NEGAUNEE MUSIC INSTITUTE AT THE CSO
would have featured works by CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli as well as Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns, performed by CSO Horns Daniel Gingrich, James Smelser, David Griffin, and Oto Carrillo—all of whom are Civic alumni. The program also would have included Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, which was on the Civic’s inaugural program in 1920. So, without a stage or audience, what is an orchestra to do? A plan was enacted to produce a virtual concert, to debut on social media, on March 29. “We knew we would regret it if we let this date pass without any music to celebrate,” said Jonathan McCormick, director of the CSO’s Negaunee Music Institute, which oversees the Civic Orchestra in addition to all CSO community and education initiatives. “Since we couldn’t be together in Orchestra Hall, we quickly made plans to celebrate the milestone online.” Those plans included a large-scale virtual performance of an excerpt from the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony as well as the commissioning of seven world premieres to mark the uniqueness of the situation. The virtual concert also featured introductions from Masur and the CSO horns. “With so many moving parts,” McCormick added, “we had to act quickly. From conception to completion, we had less than two weeks to pull off this entire production.”
T
o start, the institute enlisted the help of YouTube artist and influencer Christopher Bill. Best known as the most-subscribed brass musician on YouTube, Bill is a trombonist, arranger, and marketing consultant based outside New York City. His YouTube channel, The Classical Trombone, has amassed
over 45 million views and a following of over 250,000 subscribers. Civic musicians, from their homes, recorded audio and video tracks of the excerpt. The sixty-five musicians created files, which were electronically sent to Bill. “A lot of the work isn’t very exciting,” said Bill from his New York studio. “For example, the first thing I do is convert all the audio and video files to the same format. I make sure they are all labeled the same way, so that when I get into weaving everything together, I’m not searching for each file every time.” After all the files are labeled and organized, Bill prepares the audio tracks before even looking at the video element. “I try to re-create what the orchestra would be doing. I look at a score and find who has the melody and follow them throughout the piece. Then I match articulations and listen for intonation. I use all of this as a guide before audio mixing and tweaking.” Once the audio was finished, with guidance and consultation from CSOA staff, Bill began to piece together the visual component of the concert. “What are the transitions? What’s the pacing? I storyboard the entire thing on a giant dry-erase board in my studio.” To capture the quintessential sound, Bill and the musicians used the 1989 CSO recording of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, led by its then music director Sir Georg Solti, as inspiration for tempos, character, and the overall sound concept. “When I think about those great orchestras onstage, each individual member doesn’t have a microphone on them. But I essentially do have a mic on each player, so I adjust the audio to re-create that full orchestral sound,” said Bill. Even with some of the nation’s finest young musicians submitting high-quality recordings, it still will
abov e : Civic 100th Anniversary Virtual Concert producer Christopher Bill is a trombonist, arranger, and marketing consultant based outside New York City. His YouTube channel, The Classical Trombone, has amassed over 45 million views and a following of over 250,000 subscribers.
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