Ukens dirigentmøte: Paul Hughes
Paul Hughes is a former director of the BBC Symphony and Chorus, and of the BBC Singers where he spearheaded a variety of innovative projects presenting new and unfamiliar music and reaching new audiences. He will be present at the upcoming conference Conducting Change, and Dirigentløftet had the pleasure of talking with him in advance, sampling a small taste of the subjects he will be talking about.
If we want to consider what change means in our profession, we have to be more aware of political, economic and socioeconomic changes in our society, and how that might affect our profession. That might sound slightly scary, but I want us to see this as something positive enabling us to meet the challenges of change, and lead it before it is forced upon us.
This is of course a vast subject, and it encompasses everything from being aware of diversity and inclusion, to awareness of your own national history and of the range and diversity of potential new audiences. Most importantly, this way of thinking has to start at an early stage, and if you want to have an interesting voice in a professional environment, you need to gather influences and build networks as early as possible.
Mentoring young conductors is a great privilege and pleasure, not least explaining that conducting isn’t a linear process whereby you undergo years of training after which you have a career. Without being proactive, entrepreneurial and building networks from the earliest stage of training, building a career is so much more difficult. At conservatoire – even at school – meeting colleagues and making friends from many different countries and social backgrounds, is where the work begins. If you as a young professional conductor haven’t started this process, you are already somewhat on the backfoot.
Part of this process is being open to new impulses, developing an appetite and endless curiosity about new ideas and possibilities. In order to be able to programme music for an ever more diverse and challenging audience, it is of vital importance to be open to new movements and explore exciting new repertoire. This also means that it is not sufficient only to know the standard repertoire that has been consolidated throughout the last 250 years, but to be willing to search for works from a much wider, more diverse range of composers
I do not believe young conductors can sustain an international career in the 21st century without being prepared to engage with the music of tomorrow. Learn how to commission new music and discover how to communicate with composers, understand their musical language and, more importantly, be able to communicate this to an orchestra and an audience who will not be familiar with this music. For me, that is non-negotiable. Very few conductors can sustain a major career by playing music only by white dead guys. And this can only be successful in a partnership between an orchestra, a conductor and an audience.
For Paul, this reaches into an area he feels passionate about, namely communicating and connecting with your audiences. Increasingly, audiences are looking for more insight and context, to deepen their appreciation of a musical experience. Far too often music is presented without a clear idea of why and how a programme has come together but by engaging with audiences we can open up doors for the curious, expand our existing audience and reach new listeners for the future.
In the visual arts, for example, I often have an immediate emotional response to an art work but that experience is deepened and my appreciation enhanced with more context and knowledge. We should not be afraid to communicating with our audiences, sharing not only the reasons for the work we have chosen to present, but why we are passionate about it.
One way of doing this is making a greater effort to programme intelligently, with a clear concept that encapsulates a musical vision. This not only requires a good idea, but also a willingness to interact with your audience, either before or during the concert. Another strategy is to frame the concert in such a way that the audience has a set of existing references that it can use as a door opener to the music presented. One such concept is a series of concerts Paul Hughes programmed featuring famous authors, where the music was intertwined with the authors reading excerpts from their own books.
This was an initiative born out of one of those ‘what if’ moments while listening to one of my favourite authors reading on the radio. The idea being to reach out to a new audience with a programming concept that neither they nor the orchestra had experienced before. The audience came to hear their favourite author read from best-selling books and essays in the course of which they heard a symphony orchestra playing a range of music, both familiar and unfamiliar – from Dukas to Frank Zappa, to use just two examples. Authors, orchestra and audiences all loved the experience, the concert hall was sold out, many books were sold, and the integrity of both art forms respected. The goal was not to lead this audience to a mainstream concert, but to reach them with an exciting orchestral experience more on their terms. And for a programmer, it was some version of an extreme sport!
So how do young conductors navigate this maze of programming, and what should one be aware of when presenting something new to an orchestra? A good dialogue is important, especially with the orchestra management and those who lead the programming; trust is vital and if there is a clear, well-communicated concept behind the conductor’s proposals, the chances increase for an interesting and fruitful collaboration.
I want to help conductors to be more aware and prepare better before suggesting repertoire to an orchestra. There are many things to consider, and proper research makes for intelligent suggestions whether one is programming an entire concert, a whole season, or even just one piece on an otherwise fixed programme. As a programmer I appreciate a good, personal, direct dialogue - it is like a good tennis match with ideas flying over the net, before eventually ending up with just the right programme. I love it when conductors think creatively and are willing to play with the tradition of how you do things – opening with a major symphony, not putting the new work always at the beginning!
If done properly, you’ll be able to persuade orchestras, managements and audiences.
Most conductors would argue that the profession is large and complex enough as it is, with a constant demand to both have an individual and artistic voice, and at the same time master all the technical and practical challenges. But all the better reason to start thinking creatively at an early age and be prepared for the exciting future of orchestral music.
One of the great challenges in today’s world is that we are presenting music to an audience that might be increasingly indifferent to what we do. Which is precisely why what we do has to be distinctive, different and innovative. A version of the same old stuff will not be enough. For me, the magic lies in the juxtaposing of the great works we all know and love, with the less familiar and the new; leading audiences to the music they will love tomorrow.