Inside PBS Blog

As executive producer of Live from Lincoln Center, John Goberman is one of our more creative assets here at PBS. 
Before setting up the broadcasts for Lincoln Center over 30 years ago, John Goberman was a cello player at The Metropolitan Opera and worked for the New York City Opera. He's earned Live from Lincoln Center 12 Emmy Awards and 53 Emmy nominations.  The program has also won two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Grammy Awards, three Monitor Awards, a Television Critics Award, and many other honors.
We asked him to answer a few questions for us before the Live from Lincoln Center special on New Year's Eve, featuring a gala concert by the New York Philharmonic.  Check your local listings for airtimes.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of working with PBS?   
We forget how broad the reach of PBS is across the country, because we are all such narrow-minded locavores in the cultural biz.  I remember getting a letter (this was years ago, of course!) from a guy who said he had broken his leg and was stuck in his log cabin in the middle of a Minnesota winter and had just seen one of our LFLC broadcasts on PBS and it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.  Of course, with a broken leg, that bar is set extremely low, but I appreciated PBS' role in helping us reach out.

What is the best joke you've ever heard?
I think the best joke is my life, which seems to go on and on and on… I'm like the guy who jumped off the Empire State Building and on his way down, about the 34th floor, was heard to say, "Well, so far, so good!".  The joke on me is that I am not ever going to get to the punch line!

What are you thinking right now?
Right now, I am thinking that I better get back to the camera shots for the New Year's Eve telecast on Wednesday night.  It is all completely prepared in advanced so that you don't have the experience on the air of staring at a trombone player for 5 minutes.  His mother would love it, but take my word for it, it is a real sleeper.

What is your theme song?
I am extremely partial to Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations and not just because of its alliteration.  I would say it is one of the most perfect pieces of music in the world, except that I don't know an awful lot of the world's music.  There may be a didgeridoo sonata that I haven't heard, for example, or a marimba mambo, but 32 variations on a theme seems just about right, not too many, not too few.  It has also been called the Goldilocks Variations, I believe.

What is your motto?
YES WE CAN! BE PREPARED! which I think is fairly comprehensive.  However, I can attest to its inadequacy on many occasions and downright failure when YOU SHOULDNA! would have been much more appropriate.

If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
One of the most important superpowers is, of course, perfect pitch, i.e. knowing an A flat when you hear one.  Another is upbow staccato.  A third, more universally applicable, superpower is making your Blackberry Storm a responsive and useful instrument rather than increasing your iPhonenvy.  The best superpower of all would be, of course, correcting mistakes in advance.

Who would play you in a movie about your life?
Monsieur Hulot would be good.  A very tall, good-looking super-athletic Dustin Hoffman??

What is your greatest wish?
I wish I could eat anything I felt like and not get fat and not have to share….

What do you think is the secret to success?
Do what you are good at.

What is your motto?   
Like all of PBS primetime people, carpe noctem.

What is the word or phrase you most overuse?
I know, I know!

What is your favorite YouTube video?
The old films of great performers like Sarasate, Elman, Hoffmann, Casals, Goberman…

What is your dream vacation?
Flying an F16 over Mr. Everest and then bidding on a horse auction in Wyoming and then contributing to my local PBS station with "viewers like me."

Do you have any other questions you'd like to ask John Goberman? Leave your questions for him in the comments. If he's not too busy reviewing camera shots, attending a horse auction in Wyoming, or shaking his iPhonenvy, he may just answer back.

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