Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome.

So great to have you all here this evening.

We're grateful to see you.

And we're grateful that you've taken time out of your busy schedules to be with us.

My name is Alex Jiménez, and I'm Director of Orchestras.

This is the University Philharmonia, and we're really looking forward to playing some really fun music for you.

This after this evening.

So some people ask me, you know, how do you plan a program?

And, you know, there's a lot involved in planning a season, has to do with a lot of different factors.

And, of course, we want it to be enjoyable for you.

I've also been asked, do you try to theme programs?

I'm not.

I'm not terribly fond of theming programs overtly, but I do try to find connections that I think and, you know, create some kind of a narrative.

None of that's taking place tonight.

This, this is one of those programs that sort of just assembled itself in a way.

So the first piece on the first work on the program, I should say, by Roger Zare, dear friend of mine, fantastic composer, is, we were involved in the commissioning project with a number of institutions.

I think something like 30.

Something like that.

To present this work, and soon you're going to hear a little bit more about that first work, and I think you're going to be in for a nice surprise.

So that got placed on this program.

And the second piece on the program, was the result of the winner of our young artist competition.

And so, you have the Carl Vine Concerto as well.

So they're not related in any way, form or fashion.

And then I wanted to make sure that one of my graduate assistants had an opportunity to conduct a bit more.

You know, Tom Rojo is a master student and he's done great all year long.

And so this is kind of his end of year jury if you will.

Don't put too much pressure on him okay.

And so the Moldau seemed like an appropriate thing for him to do.

And so I was left with one piece to do at the end.

I said, how do I tie this together?

And so since the first work deals with science, and is related to science, the last work is not science per se, but it's astrology.

And I thought it'd be nice.

Plus, on top of that, we can put a thousand people on stage and make a big noise and its a great way for everyone to go home.

So once again, I want to thank you all for being here.

The first piece on the first work on the program, the Roger Zare Deep Underground and Roger's on the live stream watching.

Hi, Roger.

Gave me an opportunity.

To interact with somebody outside of the College of Music, which is always fun to do when we have that chance in this case.

I reached out to Mark Riley, one of our colleagues in the sciences, and I said, you know, who who perhaps could we collaborate with on this project?

And he said, well, I have just the person for you, doctor Mayly Sanchez.

And so Doctor Sanchez, my new friend and colleague, is a particle physicist here at FSU.

And she is very involved in the study of neutrinos.

And I told her, I said, listen, I could try to explain this, but I'm really not that smart.

So I shouldn't.

I'll just leave people confused.

But it would be great to hear from you.

And this is one of those wonderful opportunities where there's a synthesis between disciplines that are this closely related.

So I very much would like to introduce and welcome Doctor Mayly Sanchez to the stage.

Thank you for the introduction.

Good evening everyone.

As a scientist, I have always been inspired by the intersection of art and science.

When director Alexander Jiménez reached out about conducting this work, I was immediately excited.

Not just because of the music, but because of the opportunity to share a little bit of the science that I love.

And I am truly honored and delighted to be here today.

One of the pieces on the program tonight, is the result of a unique year long residency by composer Roger Zare at one of my favorite places on earth, Fermilab, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, just outside of Chicago, Illinois.

This is a place where science and art have always gone hand in hand.

In fact, Fermilab's founding director Robert Wilson, a physicist and a sculptor himself, only agreed to lead the lab in the early days if he could shape the esthetics of the buildings and grounds.

He believed that science should be beautiful, not just useful.

That philosophy is alive and well.

And Roger's piece is a wonderful example of that legacy.

The music you'll hear tonight was inspired by the same science I work on and lead here at Florida State University.

The science of neutrino physics.

When you think of particle physics, you might imagine these enormous machines smashing particles together at incredible energies.

And that's certainly true.

But one of the most mysterious particles we study is the neutrino.

And it doesn't take that much energy to make a neutrino.

In fact, the universe has been making them in enormous quantities since the beginning of time.

Neutrinos are everywhere right now.

Roughly 100 trillion are passing through each of us every second.

And yet they're almost impossible to detect because the interacts so rarely with matter.

They're ghost like slipping through the Earth.

Our instruments and our bodies unnoticed.

But despite their subtlety, they may hold the key to answering some of the biggest questions that we have about how the universe evolved and why there is more matter and antimatter in the cosmos.

Neutrinos are also deeply strange.

One of their most surprising features is that they oscillate.

They can change from one type or flavor into another as they travel through space.

That would be like throwing a blue ball across the room and watching it turn yellow and then red before it lands.

These oscillations imply that neutrinos have mass.

Something we didn't expect, and understanding that mass could open a window into an entire linear physics.

Now, neutrinos are also born in dramatic places in the heart of exploding stars, in the fusion furnace that is the sun.

And even in the afterglow of the Big Bang.

But we can also make them here on earth in nuclear reactors.

And perhaps more relevant for tonight in particle accelerators.

At Fermilab, a new accelerator called PIP-II is under construction.

It will produce high intensity beam of protons, which, when it's smashed into a target, will generate neutrinos.

These protons travel at about 80% of the speed of light, enabling the most intense accelerator based neutrino source ever built.

And in true Fermilab fashion, the PIP-II building is more than just functional.

Its siding features a pattern of vertical windows based on the spectral lines of the hydrogen atom, the very element used to produce the protons.

Roger Zare saw for this pattern and transformed it into rhythm and melody, which you'll hear in the first movement of his piece.

The music begins with a steady pulse, gradually accelerates just like the protons, building energy and speed, until it culminates in an illusion of infinite ascent, a sonic reflection of the acceleration approaching the speed of light.

It is a beautiful example of physics becoming music, now making neutrinos.

It's only half the story.

To study them, we need to catch them, which is no easy task.

Believe me, because neutrinos interact so rarely, we need detectors the size of cathedrals.

And at the heart of these detectors is liquid argon, an element chosen for its ability to produce flashes of light and electron.

When a neutrino finally does interact with an atom, these signals allow us to reconstruct the invisible particle path.

Almost like catching the faint echo of a ghost.

To protect these delicate measurements from other background particles that are constantly raining down from space.

We place these detectors deep underground.

That's the vision of Dune, the deep underground neutrino experiment in which I work.

Fermilab will send a beam of neutrinos 800 miles through the Earth's crust to detectors that are buried a mile underground in South Dakota.

There we will watch as the neutrinos oscillate between their three flavors.

We won't see the same neutrinos that were sent.

Instead, we'll see the ones they become in the second movement of this piece.

This transformation, as the neutrinos travel and oscillate, is mirrored musically as different instrumental textures blend and shift, reflecting the ghostly dance of these elusive particles.

This is a story of cutting edge science told through the language of music.

I hope you really enjoy Deep Underground.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Alex Jiménez, and I'm the director of orchestras at the College of Music at Florida State University, conducting on tonight's program.

And I want to welcome you to our intermission.

And here with me today is Tom Roggio who is my assistant conductor.

He's a master's student in orchestral conducting.

And welcome, Tom.

It's great to have you here.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

I'm really looking forward to this.

Well, we're going to have some fun.

So, as I said, Tom is conducting on the program in the second half.

But so far in the first half, you've heard a couple of different works.

You've heard the work by Roger Zare, Deep Underground, which is based on his experience as an artist in residence at Fermilab, which, studies neutrinos, particle physics and so we heard a little bit about that.

And then the second work on the programs by the Australian composer Carl Vine his piano concerto number one, which I think may be the first time we've heard it here in Tallahassee.

And so and that was conducted, by, another graduate assistant conductor, Guilherme Rodriguez.

And so hope you enjoyed that as well.

And wonderful, wonderful work.

And then in the second half, we're going to begin with Bedřich Smetana's Die Moldau .

Now, you want to tell us a little bit about that work?

Yeah.

The Moldau is an evocative tone painting that comes from a set of six tone poems by Smetana that meant to reflect aspects of bohemian culture.

The Moldau is the longest river in the Czech Republic.

And so with the Moldau, with this wonderful tone poem, Smetana, I think, really wanted to create a feeling and a circumstance of really going along with the Moldau River and the many courses that it could experience in its long span.

That's a really great piece.

And it's of course, it's a well known work.

I don't know if I told you, but I had the opportunity to be in the Czech Republic.

This was back in 2010, and I did a recording with the Brno Philharmonic and, but we were staying in Prague and we were staying in a hostel that was right next to the Moldau and was right next to the Smetana museum.

And my wife and I drank beer at the statue of Smetana next to the Moldau which was really awesome.

So, you know, all I could do was think of the tune, which was a lot of fun.

And then the last work on the program, is, a really a famous, famous and beloved work by Gustav Holst.

It's Jupiter from his bigger work, The Planets.

And so, soon you're going to see a whole lot of people on stage having a lot of fun with that work.

So one of the things that I wanted to discuss today, Tom, Tom is, is a graduate assistant conductor.

And now Tom has his doctorate already, but he has it in violin performance.

And, silly Tom decided he would stay in school and, get another degree.

And he decided, and sillier yet wanted to become a conductor.

So, talk to us a little bit about your desire to be a conductor and how how you sort of evolved into that idea.

Absolutely.

So, I mean, as long as I was a musician, I always was trying to understand how my part fit in with others.

And so, over my course of becoming a violinist, I played in many different orchestras.

I got to work with so many fabulous conductors, and I got to see the wonderful work that they do with musicians on a daily basis, putting together programs, building relationships as a community with an orchestra, and putting on just a really fabulous musical concert.

From the podium and not just from the inside of the section.

And so, it's been an incredibly inspiring and motivating experience, going from being a member of the orchestra and playing in the ensemble to then going on the podium and having to make all the decisions, having to budget time, all things that of course I did as a violinist already.

But when you have 70 plus people in front of you, it's a totally different challenge.

And so it's been the most rewarding and amazing experience I could ask for.

Yeah.

All eyes are on you.

Yeah, right.

Sure.

Exactly.

The violin section of you're on the fifth fifth row back.

You can hide a little bit.

Exactly.

Yeah.

There's no hiding when you're up in front of the podium.

Exactly right.

Exactly right.

You know, it's interesting because conductors come from different backgrounds, right?

And different places.

You have conductors who are pianists.

You have conductors now who are singers who become conductors, you have all kinds of different backgrounds.

And then you have conductors like you and like me who come from the orchestra, which is a little bit the analogy would be like the, the, the, the player coach idea.

Somebody who's been a, a player, in baseball, let's say, which is my favorite sport.

And then soon after they end their career in baseball, they become a manager.

And so it's a very similar thing.

So how do you think that's different?

In other words, let's say compared to someone who perhaps has never played in an orchestra, a fabulous musician, perhaps all of those things are true, but have not played in an orchestra as opposed to somebody who has played in an orchestra and then comes to the podium.

How is, you know, how does that work?

I think what I, what I've been learning on the podium is that the orchestra itself, even though it's comprised of individuals, is really an organic unit that has a hive mind of its own.

And so, you know, when you're sitting in the orchestra, you feel that hive mind mentality.

But then when you're on the podium, you have to have the confidence and the control to be able to manipulate that at any given moment and to have to guide this ensemble along the ride.

And it's, it's a challenging task to be able to do, and especially someone who's just starting out, it's, it's a big learning experience for sure.

So, you know, for many audience members who perhaps don't watch orchestras a lot, or if they have, they don't they've never had a chance to talk to a conductor.

It can appear to them like the conductor's just waving their hands around and sometimes appear as if the orchestra is not always watching them.

In fact, my wife once said that when she first when she went to her first concert that I conducted, I said, what did you think?

What did you think?

We weren't married yet and she said, oh, it was great.

They weren't watching you, so what were you doing?

Which was so, you know, that was you talk about deflating.

So talk a little bit about that.

What what is the purpose of a conductor?

Why does a group, an ensemble like an orchestra or a band or a choir, need a conductor?

So at the end of the day, there needs to be one person making a decision for a musical piece when you have 70 plus.

However, many people in an ensemble, as much as you would like to invite individual perspectives and opinions, you it can get very dicey, very fast if you invite everyone's input.

So there does need to be someone at the helm to make musical decisions and to guide the orchestra through an interpretive decision.

I think the conductor's role is really, again, guiding the orchestra, not so much controlling the orchestra, but guiding the orchestra through this musical vision that they have for a specific piece of music.

So, so, so guiding the orchestra.

Let's be a little more specific about that.

Perhaps so, for example, if you're so, there's a piece of music there, the music has notes and it has indications and it has all those things.

Why can't that be enough?

If something says play louder, play louder.

So this is a play softer place after so what, what guidance is needed?

So I think it was in a conversation I had with you once where you said that the real music happens between the notes, that happens between the ink on the page.

And so you can have the same orchestra playing the same exact piece of music, with the same dynamics and the same textures and the same orchestrations.

But I think it's the conductor that really paints these pieces in a more contextual sense, that allows the orchestra to maybe understand greater connections between certain elements of the music that they otherwise would not on the individual level.

So it's a it's an interpretive thing.

I mean, each piece of music and I think that's I agree with you.

I think that's the thing about great music that makes it great is that there is a high level of craftsmanship.

First of all, but that level of craftsmanship allows a certain amount of flexibility in approaching the work.

That's why we can continue to do works by Beethoven and Brahms and Smetana and whatever over and over again and have perhaps a different experience.

Right.

Because and the same thing with soloist, same thing with chamber music.

In fact, I what I was laughing because when you were talking about you can have 70 people making the decisions.

I once taught at a place which remain unnamed with the resident string quartet, which will remain unnamed, which was very good, highly recorded group, excellent players.

And they had a rehearsal room that was, you know, right by my office.

And anytime I walked by that room, more often than not, I heard arguing and not so much any music because, you know, they would, you know, I mean, and it it was part of the process, right, of determining how do we want this phrase to go?

How do we want to shape this?

What do we want to say?

What kind of colors do we want here?

And so, you know, leaving that up to 70 plus players or 50 plus players or whatever it is, of course that would not be successful.

Now, we do have an example of a headless orchestra and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Right?

But that's a little bit of an extreme case that, that, you know, can't work in a lot of places.

So what about your training?

What what what so far have you learned?

You know, coming from being a player where you really know the orchestra from the inside.

You're an excellent, excellent orchestral player and violinist.

And so coming from the inside and then getting up to the podium, what have you learned?

What are the things that you did not expect or that you thought, oh my gosh, I never really appreciated that part of things.

I'll say, first off, that I have garnered a newfound respect for woodwind and brass playing and really understanding what they have to do.

As a string player that is not my world.

And so that has been an eye opening experience, and learning how to work with them and how to enrich their sound and then enrich my interpretation through that.

Now, as a string player coming from the orchestra into the, onto the podium, I think it helped me give a better sense of understanding the inner workings of a score.

And so not just the melody, but really, what are the details inside of the score?

Inside the second violins, the violas, the cellos, for instance, that really can, enhance the details of what I want musically.

Sure.

sure.

And so I when I was an orchestral player, I was always a fan of playing of playing second violin.

I was always just a fan of the second violins because I loved the harmonies.

I loved how that slight little change in the inner workings of the orchestra can change the whole tapestry of the interpretation.

And so that's where I find myself, gaining perspectives from my experience as an orchestral musician onto the podium.

It makes me keenly aware of all these details.

That's fantastic.

And what do you think has been your biggest challenge?

Time for a candid moment.

Well, gosh, I mean, as we said, a conductor has to make many decisions and you have to be confident in all of those decisions right off the bat and I'm still learning my own interpretive decisions.

And what, I would like to, create with an orchestra.

And so the challenge is been turning what I know I have in my head to the technique, in terms of execution, but I think my training as a violinist has helped me considerably in that, because violin are the basis of our sound is how we manipulate our bow.

And so I find the conducting technique, Baton technique is nearly identical, has a real correlation.

There is a big correlation to, to how we manipulate sound with the bow and with the baton.

And, so thinking of that, not just on a violin level, but a conducting level, has been a challenge for me.

And I think once I really start to unpack that, I think things can flourish even more.

So from there.

That's great.

Yeah.

I have, you know, I was a percussionist, right?

So, same thing.

I used my hands to get different sounds.

It's a little bit different obviously, than playing a violin, but still, you know, you're putting all of your or at least a great deal of your thought and preparation and effort into this thing that you do with your hands.

Right?

Right.

So that becomes the musical result of what's happening in your mind.

Exactly.

And so that translates a little bit easier than to being on the podium and moving your hands to do the same thing.

The thought processes is not that different.

Right?

Right.

And how have you felt, conducting the Philharmonia?

Talk a little bit about working with those, those young players?

Oh my gosh, it's been such a treat to work with the University Philharmonia.

This has been a group that I've admired a lot since coming to Florida State University.

The fact that they are all undergraduates playing at the level that they are playing is just one of the most inspiring things that I could really imagine having the opportunity to conduct them and, be a part of their journey, and helping them grow as musicians and then in turn, helping me grow as a musician.

It's just been a treat and a delight.

And I think I've really seen the growth over this past year and working with them from where they started to where they are now.

It's just they're such a, a passionate, dedicated ensemble, and they give me hope for where music will go, given their dedication and their inspiration and what they do.

That's great.

Well, thanks for all the work that you're doing with them.

Thank you for being with us this evening.

And I think you will enjoy the show.

Watching this man conduct will be a real pleasure.

And thank you again for being with us.

Just when you thought it was safe, I come out with a microphone.

Before we start our last number, I wanted to thank a few people.

First of all, we have a number of folks in this ensemble who are playing in their last concert.

And so I'd like to first of all, ask if you are playing in your last concert with us, would you please stand?

Bravo.

And thank you.

Of course we wish them well.

And they always do well.

I was talking to a colleague recently, and I said, it doesn't matter where I go in this country, there are florist.

There are Florida State grads everywhere from the College of Music who are working, which is awesome.

So we're very, very proud of that.

I also, it's the end of the year for the orchestra season here.

The FSU orchestra season.

And so I really want to thank all the staff here.

Everybody that works in this hall, works so hard.

I mean, this is such a tough job, and they're always up to the task.

So you please help me thank our Ruby Diamond Hall staff.

Thank you guys.