E-Mail This Article to a Friend Triple threat (continued)

Q: Do you keep a wish list of orchestras that you’d still like to work with?

A: You know, this orchestra thing is such an interesting animal to me. People forget; they think orchestras are all the same. But their people, their styles of playing, they have different chemistries. I’ve always felt very fortunate that I’ve had opera orchestras, ballet orchestras, and symphony orchestras in the mix in my whole career, and I’ve learned so many different things from them, all over the world. Some of them are hard lessons and you think, oh God, I don’t ever want to go there again. And then other ones you think, gee, I wish I could stay here for three years. At the center of all that is the fact that the Boston Ballet Orchestra and I have grown together over 15 years. I can’t imagine working with a group that I could love more. We know each other so well, we respect each other. If I had my choice, I would have them for 52 weeks a year and program everything we wanted to do.

As far as guest conducting other groups, yeah, there are a few. London Symphony I’ve never conducted. I’d like to do that. Chicago. Some of that top echelon of 10 worldwide orchestras I haven’t conducted, and it would be fun to do that. If I get the chance, that would be great, and if not, I’ll continue to work with the groups that I enjoy working with. I’d love to do more opera, too. I sort of keep open to what comes in my sphere, and then if it looks like something that’s important to do, you find the time to do it.

Q: Speaking of time, what do you do when you’re not conducting an orchestra? Do you have non-music-related hobbies?

A: Gee. No. I used to have a wide variety, but when you have free time, you really spend it with the kids. Skiing is one of those passions that as a family we enjoy together. My wife and I got the girls skiing when they were two, and at this point, the older one has now surpassed her father, which I had to admit this past season when she could bang down the moguls twice as fast as I could. It’s a little daunting.

Q: So your Boston Ballet contract allows you to ski? I know the dancers’ contracts don’t.

A: They’ve never brought it up! That’s mainly because of the fact that if a dancer breaks a leg or an arm, they’re really out of action. I could still conduct if I broke a leg.

Q: But you need your arms.

A: Oh yeah. It’s funny, they never think about that as far as the conductors. So don’t bring it up!

We did have an interesting time once when I was pretty young in the business. I guess it was about my third year that I was conducting for the Joffrey, and since those were very long tours and I had some good friends in the dancers, we always would take our Monday or Tuesday off and we’d go do some wacky things. And I do remember being in San Francisco, which was where we finished the season every year, and I had always wanted to go skydiving, so I signed up for skydiving. You know, you do a four-hour crash course and then they throw you out of an airplane. Well, the Monday before, a lot of the dancers went off and they did these jet skis, which were pretty new at that point; this was like ’82. And one of them broke their leg on it. And Robert Joffrey pulled the company together on Tuesday and absolutely read us the riot act, as he should have. So I canceled my skydiving trip.

Q: Do people ever drop things into the orchestra pit?

A: Oh yeah. In fact, I am going to write a book one of these days about my experiences in the pit. We’ve had liabilities from audience members, even, as well as things on stage. We’ve had the usual collection of props that roll and fall into the pit. Once I was conducting the San Francisco Symphony, in the pit at the Opera House in San Francisco, for a Joffrey performance of Romeo and Juliet, and one of the big, double-handled broadswords sheared off at the handle and flew into the pit, right toward me, and I thought, I’m going to die. And it stuck in the floor right between the two cellists. And of course they couldn’t see it coming; all they saw was this blade going poing! And they stopped playing. I’ve had audience members throw up on us. That was in New York, at City Center. Somebody was not feeling well, and they did what they do on a ship: they grabbed the brass railing and nailed the percussion section.

Q: I guess Longwood’s a good orchestra to go see perform if you’ve got any kind of health problems.

A: Yeah. [You say], "Is there a doctor in the house?" and you get stampeded. If I ever have anything seriously wrong with me, I’ve got the best team in Boston right in front of me.

Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com