Get to know our Guest Conductors

Kell y Corcoran, March 5

4

If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

I like sleep! But, if I had extra time, I’d spend it with my family and friends. I spend a lot of time working, so, I would love to have more time for social connection! I would also like more time for writing and creative ideation.

1

What do you like to do on a weekend off?

I love to spend time with my family, run, and catch up on things around the house. I have a ten-year-old daughter and a Sheltie pup so it’s fun to play with them both. I also love downtime when I can just relax, watch some good movies and write in my journal.

2

What is your guilty pleasure or current “obsession”?

I love dark chocolate and Yogi tea! I also love a new pair of Nike running shoes.

3

What inspires you most about music?

As we search for connection and ways to understand the diverse experiences of each other, music can speak in ways that words cannot. I also love how music is heterogeneous – with so many different styles, voices, influences and expressions.

5

What is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

I would say cherish each moment and be yourself.

6

What is the first concert or event you attended that inspired you to become a musician/conductor?

It is so hard to pinpoint one event! When I was an undergraduate at The Boston Conservatory studying vocal performance, I sang in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus which is the symphony chorus for the Boston Symphony. I had the opportunity to perform under the baton of amazing conductors ranging from Seiji Ozawa to Bernard Haitkink to John Williams. I vividly remember looking out into Symphony Hall in Boston, taking in everything and being mesmerized by the dynamics between the conductor and the orchestra. It was during this time that I became inspired to study conducting! Some of the most memorable performances were of Seiji Ozawa conducting The Saint Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall and Bernard Haitink conducting Mahler 3.

1

What is your ultimate comfort food?

Korean food. There’s just something comforting about food from my heritage. The spicier, the better. It must be genetic.

John Concklin, April 23

2I’m a podcast enthusiast. But if you were to open my streaming services, it would definitely show Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier as it’s what we play for our dog when we leave the house. Aside from that, my wife Lauren introduced me to Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, Gillian

Welch, and other singer songwriters, which we both enjoy. Speaking of my wife, she seems to find my lifelong persuasion towards Top 40 Hits from 1994-2006 amusing.

4

What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

Hitchhiking in the remote Italian countryside. I was there for a conducting competition. It was my wife’s idea to stick her thumb in the air, and shockingly, it worked.

3

If you were not a conductor, what would you have pursued as a career?

5

If you could spend a day with a famous composer or musician (living or dead) who would it be and why?

That’s a tough one. I would ask Dvorák more about his thoughts on race and American music. I would like to ask John Adams some questions I have about his Harmonielehre. I would like to write a song with LinManuel Miranda, take a piano lesson from Ray Charles, or play chamber music with Yo-Yo Ma.

6

Can you share something about your concert repertoire that audiences should either listen for or think about in advance of attending the concert?

Listening to a piece beforehand always creates familiarity that is fun to experience at a concert––like you are running into an old friend.

For Mahler 1 specifically, I would encourage the audience to let themselves go to the places Mahler wants them to go. At the beginning of the first movement, he wants you standing in the forest, just before dawn, on the first day of spring. You are surrounded by darkness, but as the movement progresses, the birds call, the animals yawn and stretch, the sun rises, and spring appears. In the second movement, you find yourself in the town square at a community function where there will be dancing. In the third, you witness a macabre, ironic funeral where the tables have turned: The animals mourn the hunter. In the finale, you will experience pure feeling––deep despair, indescribable love, anxiety, and finally, triumph and transcendance. There’s nothing like it.

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