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01:00This is called a tempo watch.
01:15The idea for it was conceived by my mentor, Robert Shaw, and he had in his chorus an engineer
01:25who brought it to life, who brought it into existence.
02:25Greetings and welcome to the LTV studios.
02:55I am honored today and delighted to introduce you to two remarkable men, Maestro Michael
03:13Palmer and Michael Yip, president of Anacrusis Productions.
03:19These fine gentlemen are responsible for bringing the first ever orchestra, the New
03:27American Sinfonietta, to the Hamptons this September.
03:33The Hamptons Festival of Music will be comprised of 41 national and internationally renowned
03:41musicians.
03:44The festival will be a collaboration of music and art in concert.
03:51Let's meet these very fine gentlemen.
03:55Welcome Maestro.
03:57Welcome Michael.
03:58Thank you, Sandra.
03:59Thank you, Sandra.
04:00It's good to be with you.
04:01It's a pleasure and an honor.
04:02We are all so delighted to learn all about the New American Sinfonietta and what this
04:09magical festival week will entail.
04:11Maestro, I'd like to begin with you.
04:14I would like to ask you what inspired you to create the New American Sinfonietta and
04:21to bring this remarkable orchestra to the Hamptons?
04:26Well, in 2017, Michael and I bought a home in Springs and we came here and began to know
04:33the area and know the community here.
04:36I was very surprised for a community that has such a long history of excellence in the
04:42arts that there's no orchestral life in the Hamptons at all.
04:49It's been, I think, many, many years when there was a very short one for a little bit
04:53of time.
04:55One would think that that could be something that would be necessary to be filled.
05:03We saw that gap and that was the inspiration, really.
05:09I've done this now for 29 years in Billingham, Washington, and bringing the New American
05:16Sinfonietta, named after an older orchestra I had in the 90s that toured Europe for 10
05:23years, with great players, wonderful, wonderful musicians from all over the country, many
05:30with major symphony orchestras.
05:33Wonderful.
05:34Michael, could you share with us some of the names of these renowned musicians?
05:39Sure.
05:40And what we could look forward to hearing.
05:42Sure.
05:43And again, as Maestro was saying, these are longstanding relationships.
05:48Most notably, Richard Roberts, concertmaster currently with the Montreal Symphony.
05:54The principal bass of the Chicago Symphony, Alex Hanna.
05:57Pepe Romero?
05:59Oh, Pepe Romero, for sure.
06:02Pepe and Michael have almost 60 years of music-making together.
06:07Internationally renowned classical guitarist, just a phenomenal, phenomenal artist.
06:13And we're also bringing in Otto Sauter, who's a world-renowned Baroque trumpeter.
06:18So when you hear the Brandenburgs, particularly the Brandenburg II Concerto, he'll be definitely
06:23highlighted and I think that's something the audience is going to really, really resonate
06:27with.
06:29Wonderful.
06:30Can you share with us what the week, the festival week, will look like?
06:34I know there are rehearsal dates and, of course, the actual performances.
06:38What will the actual performance dates consist of?
06:42The actual performance dates are the 9th, 10th, and 11th of September.
06:47The musicians will arrive in town on the 5th and will begin rehearsals on the 6th and will
06:54be constantly having rehearsals in the daytime and performances in the evening.
07:00This year it's a pilot.
07:02I mean, it's a little short for a normal festival.
07:07By comparison, the festival that I do in Bellingham, Washington, takes place over three weekends.
07:14So it's basically two weeks.
07:16But we wanted first to do a pilot just to see what kind of response we will have here.
07:23We're expecting a terrific success.
07:25Wonderful.
07:26September 9th.
07:27What can we expect on September 9th?
07:30The complete Brandenburg Concertos of Bach, all six of them.
07:35Wonderful pieces that Bach wrote to show off his orchestra.
07:41The prince he was working for said, I want the greatest orchestra in the world.
07:45Money is no object.
07:46Gather them together.
07:48And that's what Bach did.
07:49So we're doing that now.
07:51That's awesome.
07:52That's truly awesome.
07:54September 10th.
07:55Well, September 10th, we're holding some very secret special events occurring.
08:01But, you know, for public consumption, September 10th is Pepe Romero's recital.
08:08And there's going to be some incredible intimate performances, plus some special kind of performance
08:15that we're going to kind of keep that close to heart until we get closer to the festival.
08:20And September 11th, the finale.
08:22September 11th is the full orchestra, with Pepe playing the Rodrigo Concerto Aranjuez,
08:31probably the most famous guitar concerto in the world.
08:35And it's a great work, and very autobiographical on the part of the composer.
08:41And Pepe had a long and wonderful relationship with Joaquin Rodrigo.
08:46In fact, the first European tour that we did was in celebration of Rodrigo's 90th birthday.
08:54So then the festival would close with Beethoven's mighty Symphony No. 7.
09:01Fantastic.
09:02Now, gentlemen, you have selected this location, LTV, this incredible media center, as the
09:10home for the new American Sinfonietta.
09:13Speak to us about what this space...
09:16Why was this chosen?
09:17Sure.
09:18Sure.
09:19That's a fantastic question.
09:20I mean, you think of a television studio, you don't normally think, well, that's a concert
09:24hall, right?
09:25So there's this instant sort of contrast in someone's mind.
09:28But we do have to say a special thank you to Michael Clark, the executive director of
09:32LTV.
09:34When we put the word out to our friends and networks about, we need a venue.
09:38We're going to make this happen.
09:40We need a big stage.
09:41We need a space that can house 41 musicians and a sizable audience.
09:46People were kind of racking their brains.
09:48And I think every person mentioned, well, you've got to talk to Michael at LTV.
09:52So clearly we set up a meeting and gave us the tour.
09:56And we fell in love with the space.
09:59One of the hallmarks for Anacrusis and our productions is creating intimate, unique experiences
10:06for audiences to hear the performances that Michael and the musicians can bring to society
10:13and communities.
10:14So this is our best example of a community partnership.
10:17Wonderful.
10:18It's fabulous.
10:19Michael, you mentioned that the seating will be around the orchestra?
10:23Yes.
10:24Yes.
10:25Especially for the Brandenburgs, we're going to have surround seating with the audience
10:35in this kind of a semicircle configuration, which will bring the audience close to the
10:41musicians and the musicians will be on the floor.
10:45That's going to be absolutely mesmerizing.
10:47Yeah.
10:48And then for Pepe's recital particularly, to be right up close to the guitarist, he'll
10:53be slightly elevated so everyone can see really well.
10:57And again, with surround seating.
11:02When the full orchestra concert takes place, we'll be against one of the long walls of
11:08the rectangle here.
11:10And again, with that semicircular seating.
11:14Probably two to three rows of the semicircular seating.
11:17Of course, LTV, once we get the orchestra in here, we will have room for approximately
11:24175 audience seats.
11:27So it'll be limited seating.
11:31Wow.
11:32It's going to be very exciting.
11:33Now, I know that there is also a homestay partnership.
11:39Can you speak to us about what that is and what the benefits are and the enrichment that
11:44goes along with it?
11:45Sure.
11:46You want to give the warm and fuzzy part of it and then I'll explain the more tactical
11:51part of it?
11:53Well, of course, the homestay program is critical to being able to have the festival.
12:02These 41 musicians are coming here.
12:06They need housing.
12:08They need a bedroom, a private bath, and kitchen access.
12:14That's it.
12:15That's all they require.
12:16But the wonderful thing that has happened in Bellingham, Washington, where we've been
12:20doing this for 29 years, is that we have the same musicians back each season.
12:29If the homestay has worked out, then they end up staying with the same homestay host.
12:36Over years, great friendships are formed.
12:39New family members are brought in.
12:42The situation exists now there, after so many years, that during the wintertime, sometimes
12:48the home hosts will fly to the homes of the musicians to have Thanksgiving together or
12:56whatever.
12:57It really can be a marvelous...
12:59Sure.
13:00The intimacy that is created.
13:01Exactly.
13:02And to be able to sit then in the audience and watch this musician perform.
13:08That's part of the benefit.
13:10And I think, as Michael alluded, it's really a very signature part of the festival and
13:16what we are producing.
13:18Bringing 41 top-flight orchestra players in from all around the country is not an inexpensive
13:23proposition.
13:24So the homestay partners are a huge component of our ability to make this happen, to actually
13:30make this a viable festival.
13:33So in exchange for their generosity and their support, we are specifically curating a very
13:39special rehearsal just for the homestay partners.
13:42So they do get to be here in this amazing space.
13:46The orchestra will be rehearsing.
13:49The homestay partners will be a part of that.
13:51So no one else can have that experience.
13:53And then the second part is we have planned for a very special social evening, again,
13:59just for the homestay partners, the New American Sinfonietta musicians, Michael and myself,
14:04and of course a few other special VIPs as part of the production team.
14:08But that really is to, as you say, Sandra, it's about being intimate, having this experience
14:14that you won't get as just being a patron in the audience.
14:19Correct.
14:20That's wonderful.
14:21Very exciting.
14:22Very, very exciting.
14:23Now, let's talk about the art component.
14:28You have collaborated with a number of the galleries and the art centers, and you are
14:35combining the music you've mentioned to me, Beethoven's First through Seventh, with the
14:40art world.
14:41Talk to us about that.
14:42Sure, sure.
14:44So this is actually a very unique sort of companion festival that we have basically
14:50programmed alongside of the concert itself.
14:53It's called the Beethoven Experience, B-E-T-H-F-M for short.
14:58And it really is a way for us to further that connection with the community that Meister
15:02was talking about, that artistic kind of catalyst that made the Hampstead so great.
15:07So we've partnered with a handful of visual art galleries and a couple of major cultural
15:13institutions that you're familiar with, the Southampton Art Center and the Watermill Center,
15:17two examples.
15:19We just got support from Catherine Markle Gallery this morning as well.
15:22So she's definitely a name in the local art world.
15:26Certainly.
15:27So essentially, just to give you a quick picture of that, the galleries will be, in essence,
15:34curating exhibits based on movements of the Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.
15:39So each kind of gallery will have kind of a specific kind of target in terms of interpreting
15:46a particular movement within Beethoven's Symphony 7.
15:50And all of that will culminate into an exhibit that we're going to curate here in LTV as well.
15:55So there is this incredible, unique opportunity to truly, as our tagline is, music and art
16:02in concert.
16:03It's like, you're going to experience the art.
16:05You're going to experience it all here at once.
16:07And it's all going to come together.
16:08Yeah.
16:10That's amazing.
16:11Now, Maestro, you had also in our last interview mentioned, you've termed Hero's Journey and
16:18Song of Life.
16:19Yes.
16:20Can you elaborate on what those words mean and how they are akin to the orchestra?
16:25Well, of course, the idea of the hero's journey and the heroic journey, as we've learned,
16:32all learned from Joseph Campbell, at least, has been around since man's existence.
16:40And to boil it down to a very simple level, the journey consists of the call.
16:52These are times in our life that come when we are making an adjustment or we're going
16:57from one aspect of life to another, and one era of our lives to another.
17:05And we find ourselves on the threshold between two.
17:10We know where we've come from, but we don't quite know where we're going.
17:14And the call has to be answered to move beyond that in terms of psychological development.
17:22So when you answer the call, that's the beginning of the heroic journey.
17:30And that is all of the experiences of growth and development that we go through in life,
17:37and also dealing with answers to the big questions, the big questions of life that everyone has
17:43who lives in the human condition, and that happens to be all of us.
17:50The Song of Life.
17:53The Song of Life is the artwork in music that's been produced by these great genius composers
18:05which are inspired by the heroic journey that they, along with the rest of us, make every
18:14day.
18:15One of the things, we don't think enough about the fact that Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn,
18:21all of these iconic names were not icons.
18:26They were human beings, real people who went through the same aspects of living life as
18:32each of us do.
18:34And from that experience and the cauldron of that experience, they have produced these
18:40great artworks representing all of that.
18:43And in Beethoven's case, and especially with the Seventh Symphony, you have the call in
18:49the first movement, you have the struggle, which produces a struggle if you accept the
18:55call.
18:57In the second and third movements, you have different ways of approaching the struggle
19:02and trying to work through it, and in the last movement, you have triumph.
19:05Isn't that beautiful?
19:07Yeah.
19:08And that's what the finale will speak to.
19:10That's right.
19:11Exactly.
19:12Yes.
19:13That's amazing.
19:14Gentlemen, what do you hope, what is your vision for this New American Sinfonietta here
19:19in the Hamptons?
19:20What would you like to see continue each year, and what do you hope the legacy will be?
19:27Well, I'll give you my perspective, and then, obviously, Michael, this was built around
19:34his vision, right?
19:35We truly want the community to get behind this, to really see that this is filling a
19:43need for the residents who live here year-round, right?
19:48So one of the goals is to build enough support following our pilot year to encourage us to
19:57produce concerts throughout the year, right?
19:59So we don't want this to just be in the summertime.
20:03Obviously, that is the focal point of what we're trying to do, a multi-week festival
20:07earlier on in the summer, but also to offer sort of something in the winter season.
20:12So maybe an orchestral concert sometime before the holidays, the winter holidays, and then
20:16one in the spring, right?
20:18To be something that the community can predict and say, look, there's the New American Sinfonietta
20:24performing in November, and they're doing another concert in March, and it's all building
20:29up to, well, the Festival of Music's happening in July or June, depending on what we decide.
20:35But the whole point is to build anticipation, right?
20:39But to know that the New American Sinfonietta will be here, and it'll be culminating here.
20:45We're here.
20:46We're going to bring the festival back every year.
20:48That's kind of, at a high level, kind of the vision.
20:50But the legacy, I don't know.
20:52Well, I think it's going to sound too simple, and that is to enhance people's lives and
21:00enrich people's lives.
21:02And this part of the country, and especially the Hamptons, are known for their love of
21:09the arts.
21:10Correct.
21:11And it was very much from the visual arts and through theater originally.
21:17And there is a strong chamber music component out here, which is great.
21:23But the area of the repertoire that deals with the song of life so incredibly is the
21:30orchestral, the symphonic repertoire.
21:34And it's a legacy of being in touch with one's deeper self that is offered.
21:47Before Beethoven, concerts were an evening's entertainment.
21:52Haydn wrote symphonies to entertain his audience, and entertainment was the thing.
21:57With Beethoven, music became about the human condition.
22:02It became an expression of the life we live, and how we live it, and how to live it well.
22:11And so that's a long-term legacy, that in the long term will grow and develop and have
22:20deep meaning for people, and far be it from me to determine what that meaning is, but
22:27it will be there.
22:28Yes, and it will enrich the lives and enrich this community.
22:33If I could just add to that, the community, that's the legacy for us.
22:39This is something, I mean, we take, as Michael started off, we take very close stock in terms
22:47of who we're catering to.
22:49And there is this huge outreach piece that we're building, not only on Festival Week,
22:55but also throughout the year.
22:57So as we bring musicians in from the New American Sinfonietta, we'll hope to partner with the
23:02local schools, the local programs, the East Hampton High School, Ross School, places like
23:08that to bring this kind of in-person, intimate connection to the festival itself.
23:14So I don't want to miss the opportunity to express that, is that this truly will be driven
23:19by the community, and as the demand ebbs and flows, we want to be a part of that ride.
23:26That's wonderful.
23:27Well, we look forward to a truly magical week, and we're honored that you have decided to
23:34bring this incredible symphony and orchestra to us, here in the Hamptons.
23:41Thank you, gentlemen.
23:42It is a pleasure, and an honor, and looking forward to so much more with you.
23:46Thank you, Sandra.
23:47Thank you, Sandra.
23:49We really appreciate this.
26:04you