Monday Musicale with the Maestro – May 11, 2020 – Celebrating 50 Years as a Conductor, Georges Bizet’s Farandole
In addition to the week’s musical selection, we have another installment of the Conductors Corner! Here are pictures of Maestro Curry conducting his first concert at 16 years old!!!
My love for classical music began when I was a pre-teen. And I very much wanted to learn how to play an instrument. In those days, everyone in my parents’ generation had a piano in their living room. Before the invention of radio and TV, the piano was THE entertainment center. My house did not have a piano, but whenever my family would visit someone’s house, I would sit at the piano and pound away at the keys. (Happily, there are no recordings of my futile efforts.) I begged my parents for my own piano, but there simply wasn’t enough money for an instrument and lessons. Financially speaking, we were at best a lower middle class household. In 1959, when 90% of Americans owned a television set, we were still not able to afford one. It must have broken my parents’ hearts to be unable to provide a piano for me. And there were no music classes at my African-American elementary school.
Finally, schoolteacher and conductor Eugene Reichenfeld found out that this was the only grade school in the area without music. He was appalled. He decided to donate two dozen of his own string instruments to the school and to give the interested students free lessons. I was twelve and chose the viola (mainly because I didn’t know what a viola WAS!) My eleven-year-old brother, Ralph, chose the cello. Reichenfeld was the first person to see my potential as a professional musician. He plied me with recordings and conductors’ scores from his personal collection. And it was at his invitation, at age 15, that I made my conducting debut with his community orchestra.
That was on March 7, 1970, so this year I’m celebrating my 50th anniversary as a conductor! Some of the highlights of my conducting career have included my Carnegie Hall debut, being nominated for an Emmy, and being the only unanimous 1st-prize winner in the history of the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition. I owe my career to Reichenfeld, my beloved parents, and my deep love for great music. And my little brother has not done badly for himself either. Since 1979 he was a been a cellist in one of the top ten orchestras in the world, the Cleveland Orchestra.
NONE of this would have been possible without those free instruments and lessons. So, I’m especially proud to support the Durham organization that provides those very things: Kidznotes. They offer instruments and ten hours of lessons a week to underserved students from pre-K through the 12th grade. Katie Wyatt, founding Executive Director of Durham’s Kidznotes and current President of its parent organization, El Sistema USA, is a friend and colleague of mine. It was she who worked with me to establish an annual collaboration between the DSO and select members from their program, who perform with us at the Emily K. Center. This event has always been one of the highlights of our season. The students sit next to the adult musicians, who are eager to guide them. For these students, the experience of playing great music with this wonderful orchestra is an unforgettable one. And for me, the concert is deeply moving because I’m reminded of my own youthful dreams and those earth-angels who helped me to make those dreams come true.
This week’s video features a work by Bizet, played by Durham’s Kidznotes and the Durham Symphony Orchestra.
Maestro William Henry Curry’s introductory comments for this week:
“A video of the DSO/KIDZNOTE’s performance from April 23, 2015. The piece is Georges Bizet’s Farandole from his incidental music for the play “L’Arlesienne”. ( The Girl From Arles) A Farandole is a folk dance from the southeastern portion of France that has an insistent beat.”
Enjoy & Be well!
William Henry Curry
Music Director, Durham Symphony Orchestra