BY CUTCOMMON
Australian conductor Leonard Weiss has been making waves overseas, from his recent Churchill Fellowship achievement to his roles as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellow and New Zealand Assistant Conductor in Residence.
But back home in Australia, Leonard has been working closely with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as its Cybec Assistant Conductor. And you’ll soon have the chance to watch him at the podium when he conducts music by Katy Abbott in Metropolis: Hidden Thoughts II.
So what does an assistant conductor do with a major symphony orchestra? We asked this award-winning conductor to take us behind the scenes of this remarkable role. He also tells us why he loves the opportunity to present new Australian music to local audiences.
Leonard, you had your Melbourne Symphony Orchestra debut this year in April — what was it like to conduct this orchestra for the first time?
I love new music and working with living composers. So the opportunity back in April to make my MSO debut conducting their first 2024 Metropolis concert — performing Katy Abbott’s Hidden Thoughts I: Do I Matter? and Richard Meale’s Incredible Floridas — was absolutely the perfect ‘first MSO experience’ for me.
Each rehearsal was an opportunity to better get to know our musicians, to further understand what they need from a conductor, and most of all to listen to how they play — with great admiration, I might add — in order to best utilise our rehearsal time.
It is a real dream come true to work at the MSO, and to bring this brilliant music to life, which is why I am so excited for our next Metropolis performance of Katy’s Hidden Thoughts II: Return to Sender, which allows me the opportunity to further strengthen my relationship with the MSO musicians, and of course also with Katy and with her joyfully catchy music.
You’re working in Australia again this year after your recent Churchill Fellowship. What new perspectives are you now bringing back into your conducting?
Some of my most tangible Churchill Fellowship lessons developed my conducting technique, especially particularly inspiring masterclasses at the Tanglewood Conducting Seminar with Andris Nelsons, and the National Orchestral Institute + Festival Conducting Academy with Marin Alsop.
I also had the opportunity to observe several extraordinary conductors and orchestras, culminating in three weeks at the Salzburg Festival with the support of the Vienna Philharmonic. That experience informed my mental approach to working with musicians, rehearsing, and conducting; essentially focusing on how to create more special moments, and to make music relevant to the here-and-now, which I find is easier with a living composer and this culturally engaging topic.
Another tremendous benefit of my Churchill Fellowship was to gain a more global perspective of art, and strengthen my own personal conviction for why I want to create and perform music.
The sum of my Churchill Fellowship experiences has deepened who I am as a person and as a musician, so now my focus is on how to celebrate the incredible musicians that I am working with at the MSO, and to encourage and inspire them to create mesmerising performances.
What’s involved in your role as the Cybec Assistant Conductor with the MSO?
‘Assistant Conductor’ is sometimes an all-encompassing job title. A large amount of the role requires studying the music for almost every program that the MSO performs across the season, in case I need to step in to conduct at any time, which has happened a couple of times this year – mostly recently for the MSO’s concerts celebrating Burt Bacharach! Those last-minute opportunities can be thrilling, and I’m grateful that our musicians have shown me extensive support every time I am on the podium, regardless of how much time I have had to prepare.
There is also a large aspect of the role that doesn’t involve conducting. On a day-to-day basis, I attend every MSO rehearsal and concert to act as a sounding board for the conductor, advise on balance between parts or between the orchestra and soloist, to make sure that we always sound our best.
I often have a unique position to speak with conductors about music, their conducting journey and approach to making music, or discuss technical challenges and practical solutions for the week’s repertoire. I have a particularly close connection with our more regular conductors, especially Chief Conductor Jaime Martín, and with Principal Conductor Benjamin Northey (below), whose continuing relationship with the MSO is such an inspiration for me, and for what my role can lead to when an orchestra really invests in this position.
Depending on the week, I might also be asked to conduct part of a rehearsal in order for the conductor to listen to the sound of the orchestra in the hall, or when we have a sound check in a regional venue.
On top of that, I get to work regularly with the MSO Chorus and our Chorus Director Warren Trevelyan-Jones, including observing and conducting some of their rehearsals — and even singing in our ABC Classic 100 concert! — which adds a wonderful extra dimension to my role.
Behind the scenes, I also fully invest myself in developing connections with our terrific management team, and attend many key MSO meetings across the year. This role offers a special window into the inner workings of a large arts organisation. I am grateful to constantly further my understanding of our industry by asking many questions of our artistic, operations, and production teams, who provide insightful and transparent answers, as well as being good supporters of my role, and fantastic people in their own right.
In particular, I work closely with our Learning and Engagement team on many projects, and in general strive to be a dynamic ambassador for the MSO. ‘You get out what you put in’ is definitely true, so aside from that you can probably find me in a practice room studying, listening to music while walking around the nearby Botanic Gardens, or nerding out on music semantics with our library team!
Of course, the main highlight is conducting magnificent programs throughout the year, building trust with our MSO musicians by performing together, and inspiring audiences with our shared love of music. It is a true honour to work with this orchestra; their encouragement and exceptional musicality is a constant inspiration for me to keep raising my bar.
What’s it like to have that opportunity to build that sort of deep relationship with an orchestra, as opposed to taking on a ‘fly in, fly out’ role of conducting an event?
Having the opportunity to strengthen a deep and ongoing relationship with orchestra musicians and management is rare; it shows impressive leadership that the MSO invests in me and in their other emerging artists to intentionally create these long-forged bonds.
This role has an element of mentorship and nurturing from the orchestra and from our titled conductors, and I am always appreciative of their care and investment in me, both as a musician and as a person. In turn, I feel like I can give a lot of myself to this opportunity and to these people, and for me that process of building trust and reaching new accomplishments together is incredibly fulfilling.
People want and need connection — that is why we attend performances together, or why we are driven to spend time with family, friends, and colleagues. Being a guest conductor can be quite exciting, and there is no doubt a certain political freedom to being removed from the day-to-day running of a major arts organisation, at the cost of sometimes not being in a position to develop as many lasting connections.
Personally and professionally, I find it much more enriching to be on the ground every day, and be part of the thriving life of our orchestra. That way, as well as working on a lot of incredible music, I can appreciate our constant musical evolution, including hopefully seeing positive growth from my involvement.
Hidden Thoughts II: Return to Sender is going to be a different experience to more common classical programs. How are you preparing to conduct this music when it’s written by a living artist who is breaking new ground in composition?
Probably the biggest immediate difference is that Katy is in the room with us — and I can’t say strongly enough how much of an asset it is to work with living composers! Now, not only do I get to know Katy’s musical language, but also benefit from her radiant personality, receiving more ideas and answers when I ask something like ‘What are you looking for here?’, or ‘How did you make this musical decision?’.
Katy (below) and I connected straight away when we performed her Hidden Thoughts I a few months ago, so now I am looking forward to strengthening our musical understanding of each other, as well as her connection with the orchestra and with our audience. And again, the support of the composer in the room goes a long way for making a performance enjoyable. I think that multifaceted positive feedback loop serves to enrich our music-making and create a more meaningful experience for everyone.
What are some of the unique challenges of conducting an orchestral event like this, in which a narrator is involved?
A narrator adds an extra layer of storytelling and emotional connection to the music. From a conducting perspective, how that person is integrated can change depending on the piece and who is performing. For instance, I first conducted Peter and the Wolf with a narrator who was musically skilled and performed impeccably and from memory, without requiring prompting. Later, I performed with a different narrator who was an equally brilliant orator but not musically trained, and so relied heavily on cues.
What makes Hidden Thoughts II exciting for me is that the narration is not always fixed to an exact point in time — and nor should it be. Of course, the narrator’s various entries are notated in the score, and in some instances it is clear that the text should finish before the music should recommence. But there is some joy in us discovering together what speed of delivery makes for the most interconnected performance.
With Richard Piper as our skilled narrator, I am excited to discover where that overlap lies. As one key responsibility of my job revolves around the timing of sound, I have to be constantly attentive to where and when everything is placed, to communicate with utmost clarity to the orchestra when we should play, and to make sure that the narrator feels supported to deliver a wonderful performance.
What do you think is most moving about Hidden Thoughts II: Return to Sender?
The text in this piece is drawn from the letters that arrived back in Australia [having been addressed to asylum seekers in offshore detention], all marked ‘Return to Sender’. I think about this concept as a rejection of connection; the idea that everyday Australians who shared some part of themselves and their heart to unknown strangers were not provided a means of offering anything tangible, let alone even their intangible thoughts and feelings of shared human connection.
This concept strikes me at a deep level, but one which I feel is universally applicable. There are many poignant moments in the text and in the music, all connected to specific but anonymous people. Through the process of anonymity, everyone in the audience will find elements of humanity which resonate strongly and individually.
As with Hidden Thoughts I, I feel that the most profoundly moving moments will be felt by experiencing the audience’s collective reaction to this journey.
What are you most looking forward to when it comes to this concert?
I am particularly looking forward to sharing new music with our audience!
We all love to experience new art, from film and TV to visual art and musical theatre, so I am always delighted when I can extend that to include introducing people to new music.
Personally, I am always overjoyed to bring new music to life, and I’m really proud to work with the exceptional talents of my friends and colleagues in the MSO to showcase brilliant music by Melbourne’s own Katy Abbott.
Hear Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss lead the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Metropolis: Hidden Thoughts II, 8.30pm August 1 in Iwaki Auditorium.
Images supplied. Leonard with MSO by Laura Pemberton. Benjamin Northey credit Julian Kingma.
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