- KSO, what are you all about?

- The KSO's mission is to enrich the community through musical listening and learning experiences and for us that takes many forms.

To begin with we have so many amazing musical education programs.

We reach over 50,000 people in a year.

30,000 of them are students and through our amazing education programs.

And 20,000 of them through our main stage performances.

Through large master works and chamber works to bring these classics to the Kalamazoo community.

Everywhere from 60 to 90 or more musicians on this stage bringing those powerful, great symphonic works here.

- Talk a little bit about the connection that you have from the podium to your players.

- You have to create sort of an atmosphere where your ideas can be transmitted through this invisible field and you can hear the results coming back out of the orchestra.

But I have to say, it's not with every orchestra and there are some orchestras that I have been to as a guest conductor and you do the same thing and it's like there's a wall or there's a block and you don't speak the same language.

And that was one of the things that I found very special here with the Kalamazoo Symphony.

When I made my debut, I felt immediately that week from the podium an unmistakable connection with the musicians.

(orchestra playing upbeat) (opera singing) - Maestro, what's in store?

- This is your conducting lesson, okay?

Now, it's not very well known, but actually one of the most important parts of conducting a symphony orchestra is how you approach the podium, because in fact the orchestra tends to make up their mind even before you're standing here, whether they're gonna follow you or not.

So, come down for a second.

Okay.

All right, here I go.

I'd like you to just start here and just take the podium with an heir of confidence, maybe a little humility.

- Here we are, face the audience or face the musicians.

- Face the musicians.

(orchestra plays upbeat) (opera singing) - What's the history of your Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra?

- Well, we are about to enter our very special 100th Anniversary season here starting this September.

We were founded in 1921, so our 100th Anniversary season kicks it off this fall.

100 years old.

This is a special piece of history for the community and we'll take this next year to honor where we've come and take the time to look ahead at our community and where we wanna go for the next 100th year.

- So now I wanna show you a little bit about how the hands work.

Are you left handed or right handed?

- I am left handed in my right mind.

- Interesting.

- You gonna come up here with me?

- I'm going to, I'll stay.

You're the conductor right now.

I'm the coach.

So I want to practice a fore pattern.

Do you want to conduct with your left hand?

- Yes.

- Okay, so, it would be down, is one.

And then we go, because I've got to do it backwards.

We go to the right, that's two.

We go to the left is three.

And we go up is four.

So try that; one, two, three, four.

And I want you to feel that you have a bounce that you hit a spot on each of these beats try to feel that.

- How am I doing Doctor?

- Looking very good.

(orchestra playing gradually) (opera singing) - Who are your musicians?

Who is this talent?

- We have more than 80 professional musicians who make up our symphony.

A lot of them do live here in Kalamazoo.

Some of them we collect from some of the outlying smaller cities like Chicago or Ann Arbor, Michigan.

It's an orchestra that has a really rich history and it has a very centered, and it makes a great impression, the sound that we create and when I came to this orchestra as the new music director, I immediately felt the presence of this ensemble which is such a pleasure to work with.

- How about community partnerships?

- Looking around us to say, we are a symphony orchestra.

We have the ability to play with vocalists, with dance companies to connect our programming to visual arts as well.

And in our 100th season that will kick off in September of 2020, we will highlight many of these partners here with us on the main stage as well as through our chamber music.

Restaurants that we may pop up and play some chamber things at, so not just having partners join us here but to have us joining partners out there in their space.

- Now try to do something with your right hand that conveys the... don't, you don't need to mirror.

Try to convey the character of the music that you wanna conduct.

Let's say you wanted to do something very firm and strong.

What would you do with your hand?

I'd make it strong.

Maybe a fist, orchestra doesn't like to see the fist as much as they like to see like this maybe.

Keep your hand a little bit open.

- Like I'm holding a little birdie?

- Well, or like your asking for something.

- Ready?

- Yeah.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three.

Excellent.

And each time you hit a beat you have to feel as if there is an electric signal going out through the air and hitting about half way up the stage.

Send it out and it comes from your belly.

- How am I doing?

- Very good.

- Good.

For a first time symphony attendee what do you want me to get out of the first time?

- We want you to use your imagination, to let the music take you where you want it to go.

So for every single person in the audience this experience is different but we want it to be a good experience so that's why we love to listen to our audience when they have feedback for us or things to share or ideas that they have because we're the symphony for this community.

From the time you sit down in the seat and the orchestra begins to tune, we want your imagination to really let you go where the music will take you.

Everybody has their own experiences and different melodies and different harmonies and different instruments will elist different feelings and when the maestro raises his baton to begin a concert, we want that to be a feeling of excitement, that what's about to come is special.

- Where does creativity play its role?

- We are recreative artists in many ways.

That we are presented with a blueprint or structure, something written by somebody who we can no longer talk to in many cases Imagine that you open a score and you're faced with four notes.

♪ Dum-bum-bum-Bum ♪ If you look at the notes on the page what do they represent?

And where are they going?

Is it dum-bum-bum-bum (gradually getting lower) is it to the last one?

Is it dum-bum-bum-bum (gradually decreasing power) is it from the first one?

Is it a question?

Bum-bum-bum-bum.

Is it a statement?

Bum-bum-bum-bum.

There are so many different ways of attributing a character to just a simple, tiny little phrase- four notes.

You have almost unlimited options.

- Now give me an example one more time.

How do you do it?

Well, I do it with the right hand.

So for instance, let me stand here next to you.

If I was gonna conduct something very vigorous, my left hand would be asking for the character and one, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

If I wanted to conduct something that was gentle you need to feel it, for you it'd be with your right hand.

You need to feel it, you need to touch it as if it's an injured cat or something that's very very sensitive.

And with the beating hand you have to feel the distance between the beats as if you're drawing your hand through very thick syrup or something that's very very a lot of resistance.

- I got syrup and I've got an injured cat.

- Even slower.

(laughter) That's right.

- Theater of the mind.

I think we're ready.

Let's do it.

- Take care.

(orchestra starts) (light soft music) (opera singing begins) - [Narrator] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation.

Hoping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.