BY LAURA BIEMMI
We would like to welcome Laura Biemmi in her first interview as a CutCommon contributor.
Composing. Conducting. Carillon.
Leonard Weiss has conquered the three big ones (and that’s an emphasis on ‘big’ for the latter – have you seen that instrument?). Now, this musical master tells us how he’s using his wisdom to lead the Canberra Youth Orchestra into its 50th year.
Leonard’s credits so far include the Canberra Youth Orchestra, the National Capital Orchestra, and the ANU Choral Society, amongst other ensembles. He was awarded Young Canberra Citizen of the Year for Youth Arts and Multimedia in 2016, received a Canberra Critics’ Circle Award for Music, and was the ACT Finalist for the 2016 Young Australian of the Year.
On top of all this, Leonard performs as a carillon soloist internationally and composes music for film and solo carillon.
This year marks the CYO’s 50th year. As music director and conductor of the group, this golden anniversary brings an exciting list of artist collaborations and musical masterpieces for Leonard to direct.
Hi Leonard, thanks for chatting with us! Congratulations to you and the Canberra Youth Orchestra on this 50th anniversary. Can you tell us about some conducting highlights of your career so far?
I certainly enjoy exposing music to new audiences; at the start of this year we did Peter and the Wolf for about 700 four-year-olds, which was awesome, because it was totally new to each of them. I also did Carmina Burana last year, which was exceptional because not only is it well known, it’s such a massive piece, so that’s a performance I’m quite proud of. Similarly, having set some really challenging programs for the youth orchestra last year – every time we got through one of those was really rewarding.
Do you find that there are particular rewards associated with conducting a youth orchestra?
I think the rewards for me are twofold; firstly, there’s the energy of the orchestra. You give the musicians new music, and they approach it head-on with so much enthusiasm no matter what the repertoire, and give it everything they’ve got in the rehearsals and performances. The other reward relates to conquering something which is new to a lot of people. if I was conducting a professional orchestra and it’d play the same piece every few years, the musicians would start to get a bit bored. Whereas in a youth orchestra, when we started work on our upcoming concert’s Bernstein repertoire and Mahler Symphony No. 1, it was a new experience for the majority of the players in the orchestra. And I think that applies to the contemporary repertoire as well as the orchestral favourites.
Your own musical background is incredibly diverse – conductor, composer, carillon player among other instruments! What inspired you to take such a multi-disciplinary approach to music?
I think it’s about finding enjoyment in each different aspect. One of the things we increasingly have in universities at the moment is the idea of the ‘complete musician’; you should be able to do a bit of this and a bit of this other thing. I certainly think that’s useful, but I’ve been trying to follow whatever captivates me the most. I’ve found great enjoyment in composing music, conducting music and working with so many different musicians every week. Likewise with a variety of instruments; there’s something fun in each of them. The catch is, of course, that it’s very hard to put enough time into everything. But different instruments have different programs and ensembles to perform in and that consistently opens up new opportunities, which is always very enjoyable.
What advice would you give to young aspiring conductors?
Go for it! Find some musicians; get together and form a scratch orchestra or a scratch choir. I’ve found the best way to become more comfortable with conducting is by doing more of it, especially when so much of it is about the face-to-face interaction with different musicians, and getting to know musicians a bit better. Really building those connections with people is invaluable. But also, spend as much time as you can really going through the score and looking at different interpretations of the music. Know exactly what you want out of the music the moment you walk into rehearsal, even if that’s not fully achievable with the groups that you’re working with. Having an idea of what you want makes it easier to articulate that in front of the musicians.
Know exactly what you want out of the music the moment you walk into rehearsal
The first concert of your CYO50 2017 program includes a collaboration with The Idea of North as well as a variety of music including jazz, musical theatre, samba and symphonic Bernstein. How do you approach conducting a program of such varied repertoire?
For me, this music really is enjoyable to perform. I try to make the music appealing and program pieces which complement each other quite well even though they come from different genres.
With The Idea of North, we have to make some of their jazz selections lock into the Bernstein era, which ties the program together a little bit more on my end. In working with the orchestra, it’s really about breaking the pieces down; a good portion of the orchestra hasn’t played a lot of jazz at all. So in The Idea of North’s pieces, we spend a good deal of time in rehearsals exploring ‘swung’ music and how that should feel, as well as locking in the rhythms of Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. And from there, after the musicians understand the overarching idea of the piece and the stylistic understanding, the rest of the learning process sort of happens intuitively.
The rest of your CYO50 2017 program involves working with some incredible musicians including Claire Edwardes, Gabi Sultana, James Morrison and even a ‘yet-to-be-named’ concerto competition winner. Which is the performance you’re most looking forward to?
Oh goodness! It’s hard to single out one concert over the others. But ultimately, I’m really excited to work with James Morrison. Like The Idea of North, he is one of the biggest musical names to come out of Australia, and an absolutely exceptional musician and a terrific guy in the few times I’ve met him. Like The Idea of North, he’ll be bringing new, more accessible music to the performers and the audience, and standing on stage next to James will be a dream come true.
The CYO is also presenting Game On!, an exclusively video-game only program, as part of the Canberra International Music Festival this year. Part of my enthusiasm is that the concept of a program of entirely video game music is unheard of in Australia, and it’s so much fun to get to look at this music which we’ve all grown up with.
You can watch Leonard conduct the Canberra Youth Orchestra as they perform with The Idea of North on April 8, Llewellyn Hall, ANU School of Music.
Images supplied.
