Centrepiece Online | Fall 2010

Music for Everyone

Perhaps never in Kentucky has there been a world-class musical event of such magnitude,” says Milton Reigelman, who was involved with the planning while he was acting Norton Center director. “At Centre, we expect the extraordinary.”

The Louisville Courier-Journal called the event “unabashedly glittering,” with Danish royalty as well as three Kentucky governors attending.

And the Los Angeles Times ran a glowing story before the big day (see page 7; Dudamel’s home base is the L.A. Philharmonic).

Tickets to the VPO Show sold out in a day, the fastest turnaround in Norton Center history. (A few tickets were still available shortly before show time due to returns from members of the orchestra and reconfiguration of camera placement for filming.)

It should not have been a surprise.

As Rich Copley, arts columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader, wrote, “Tickets to see the VPO in Vienna are as tough to get as tickets to see the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team in Lexington.”

Or perhaps tougher. In Vienna, the waiting list for a subscription to weekend concerts is more than a dozen years.

Ticket holders at Centre paid anywhere from $100 a ticket up to $375 for a ticket and a seat at the preceding black-tie dinner.

However, students, faculty, and staff were permitted to attend part of the dress rehearsal, for free, an opportunity deemed so important that classes were rescheduled in order that all could be there.

“It isn’t every day that you get to hear the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra play, conducted by one of the most influential conductors of our time,” says Whitney Brown ’11, “and you certainly don’t get this for free. It was fascinating to hear the way that Maestro Dudamel worked with his musicians.”

A vocalist herself, the English and dramatic arts major from Taylorsville, Ky., was able to meet Dudamel after the rehearsal and even got his autograph.

“He was so nice and down-to-earth,” she says. “He asked everyone what their involvement in music was, whether they just liked to listen or if they played an instrument, danced, sang, etc. He seemed genuinely pleased that so many musicians were there, as well as so many students who weren’t musicians but just wanted to hear the music.”

To ensure that all students would want to hear the American premiere of one of the world’s finest orchestras led by the hottest conductor of the day, the Norton Center’s new director, Steve Hoffman, organized a convocation with a catchy title: “Getting Ready for Vienna and the Dude.”

He wanted students—and everyone else on campus—to think, “Wow, this is huge. I need to be a part of this event,” he says.

It certainly was a huge event for Ashley Mayho ’11, a Spanish and French major from Slidell, La., who also managed to meet the maestro after the rehearsal.

“I’ve never been to a formal orchestra or opera, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to hear some classical music outside of my iPod,” she says. “During the performance, I was enthralled. I loved all the different sounds and seeing the beautiful instruments—some of which I could not name—performing the melodies right in front of me.”

Just before taking up his baton on the big night, the Venezuelan-born Dudamel received an honorary Centre degree and noted that as a child he liked to “conduct” recordings of the Vienna Philharmonic. (He and the entire orchestra also were named Kentucky Colonels.)

They then played a brilliant program of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, Leonard Bernstein’s Divertimento for Orchestra, and Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess and Boléro, with a Viennese encore, Pizzicato Polka, by Johann and Josef Strauss.

The L.A. Times story ran under a headline that questioned why such an international pairing would make a detour to Danville before playing New York’s Carnegie Hall, their only other U.S. stop. But in an interview with Centre photographer Chris Floyd and the Herald-Leader’s Copley just after the rehearsal, the maestro provided an answer.

“Music can go everywhere,” he said. “Because today we were playing this rehearsal for young people, and for them, it was amazing to see the Vienna Philharmonic playing this amazing repertoire for them, and then they gave their energy to us. So, music is for everybody.”

—D.F.J.

Photos of the orchestra and conductor by Chris Floyd

Click here to see the Los Angeles Times story and photos of one of Kentucky’s greatest cultural events ever.

Click here to take a stroll down memory lane as alumni recall their favorite events in the Norton Center (or in some cases Regional Arts Center). What were yours?