religiously
Speaker 2: short nap, and then about three hours before showtime, I
Speaker 2: don't like to talk too much to anybody. I don't
Speaker 2: like to have too many people around me. I certainly
Speaker 2: don't listen to any music or look at my phone.
Speaker 1: You don't play the piece, you're gonna go, oh my god.
Speaker 2: No, Well, it's going on in my mind anyway, like
Speaker 2: a very loud recording. It's unbelievable. It's literal. I mean,
Speaker 2: I always have music going on in my head like
Speaker 2: a loud recording. Right now, it's Jostkovic five, because that's
Speaker 2: what I'm doing next week. Literally, and I have sometimes
Speaker 2: multiple the different parts of the piece cancel each other out.
Speaker 2: I mean that the one sort of goes by like
Speaker 2: a cloud in the wind, and then the other other
Speaker 2: part comes through, and I think the brain, you know,
Speaker 2: it's working out. How do I feel about this? What
Speaker 2: the tempo? Again? The tempo? Most important thing a conductor
Speaker 2: can do is set the tempo sort of the flow
Speaker 2: of it. Do I want Oh, I'm thinking about this
Speaker 2: G sharp major chord that comes in the middle of the
Speaker 2: third movement. Do I want them to do it with
Speaker 2: vibrato or without vibrato? I just had a text message
Speaker 2: conversation with my brother about this, because he loves that
Speaker 2: chord with vibrato. He thinks it should be warm. I've
Speaker 2: always done it cold because I think it's false hope,
Speaker 2: because it goes immediately to C sharp minor. These are
Speaker 2: the things that are going on in my head. I
Speaker 2: have my reason, but you know, we sort of go
Speaker 2: back and forth about it's great to have people in
Speaker 2: the family you can talk to about music and about
Speaker 2: interpretive decisions and things. It's amazing your mother played what
Speaker 2: My mother's a pianist, an amazing pianist. She was an
Speaker 2: incredible solo as she played concertos with my dad conducting
Speaker 2: a lot, and she could.
Speaker 1: Go from one piano to the other in the apartment.
Speaker 2: She could, well, we had two pianos because she would
Speaker 2: teach students piano concertos and she would play the orchestra
Speaker 2: part on the upright and they would play the concerto
Speaker 2: on the grand piano. So it's an upright next to
Speaker 2: a grand piano. But you know, just to say before
Speaker 2: the performance, you know this this it's sort of it's
Speaker 2: a very very hectic conversation going on in my own
Speaker 2: brain between me and myself and I and so I
Speaker 2: need a lot of quiet for that because it's already
Speaker 2: feels like a lot of noise in my mind. And
Speaker 2: by the time I get to the hall, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just I just and you know, right before I
Speaker 2: go on stage, I do have these moments because I
Speaker 2: think because I was a violinist for so many years.
Speaker 2: I really was. I was a full time professional violinist
Speaker 2: until I was thirty. I'm not one of those stories
Speaker 2: about you know, I knew I wanted to be conductor
Speaker 2: when I was ten, and I first conducted when I
Speaker 2: was twenty. You know, I was late to this. I
Speaker 2: didn't I really loved playing the violin. I didn't have
Speaker 2: any ambition to become a professional conductor. And then what
Speaker 2: happened Rattle, Well, yeah, I was strongly encouraged to do
Speaker 2: so by multiple people. It was Sion. Rattle was my
Speaker 2: friend Ellen Gilbert.
Speaker 1: It's a bit interesting how people have you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm dramatizing. It's like someone taps the mother around the
Speaker 1: shoulder and says, come with me when they go. He
Speaker 1: really keeps time better than anybody out there for the something.
Speaker 1: They see some obviously some indicator, and they go, we'd
Speaker 1: like them to come and take some conducting lessons. So
Speaker 1: what is it? What do they see in you? What
Speaker 1: are you doing?
Speaker 2: Well? My path to becoming a conductor was not linear,
Speaker 2: Let's put it that way. It was mainly a windy
Speaker 2: path because I still missplaying the violin. I loved it
Speaker 2: so much I could not imagine I couldn't bear the
Speaker 2: thought of putting the violin aside for any other reason,
Speaker 2: and certainly not to be standing up without my violin.
Speaker 2: That was very scary in the beginning. You know, It's
Speaker 2: like my identity, my voice. Let's say I would be
Speaker 2: standing there without my voice. What am I going to
Speaker 2: do standing there in front of all these people? What
Speaker 2: physically what am I going to do? But I'm so
Speaker 2: happy that I was encouraged to do it, and I think,
Speaker 2: you know, the people who encouraged me, they saw a
Speaker 2: great interest and passion in score study. For me. That
Speaker 2: was really the thing that I think where they said, hey,
Speaker 2: wait a second, you what you're doing. I did conducting
Speaker 2: courses in my summertime, in the free time, I did
Speaker 2: conducting master classes. I mean I took conducting classes from
Speaker 2: the age of twelve, conducted my high school orchestra. I
Speaker 2: thought it was easy. I was, I did, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is this is not you know. I thought playing
Speaker 2: from yeah, and I thought the violin was much more difficult.
Speaker 2: But in fact that's not true when you get to
Speaker 2: the highest level, because what is happening between you and
Speaker 2: these great, great, great orchestras is so subtle, and so
Speaker 2: it's such a psychological game that you have to be
Speaker 2: deeply seasoned as a musician. And I'm so happy that
Speaker 2: I waited because all those years of experience as a
Speaker 2: violinist feed my feeling of confidence on the podium and
Speaker 2: my feeling that I actually you know, I mean, I've
Speaker 2: played so much of the repertoire as a violinist in
Speaker 2: the orchestra before I ever conducted it. So this is
Speaker 2: a huge, huge thing. And sometimes when I'm preparing to
Speaker 2: go on stage, I do think to myself. I remember
Speaker 2: back to seeing, for example, Sapeca Salinin walking on stage
Speaker 2: in Chicago. I played under his direction in Chicago, saw
Speaker 2: him getting ready to go on stage, and I thought,
Speaker 2: oh my god, I want to do that. I want
Speaker 2: to be that person. And sometimes I get that feeling
Speaker 2: right before I go on stage and I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm doing it.
Speaker 1: When do you begin conducting? So you are the.
Speaker 2: Chief now I'm chief conductor.
Speaker 1: Of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Arquers. You've been doing that
Speaker 1: for how long?
Speaker 2: Since twenty nineteen? So this is my seventh season.
Speaker 1: The seventh season. How did that? Who tapped you on
Speaker 1: the shoulder for that.
Speaker 2: Oh, they came and saw me in a few different places.
Speaker 2: They were sort of hanging around me in a few
Speaker 2: different cities. The general director came to Iceland, he saw
Speaker 2: me in Iceland, he saw me Cologne, and then I
Speaker 2: conducted them. I actually I did one week with them
Speaker 2: back in twenty eighteens Beethoven's seven and Britain for c interludes.
Speaker 2: And the final concert was in the concert about you know,
Speaker 2: you know the red steps and the concert, Well they
Speaker 2: are these There are these ridiculous red carpeted stairs. The
Speaker 2: doors open at the top. You have to walk all
Speaker 2: the way their conductor all the way down these stairs,
Speaker 2: through the orchestra, no, through the orkctra, down down, down,
Speaker 2: and so you know, everyone is kind of waiting to
Speaker 2: see if the conductor is going to trip on their
Speaker 2: way down the stairs. So I walked after the performance
Speaker 2: was over, walked up the red stairs, up up up
Speaker 2: into the dressing room, sat down on the sofa. They
Speaker 2: closed the door and they said, you want to be
Speaker 2: our chief conductor after one week with the orchestra.
Speaker 1: So that you passed the test. You made it downstairs.
Speaker 2: It was so real, but that hardly ever exactly. They
Speaker 2: were like, wow, she really she really knew how to
Speaker 2: do those stairs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking good.
Speaker 2: I passed the test. But I mean that that's extremely
Speaker 2: rare in this business. Normally, orchestras are very careful about
Speaker 2: choosing their next music director. They you know, wait a
Speaker 2: long time that they needs to be somebody. They've had
Speaker 2: multiple visits, and you know it needs to be the
Speaker 2: right person more than just musically. But this was a
Speaker 2: situation where they'd been looking for a while and the
Speaker 2: chemistry between us was so electric and so fun and
Speaker 2: so warm, and it just was so clear that we
Speaker 2: had something really unusual. And so they offered me the position,
Speaker 2: and I think two weeks later I said okay.
Speaker 1: And you guest conducted them before.
Speaker 2: This was the one and only guest connecting experience that
Speaker 2: I had with them.
Speaker 1: It was really, I mean literally conductor, and they gave
Speaker 1: you the job.
Speaker 2: You literally we were together for five days and they
Speaker 2: gave me the job, which is a big vote of
Speaker 2: it's a risk.
Speaker 1: Also now the ensemble itself, you can feel when it's
Speaker 1: going well, and you can feel when there's like it's
Speaker 1: not as good as you'd like it to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you can read it on people's face. It's
Speaker 2: just the same way as when you're sitting across the
Speaker 2: table from somebody you know, having a meal or something.
Speaker 2: You know, you either get along with them. It's like
Speaker 2: being on a date date. It's like being on a
Speaker 2: date with eighty people. So you know, but sometimes you
Speaker 2: think the worst thing as a conductor is if you
Speaker 2: think it's going great and then the orchestra doesn't invite
Speaker 2: you back to.
Speaker 1: The orchestra, communicate to the maestro if they have complaints.
Speaker 1: What's the method in the average ensemble.
Speaker 2: Oh, I wish there were more communication. I really do,
Speaker 2: because I think sometimes people are afraid to talk to
Speaker 2: the conductor. They're afraid to say anything, or they assume
Speaker 2: that the conductor is sort of a prepackaged, ready to go,
Speaker 2: inflexible entity that you know, we either like them or
Speaker 2: we don't, or the way that there's chemistry or there isn't.
Speaker 2: But actually, you know, the ideal thing with conductors is
Speaker 2: that we all continue to grow and improve and learn
Speaker 2: as we go through our life as a conductor. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm forty four, Blomshed is ninety six, so hopefully I
Speaker 2: have another fifty years ahead of me. I would love
Speaker 2: to think that I do have another fifty years to
Speaker 2: keep on doing this, to keep learning, to keep doing concerts,
Speaker 2: to keep you know, how many times am I going
Speaker 2: to be able to do mall or five in the
Speaker 2: next fifty years? A lot? So my mall ar five
Speaker 2: will be drastically different in thirty years than it is
Speaker 2: right now. And I think if orchestras you know, want
Speaker 2: to have a healthy relationship with a conductor, I think
Speaker 2: it's you know, it would be great to have a
Speaker 2: little bit more communication. But it doesn't happen often. I'm
Speaker 2: not sure why, and it's something that bothers me about
Speaker 2: the profession. For sure, it was one of the reasons
Speaker 2: that I was afraid to become a conductor. I mean,
Speaker 2: I have my friends in Chicago saying to me, don't
Speaker 2: go to the dark side. You're such a great violinist,
Speaker 2: don't you know, don't go to the dark side. Oh no,
Speaker 2: You're going to become the enemy.
Speaker 1: Is there some perception of that?
Speaker 2: I think that there is a little bit of well,
Speaker 2: the conductor becomes the scapegoat for whatever has not gone
Speaker 2: well or.
Speaker 1: Whatever is the conductor I think is suspended in a
Speaker 1: weird space between the management and.
Speaker 2: Very weird, very weird. And also what I find strange
Speaker 2: about the profession. And this is a positive thing, but
Speaker 2: I get very attached to people, and I get very
Speaker 2: attached to musicians and orchestras especially. You know, you're very
Speaker 2: vulnerable up there. You're looking at each other's eyes, you're
Speaker 2: breathing together, You're playing very emotional music makes you want
Speaker 2: to cry, that makes you think about your children and
Speaker 2: your parents and people who've passed away. I mean this music,
Speaker 2: as you know as an audience.
Speaker 1: Member, it shattering.
Speaker 2: It is it goes extremely deep, maybe deeper than anything
Speaker 2: else that I can think of, certainly deeper than words
Speaker 2: or reading a book or you know. I mean, for me,
Speaker 2: it goes to a completely different level of sort of
Speaker 2: inter emotion and connecting with other people. And so you
Speaker 2: have this experience with this group of people and I'm there,
Speaker 2: let's say for five six days. We might have two
Speaker 2: to four concerts together, and then I leave and I
Speaker 2: don't see them for a year.
Speaker 1: Now, you are a mother, You have two kids are
Speaker 1: how old again, four and two? Four and two? So
Speaker 1: these are fresh fresh children there, fresh out of the oven.
Speaker 1: And your husband is.
Speaker 2: A he My husband is from Germany. He's not a musician.
Speaker 2: He plays the guitar very well and he knows everything
Speaker 2: about rock and jazz.
Speaker 1: And what does he do for a living.
Speaker 2: He is a philosopher of epistemology and artificial intelligence at
Speaker 2: the University Amsterdam. So he's an idea AI. He's he's
Speaker 2: written articles on authorship and chatchy.
Speaker 1: Where did you meet him? You never take your stuff outside?
Speaker 2: Exactly? It's good question. It was luck. It was pure luck.
Speaker 2: I mean really, we come from two complete different worlds.
Speaker 2: We met in Luxembourg. I was conducting an opera in
Speaker 2: Luxembourg and he was briefly working for the concert hall
Speaker 2: doing digital media. This is before he went in.
Speaker 1: Too philosophy his lucky day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was in between careers and it was true luck.
Speaker 1: Now when you travel, is he daddy at home when
Speaker 1: you're on because you're on the road a lot.
Speaker 2: Yes. When they were tiny babies, I took them everywhere
Speaker 2: with me and we all traveled as a family. And
Speaker 2: I'm very lucky that I have a spouse who does
Speaker 2: something that's where he you know, he's the flexible one.
Speaker 2: He can be remote, Yeah, he can be remote. He
Speaker 2: you know, his schedule sort of bends around around the traveling.
Speaker 2: Now my son is starting to go to school. We
Speaker 2: live in Amsterdam, so they started school of four. I
Speaker 2: like it. Yeah, you know, I ride my bike everywhere
Speaker 2: and in the rain, but you know, it's it's a
Speaker 2: very charming city. I appreciate life there. I appreciate the
Speaker 2: convenience to the airport. That's for a conductor very important,
Speaker 2: right just getting in and out. I can get to
Speaker 2: Berlin in an hour, London and an hour Stockholm in
Speaker 2: an our Paris on the train, the high speed train.
Speaker 2: So it's convenient and it works, and it's a work
Speaker 2: in progress. I mean, balancing this lifestyle with little kids
Speaker 2: is I have a lot of conductor friends who've done it.
Speaker 2: Alan Gilbert has three kids, so he's been a really
Speaker 2: amazing friend to talk to about just balancing quality time
Speaker 2: with them when you're home with then you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: being away.
Speaker 1: Now I'm assuming that you're vast understanding and your wealth
Speaker 1: of studying all these different musical pieces. I'm assuming you
Speaker 1: have to have some of you like more than other.
Speaker 1: When that comes up on the program for the coming
Speaker 1: year or two and you're going to go out you
Speaker 1: see there and go ooh, you know one of my favorites.
Speaker 2: There are there are well generally, whatever I'm studying in
Speaker 2: the moment is my favorite thing on earth. Good answer,
Speaker 2: it really is. It happens because I go in completely
Speaker 2: in that world and then you justcover you rediscover it
Speaker 2: and you think, how how did this guy write this?
Speaker 2: I mean, I say this guy, it's most of the time.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: There are fabulous female composers, but far there are fewer
Speaker 2: in number. But I think I've never been a composer.
Speaker 2: I think it's a good exercise, but I don't have
Speaker 2: that drive or that I don't have like it's.
Speaker 1: One when it comes up on the roster to think
Speaker 1: ooh oh.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean speaks to you. I would say, I
Speaker 2: love opera and I'm doing more and more opera. My
Speaker 2: absolute I think it's safe to say all time favorite
Speaker 2: piece pretty much is Tristan and Isolda from by Rick Harvagner.
Speaker 2: You know, it's is long and expensive to put on
Speaker 2: a production, so it's it's hard to come by. You know,
Speaker 2: you don't you don't just get offered every season that
Speaker 2: trists On and is Olda. This is a this is
Speaker 2: a piece that is, it's a big undertaking for any
Speaker 2: opera house or any you know, theater anywhere in the world.
Speaker 2: But the music is just it's unlike anything else. And
Speaker 2: I think that that piece all so changed the face
Speaker 2: of classical music. For example, last week with the San
Speaker 2: Francisco Symphony, I did a piece by Sibelius. I love Sibelius.
Speaker 2: I did lemon kinan for legends from the Kalevala, or
Speaker 2: sometimes it's called lemon Kin and Sweet. And this is
Speaker 2: a big, long, fifty minute work that the most famous
Speaker 2: movement is the swan of Towinella, which has a big
Speaker 2: English horn solo that's in that. So that's the one
Speaker 2: that's often played as a separate piece. But Sibelius had
Speaker 2: been in Byroid before he wrote all this. He was Wagner,
Speaker 2: he had wagner itis, He was completely immersed in the
Speaker 2: whole Byroid world. It is often extracted as an individual,
Speaker 2: sort of ten eleven minute long tone poem, but in
Speaker 2: fact it works so well as part of this sort
Speaker 2: of larger suite that comes out of various stories from
Speaker 2: the Kalavala, this Finnish mythological thing. But Sibelius wanted to
Speaker 2: write an opera because he had had so much Wagner
Speaker 2: on the brain, and he thought about writing an opera
Speaker 2: and then realized that actually, in the end he would
Speaker 2: never be able to do it. Anything like Tristan and
Speaker 2: is Olda just wasn't gonna happen. And his thing was
Speaker 2: sort of tone poems and nature painting. So he stuck
Speaker 2: with that, and he he never wrote an opera. He
Speaker 2: ended up just he wrote for voice, beautiful, beautiful, like
Speaker 2: one otar, this unbelievable, very enchanting piece for soprano or extra.
Speaker 2: But he didn't write a large scale opera like Wagner.
Speaker 2: But Sibelius wrote this incredible music that has his own,
Speaker 2: you know, the finish landscape and this, you know, I
Speaker 2: see sort of otherworldly sounds that are unlike any other composer.
Speaker 2: I love Sibelius's music every time I'm in that world. Four,
Speaker 2: Oh my god, four is amazing. I can't believe, you know, four,
Speaker 2: because four is really not not often done. It's quite difficult. Seven, five,
Speaker 2: I mean, he wrote all these tone poems, Poyola's Daughter
Speaker 2: for example. Unbelievable. It's unbelievable music, a little bit minimalistic.
Speaker 2: I think John Adams for example, who I love John
Speaker 2: Adams music. I think he you know, he sort of
Speaker 2: must have been influenced by a little bit these sort
Speaker 2: of repetitive figures that go, you got to go do
Speaker 2: go go do, go, go, go go. They go over
Speaker 2: and over again throughout the piece.
Speaker 1: What I pray in terms of my relationship with the
Speaker 1: film and what I want to try over the next
Speaker 1: several years too try to extend and strengthen, is to
Speaker 1: bring the next audience into the space. It's latent learning.
Speaker 2: It's really rare. I feel like when I think about
Speaker 2: you and your whole career as an actor, how dedicated
Speaker 2: you are to classical music and to the New York Philharmonic.
Speaker 2: You're on the board, you support in multiple ways. This
Speaker 2: is huge, and this is rare, and I think that
Speaker 2: is one of the most important things going forward. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, private support is thankfully a tradition in the
Speaker 2: United States, not so much in Europe. And they need
Speaker 2: to get on the boat now because you know, there
Speaker 2: are major arts funding cuts in a lot of places. Berlin,
Speaker 2: certainly in the Netherlands, the UK, London has had huge
Speaker 2: arts funding cuts lately. And I think this idea of
Speaker 2: private support and of reaching across to other fields outside
Speaker 2: of this tiny world of classical music. You know, to
Speaker 2: people like you who are who are in the film industry,
Speaker 2: who are actors, who are producers. This is crucial, you know,
Speaker 2: for our survival.
Speaker 1: Conductor and violinist Carina Canilucus, if you're enjoying this conversation,
Speaker 1: tell a friend and they short of follow Here's the
Speaker 1: thing on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. When we come back, Canilucus tells the story
Speaker 1: of emailing her childhood inspiration, Mikhail Borishnikoff, and how it
Speaker 1: led to meeting him in person at her show. I'm
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and this is here's the thing. This is
Speaker 1: the New York Philharmonic performing Death and Transfiguration by Regard Strauss,
Speaker 1: conducted by Kermina Canalocas. My thanks to the New York
Speaker 1: Philharmonic for generously providing this archive recording from twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Canelacus began training to be a violinist when she was
Speaker 1: a child, surrounded by a family of musicians. Having studied
Speaker 1: at some of the top of music conservatories, I was
Speaker 1: curious who she looked up to for inspiration when she
Speaker 1: was first starting out.
Speaker 2: You know who I was obsessed with was Barishnikoff, Mikhail Bershnikoff,
Speaker 2: so much so that I was talking to a friend
Speaker 2: when I so we met when I conducted the neuro
Speaker 2: Filmonic in February.
Speaker 1: So what did you do?
Speaker 2: This was a w C Lamaier program and the Sara
Speaker 2: Ajo and then you came back stage afterwards and you
Speaker 2: were so so kind. So that same I think, I
Speaker 2: think it wasn't the same night you were. There was
Speaker 2: another night. So I had a friend I was saying, oh, Borishnakoff, la,
Speaker 2: and she said, you know he lives here in New York.
Speaker 2: You should just write to him. And I said, no,
Speaker 2: I could never do that, you know, no, come on,
Speaker 2: So I wrote an email to Mikhyle Berishnikoff and I said,
Speaker 2: you know you're my biggest inspiration of my life. I
Speaker 2: watched your Nutcracker religiously every year as a child. Very
Speaker 2: emotional message. His wife Lisa wrote me back three days
Speaker 2: later and she said, we're coming to a show. They come,
Speaker 2: They came and I met him. It was unbelievable. Was
Speaker 2: it was emotional for me because I mean, you know
Speaker 2: he's standing there and he's an older man now and
Speaker 2: he has children my age. I mean, it's not the
Speaker 2: same thing as if I would meet him. And yesterday
Speaker 2: he made the Nutcracker video. You know, it was like
Speaker 2: meeting someone who has lived this whole unbelievable life in
Speaker 2: the arts and especially New York. And there's the New
Speaker 2: York connection. I mean, this is my home, this is
Speaker 2: my hometown. I was born and raised here in the city,
Speaker 2: and he has made this his home for most of
Speaker 2: his life. And he's such a sort of an integral
Speaker 2: part of the New York art scene, and he has
Speaker 2: his art.
Speaker 1: Paul Newman had his cancer camp of many cancer camps
Speaker 1: around and the Mothership is up in Connecticut. One year
Speaker 1: we go and there's all these celebrities who are invited
Speaker 1: to come and do this camp. Arret. They do a
Speaker 1: show and it's a horrible show. It's the worst show
Speaker 1: you've ever seen. Newman prided himself the worst thing you've
Speaker 1: ever seen in your life. And one time, Parishia Cough
Speaker 1: comes and he's sitting in a chair out in the woods,
Speaker 1: like off the stage door, smoking a cigarette and I
Speaker 1: go to say hi to him, and he gets up
Speaker 1: and he hugs me, and I'm like, I said, look
Speaker 1: at him. I'm like, you know, you're not even a
Speaker 1: human being. You're not true. That would do you too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not real.
Speaker 1: It's true.
Speaker 2: It's so true.
Speaker 1: What's the piece you haven't conducted that you'd like to conduct?
Speaker 2: I would say the other three Ring Cycle opera. So
Speaker 2: I've conducted Siegfried, which is the third of the four
Speaker 2: Ring Cycle operas. I've also conducted the first act of Devalkyra,
Speaker 2: but I have not yet done Demrong And I would
Speaker 2: love to do good good to Demongong and and I
Speaker 2: would love to do an entire fully staged Ring Cycle productions. Well,
Speaker 2: it's a bit about sixteen hours of music total.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Normally these days opera houses do one per season over
Speaker 2: four years. However you can have it depends the whole thing. No,
Speaker 2: rarely merely that would be that would be insanity that
Speaker 2: What about live.
Speaker 1: To picture with films? Do you do that over there? No?
Speaker 2: I have not done that. There are people who are
Speaker 2: really really good at that kind of thing, And I
Speaker 2: don't think that's necessarily my I.
Speaker 1: Don't think it's a string. I don't want to explore it.
Speaker 2: If it's a movie that I love that I'm passionate about. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: Why not it was a film? Oh yeah, sure, I
Speaker 2: mean that would be amazing. I think, you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of that music is really incredible, like Miklos Rosha,
Speaker 2: you know, the those guys who came to California from Germany.
Speaker 2: Of course, unbelievable music. The score is Spellbound, for example,
Speaker 2: this is unbelieva. There's even a piano concerto from the
Speaker 2: spell Bound score which which I have conducted, and it
Speaker 2: was really really fun.
Speaker 1: Now talk about was opera in the windshield throwout or
Speaker 1: that's something you acquired.
Speaker 2: I will say that I have always loved opera since
Speaker 2: I was a little kid. With my father, we had
Speaker 2: a VHS tape of Lennoz Dificero the Marriage of Figuo
Speaker 2: and you know the Carabino when he jumps out the
Speaker 2: window and he has to hide. I thought it was
Speaker 2: the greatest thing I'd ever seen in my life. I mean,
Speaker 2: I was obsessed with the music, the whole thing, the
Speaker 2: whole thing that people were singing a reality scene from
Speaker 2: life that they were singing it. I thought it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2: But then you know, you become a violinist, you go
Speaker 2: through this conservatory world and you had to play as
Speaker 2: one of your classes in school in the opera orchestra
Speaker 2: without knowing anything about what was going on on stage.
Speaker 2: Nobody would tell you. So if you didn't go to
Speaker 2: the library, there was no you know, you couldn't just
Speaker 2: there was no Wi FI. When I was eighteen, you
Speaker 2: had to really seek. I didn't do that. I didn't
Speaker 2: go and find it. You know, you had your life.
Speaker 2: You had to practice, you had to go to the
Speaker 2: next class and do the next thing. It bugged me
Speaker 2: that I didn't know what was going on in stage,
Speaker 2: that I didn't have any contact, And so I made
Speaker 2: a point then of sort of going out of my
Speaker 2: way to discover, not as a violinist, but as an outsider,
Speaker 2: as a conductor, to discover this world of opera, which
Speaker 2: really is is in a way completely separate from the
Speaker 2: symphonic world in many ways imagine.
Speaker 1: Primarily other than there's singers live.
Speaker 2: So in so many ways, the whole process, you know,
Speaker 2: the whole, the storytelling, the whole, the way you have
Speaker 2: to conduct when you conduct an opera, you first of all,
Speaker 2: it's not all about you. You know that people make
Speaker 2: a big fuss over the conductor. You get on stage
Speaker 2: and everyone's looking at you and James Levon everything you know,
Speaker 2: But when you're in the pit, you're mostly hidden from view.
Speaker 2: People see your shoulders in the top of your head.
Speaker 2: The main focus is on the stage, the singers, and
Speaker 2: I love that functional role. I love to be more
Speaker 2: part sort of part of the part of the team.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love to be I don't like
Speaker 2: a lot of fuss over.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, it's too much attention on the conductor. But it
Speaker 2: really bugs me, so I like to be that. I
Speaker 2: also I am constantly saying, what have I done to myself? Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's a completely different process. Singers, conductor. You're there
Speaker 2: for weeks. You're in one place for weeks. You're in
Speaker 2: a room with a pianist and the director and you're blocking,
Speaker 2: and you're especially if it's a new production, you're figuring out,
Speaker 2: you know, what makes sense and how can this singer
Speaker 2: sing something in a way that is convincing, bring out
Speaker 2: the text, bring out the meaning of the text. While
Speaker 2: do sometimes doing ridiculous things physically running around I have
Speaker 2: to wear knee pads half the time and doing all
Speaker 2: sorts of things on stage that are extra musical things
Speaker 2: I love. I love to dance as a kid, you know.
Speaker 2: I like all the different elements of art. You know
Speaker 2: a little bit more chan the way.
Speaker 1: Trying to stay the way you are now till your
Speaker 1: ninety six.
Speaker 2: Don Boomstead, thanks.
Speaker 1: My thanks to conductor and violinist Karina Canalakas. I'll leave
Speaker 1: you with Karina conducting the London Philharmonic performing Tchaikowsky's Symphony
Speaker 1: Number five. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the thing is brought
Speaker 1: to you by iHeart Radio Man.