My favorite run-out

… is a concert we do toward the end of every season in a town called Fond du Lac (which, in these here parts, is pronounced “Fawn Doo Lack”). It’s an outdoor event in a lovely little bandshell at the bottom of a small hill in a grassy park. And they always serve brats and hot dogs for $2, and pie (rhubarb is my favorite) with ice cream for $1.50. And it’s only about an hour drive from my house.

We’ve seldom been rained out, but we were this year. No problem; we moved to the local county fairgrounds and played in a new exhibition hall. Same food, same good crowd, same Americana on the program.

This year we had something of a conductor upgrade, however. Normally it’s the assistant’s job, but this time management hired Jack Everly from Indianapolis for the whole week (which also contained a concert at Boerner Botanical Gardens in a local suburb and our last Pops concert of the season. I’ve always enjoyed working for Jack; he’s a pro, uses no more or less rehearsal than he needs, programs really well, and is extremely charming and polished with the audience. He skipped over a piece in Fond du Lac; when he turned around to start conducting Canadian Sunset after he introduced the piece and faced a sea of musicians whispering loudly “what about España?”, he turned right around, told the audience what was up, and introduced the next piece as “by popular request – Canadian Sunset.” The ability, in a conductor, to admit error is surprisingly rare, and very disarming.

Lesson for young conductors (and old ones too): yes, we know when you screw up. Apologize and move on. We don’t like it when you screw up. But we despise your trying to pretend you didn’t.

Comments

[Kyle Wiedmeyer]

I went to your performance at the Boerner Botanical Gardens and I found it rather fun. I enjoyed all the music, and honestly wasn't expecting Respighi's Pines of Rome until I heard a trumpet player practicing the first movement. I also enjoy rhubarb pie. :P

[Robert Levine]

Boerner is a good outdoors venue; lovely place and great audiences. The only problem is that, by 7 PM,the sun hasn't gone done behind the trees yet and it's really warm on stage. But I'm glad you enjoyed it. I didn't see if they had rhubarb pie there too.