Major: I’m Jean Major. I’m talking with JoAnn Falletta, Music Director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. This is January 17, 2008. JoAnn, how long have you been music director of the symphony?
Falletta: My first season was 1991-1992 season, so this is my 17th season with the Virginia Symphony.
Major: What was your professional experience before the Virginia Symphony?
Falletta: Well, I had been working with the Denver Chamber Orchestra as their music director and with the Long Beach Symphony in California as their music director and with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco, also as their music director, and when I was appointed music director in Virginia, I left my position with the Denver Chamber Orchestra and came to Virginia so...so it was a very important step for me because Denver had actually been my first job, so I was still really at the beginning of my career when I came to the Virginia Symphony in ’91, and it was a wonderful, wonderful step for me.
Major: What work do you now do in addition to the Virginia Symphony?
Falletta: I work also as Music Director with the Buffalo Philharmonic, which began in…1999. So I go back and forth between Virginia Symphony and Buffalo Philharmonic.
Major: We hear you all the time in the summer when we’re at Chautauqua.
Falletta: Oh, that’s great. That’s great.
Major: What have been some of the high points of your career with the Virginia Symphony?
Falletta: Well, there have been so many wonderful things in the 17 years. I guess the real high point that will always stand out in my mind is our Carnegie Hall April 1997 appearance, our debut at Carnegie Hall and…and really, at this point, the only time we’ve been there. It was an extraordinary night for us, very, very well attended. I think almost a thousand people from Virginia made their way up to New York for that. The orchestra played brilliantly. Luckily, we have a CD that documents two of the pieces on that program, in that live performance, but I
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think for all of us that was really a high point because it put us, in a way, in the major leagues, playing on the stage of Carnegie Hall meant that we’d arrived as an orchestra in a way, and we were representing our state; we were representing our region; and it was very, very well received, and more than that the orchestra knew they had played very well. So I think not only my high point for me with the Virginia Symphony, just personally a tremendous high point in my whole artistic life was that evening, April 15, 1997.
Major: Tell us what elements went into preparing for Carnegie Hall.
Falletta: Well, aside from the enormous task of raising money, and preparing for the trip and the hotel and enormous logistical concerns, artistically which is what I was most focused upon, was preparing that entire year for that April trip. We started in September knowing that this was going to be our Carnegie year and knowing that we were going to have to be in better shape than we had ever been. So I think we found that that year the concerts became more cohesive; people were very focused, very concentrated on excellence. The concerts got better and better and stronger and stronger . We did two performances of the performance here in Virginia before we went to Carnegie Hall, which was a wonderful warm-up of our Carnegie preview concert to give us a chance to play it through and get a little bit of the nerves out and pinpoint the spots we needed to work on, so it was a, it was a full year of preparation knowing we were going to Carnegie and…and maybe that was what made it such a highlight artistically that we had spent that entire season preparing for it.
Major: (Pause) You said raising money? It required...tell me something more about the raising money.
Falletta: Well…
Major: What additional money…
Falletta: You know, I…we...I think the entire trip cost us half a million dollars to go to Carnegie Hall, and that had to be raised above and beyond our normal donations, just especially, specifically, for that project. It was an enormous undertaking, and I give all of the credit for that to Dan Hart, who was our executive director at that time, and it was Dan’s idea to go to Carnegie. I think all of us were startled by his idea that that’s what we should do because we knew it was a big undertaking, but Dan raised the money for this, and we went. It was fully underwritten, and it was…for us, actually, a tremendous plus because after coming back from Carnegie, I think people in this region took us more seriously, and they were very proud of us. I will never forget the first concert after we had come back from Carnegie. I was backstage, and Vahn Armstrong walked out as the concertmaster, and he walked out, and the orchestra, the audience burst into applause, and it seemed to go on for five minutes. And we all knew what they were saying. They were saying, “We’re proud of you. We’re proud of you. Of the
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orchestra for what you did at Carnegie.” And it was one of the most moving moments I’ve ever had, to know that our audience, whether they had been in New York or not, they knew we had just come, we were coming off a triumph, and I remember that very clearly, so Dan and I did…did work very hard to raise the money for it, and I think it was money incredibly well spent because it helped us sell tickets afterwards; it helped raise the awareness of the community of what kind of orchestra they had. We weren’t only a regional Virginia symphony then, we were an orchestra that had been acclaimed by New York critics. It was very important to us.
Major: Were there other high points that you’d like to mention?
Falletta: You know, there’s so many that I almost fear to mention them for fear of leaving some out. Any performance of a Mahler symphony for us has been a high point. And, again, it’s because that’s a benchmark for us, and we prepare all season for that – Mahler Two, Mahler Three, Mahler Five, I mean they have been enormous high points for us. Some of our wonderful collaborations with theater when we’ve done Midsummer Night’s Dream with theater, Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet with performance of the Shakespeare play; those have been high points. All of our collaborations with the Virginia Symphony Chorus have been tremendous high points for us, so I...I, every weekend for me that we make music had been enormous, has been a great, great artistic experience for me and...and a chance to grow as an organization, grow as an orchestra artistically.
Major: How did, aside from the place that the Carnegie Hall appearance played, how did the symphony become a nationally recognized orchestra?
Falletta: Well, I think a lot of it had to do perhaps with what musicians say about the orchestra, guest artists coming to Virginia, not knowing what the Virginia Symphony was like, going back to New York City, telling their manager, “This is a wonderful orchestra. I had a great experience with them. “ The word starts to spread about that. CDs that we’ve made. I mean, we’ve made a number of CDs that have been played really all over the country on radio stations and been very well reviewed. That helps…a kind of national presence. The idea that musicians coming to audition for the orchestra and winning the job and speaking to their colleagues about what a wonderful experience it is playing in the orchestra have helped us a lot. I know a lot of people come to audition for the Virginia Symphony specifically because one of their friends or colleagues has played in the orchestra and has told them that it’s a great, a great place to make music. So all of this has helped, and going to Carnegie of course has helped, playing at the Kennedy Center has helped. We’ve played throughout Southeastern Virginia, and having that wide an audience has helped us as well.
Major: What does the designation say about the symphony’s present strengths?
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Falletta: Well, I think artistically we’re very strong. We… I find that the symphony, to me, is a very sophisticated artistic group. You know, I’ve worked with a lot of orchestras, but it’s very rare to find a group that is as nuanced, as…as…cohesive as the Virginia Symphony is, where people really listen to each other, where they make music together. It’s almost like a large chamber ensemble, chamber group, that is listening constantly, playing together…focused on excellence. I think that that is a large part of it. Our musicians believe in themselves. They believe in what the Virginia Symphony is and what it can be, and they’re dedicated to excellence. So they have a great deal of self-respect, and they should because they are extraordinary musicians, and that kind of self-respect and the sense of possibilities has given them a very strong artistic personality, and it’s very much recognized again by guests who come and work with them.
Major: What additional things need to happen to increase the symphony’s viability?
Falletta: I think that the more fundraising opportunity we have, the stronger we will be, and it’s…it’s maybe unfortunate to connect money with artistry, but it does allow you to not only attract the best musicians to be members of your orchestra, but to bring in the highest level soloists: Renee Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Pincus Zuckerman, Itzhak Perlman…all of these wonderful people coming in help us become a better orchestra. So, I think the…the more financial, financially solvent we become, the more we can earmark funds for specific artistic projects. Commissioning new music, undertaking big projects like a Mahler symphony or a Bernstein Mass; that’s quite expensive—those things will make a big difference.
Major: How has the symphony foundation contributed to the orchestra’s viability?
Falletta: Well, they’ve been, in many ways, the lifeblood of the organization. They have been a very strong fundraising arm for all of my time here, whether it’s through the fashion show or the car raffle or individual donations that they’ve made. They’ve been a tremendous, tremendous help to us, and even more they’ve been a very close partner. Personally, I know that my relationship with the league has been wonderful, wonderful. I’ve always felt a sense of warmth and support. The musicians feel that as well. This is not a league that functions on their own. They function with a strong connection to the musicians and to the artistic heart of the orchestra, so they’ve been a major part of what we do. I’m very proud of that; you know, having conducted a lot in Europe where they don’t have leagues, and they don’t have philanthropy in general for orchestras, the idea that we are connected to a group that believes so strongly in us and works so hard for us as volunteers is…is overwhelming, and it’s a wonderful thing that we have this kind of organization in the U.S. and in our orchestra that works as partners with us in making music, so when we make music, they’ve…they’ve had that happen, they’ve enabled that to happen, and I’m very proud of our relationship with them.
Major: What about the foundation?
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Falletta: The foundation as well. I mean, the foundation helps us by...by being the stewards of our endowment and as that endowment grows, our possibilities will grow too, and right now we’re in the middle of a capitol campaign which will enable us to get to a point where the endowment and the foundation can help us even more.
Major: In 1979, several local ensembles merged to establish the Virginia Orchestra Group, which is the Virginia Symphony. That was well before your arrival in Norfolk. What vestiges of that accomplishment and that struggle still exist today?
Falletta: I think that that merger was the single most important thing that the symphony has ever done. It…it enabled the symphony to become a professional organization in the true sense of the word. And it said a great deal for the very first cooperation between municipalities in this region. It enabled the Virginia Symphony to truly be a regional orchestra that served several communities. It was a very progressive idea; I’m sure it was a very difficult idea. I’m sure there were people who…who had to make personal sacrifices. I remember meeting Maestro McMurran, who was one of the great forces in having this happen. Even though it really meant that his orchestra was absorbed into the Virginia Symphony, but he knew it was the best thing, and I was so grateful and so impressed by his selflessness in seeing the future and seeing that this was what was necessary, so the fact that we have a fully professional orchestra, an ___ orchestra, in Virginia now in our region is thanks to that merger. That merger was a tremendously important milestone in our orchestra’s history, and I can’t think of any other orchestra that has done that successfully. And it was successful despite probably the growing pains when it first happened, and it’s…it’s enabled us to really serve the region and be one of the few organizations that is truly regional. It doesn’t belong to Norfolk; it doesn’t belong to Virginia Beach. It belongs to this entire region. And that’s been great for us. I think that the challenges it presents are also possibilities and opportunities because it means that we truly have to serve the whole region. If we’re going to be the Virginia Symphony, we have to serve all of the municipalities in this Southeastern area of Virginia, and in the future we hope to serve more of the Western part of the state as well. So in becoming the Virginia Symphony we took on this mantle; we took on this burden, a wonderful burden, of trying to serve as much of the community as possible, and we will continue to develop that, and it’s…it’s a challenge, but it’s a wonderful opportunity for us as well.
Major: How did the previous conductors contribute to the growth of the symphony? What was the strength of each of the previous conductors?
Falletta: Well, you know, I don’t know the conductors personally except for Russell Stanger, and I’m a tremendous fan of Russell, and I know that Russell really was able to create a professional ensemble. And to think…to think in a
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much bigger way in terms of artistic excellence, and he did a great deal to help that artistic excellence have a cohesive, have a cohesive…He did a great deal to foster artistic excellence and have, you know, the symphony play as a cohesive unit, so I think Russell was...was extremely important. Russell Stanger was ___ the symphony orchestra, and I know that the others were as well. I just don’t know as much about them as I wish I did.
Major: Did each of them or did any of them have distinct programming inclinations that they’re recognized for?
Falletta: I can’t… I guess I don’t know enough about them to say. Not that I’m aware of. I mean each of them, I’m sure, brought their own personalities, their own musical ideas, their own musical tastes, to the orchestra, and that’s great because that helps musicians grow and assimilate and change and add to their repertoire, but I don’t know if any of them had specific musical tastes.
Major: What considerations influence your programming choices?
Falletta: Oh, there are a lot of considerations for programming. I mean, one of the most important is artistic development, what programs will help the musicians become stronger, become more flexible, become more individual in terms of their musical personality. Also of course very important, what would our audience like to hear, what would stimulate them, what would intrigue them that they don’t know about. We try to have a vast variety of repertoire, from Baroque period up through contemporary, from every nationality. We try and vary our guest artists as well, so it’s, in a way it’s like a big jigsaw puzzle where we try to get a very diverse collection of pieces, and hopefully every program makes sense so that every piece -- on each program the individual pieces exist in kind of a harmony with each other. They highlight the strengths of each other; they’re having almost a conversation with each other. It’s almost like putting together a menu where you want every dish to highlight the other dishes, as well, in your menu so it’s very interesting to put these programs together, but I like, frankly, eclectic programming where you have, rather than an all Beethoven program or all Brahms program, you have things on the program that are different and exist in a kind of interesting harmony with each other.
Major: For a long time in this community the expectation of the local leadership was that the conductor would settle locally and that the Virginia Symphony would be his primary professional association. Can you explain the perspective that fostered that expectation?
Falletta: Well, I think that the role of the music director in this country has changed in that music directors became much more involved with other aspects of the organization, not just conducting rehearsals and concerts, as someone like Eugene Ormandy might do but rather living in the community and becoming an artistic ambassador for the community, becoming involved in the organization on
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every level—management, marketing, development—so that the music director spends a great deal of time with the organization not on the podium, and I think that that was the expectation that someone actually have a residence here and be a part of the community so that you would know the community, you would come to know their personalities, their likes and dislikes, their willingness to take risks and to try new things, and you can only do that with spending a significant amount of time, and I believe that; I believe in our country we need music directors that are really willing to make a commitment to an organization, so I think that’s what the prevalent feeling was then of the Virginia Symphony, to have someone who was really committed. Now whether that person has to live in Southeastern Virginia three hundred sixty-five days a year is not, I don’t think, really necessary because when you do other things, you do bring the name of the Virginia Symphony with you, and that’s important. So I divide my time now between Buffalo and Virginia, and I think that for me it’s a very, very good arrangement. It teaches me a great deal; I find it very stimulating, very challenging, but it helps me grow as a musician so that the musician I can be for the Virginia Symphony is a better one.
Major: What obligations does the music director have to the community?
Falletta: I think that the music director is the cultural ambassador to the community. I mean, the music director is the figure in the community that represents classical music in its biggest form because the orchestra is usually the backbone of the artistic life of the community, and it’s very true here in the Virginia Symphony; our musicians are like the musical mosaic that has completely changed cultural life here. Not only do they play a hundred fifty plus concerts for us; they play for the opera; they play for the arts festival; they play for the ballet. They are the music teachers. They’re the musicians who play chamber music. They play in the churches. So they are so much a fabric of the community, and that’s very important.
Major: How do you interact with the Symphony Board?
Falletta: I interact with the board at meetings. I know them all personally, so I see them at concerts; I see them at social functions. I think that we are mutually supportive of each other. The board is the governing body; they are the visionaries as well, where they have to oversee the general artistic direction of the orchestra, the general direction in every way, but I think what they do is they put a certain amount of trust in the music director to… to make those decisions and to facilitate what happens artistically, and I think it’s been a very good relationship and a very close one.
Major: Are there committees or individuals on the board that you work with most closely?
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Falletta: Generally, the board president because the board president is involved—it’s almost a full-time job to be board president even though she/he is a volunteer, but many of the decisions, many of the discussions take place with the board president first before they take place on a full board level, so I’ve gotten very close to all the presidents of the symphony board.
Major: What has made some board members especially effective?
Falletta: I think their passion for the Virginia Symphony makes them effective. The ones who care very deeply about music have been the ones who were willing to go that extra mile, and it also makes it easier for them to fund-raise because if you believe passionately in what you’re fundraising for, and you absolutely love hearing the sound of orchestra music, it’s easier to try and convince people how important it is. So those people have been especially, especially important. There are also wonderful board members who perhaps are less passionate about music but believe just as strongly that the community needs a symphony orchestra, and they are also very effective because they believe that any great city needs at its core a cultural life, a cultural identity, and of course the symphony is again at the heart of that.
Major: What are the characteristics that distinguish the Virginia Symphony board from others that you’ve worked with?
Falletta: I think the Virginia Symphony board maybe is more diverse. We have a great variety of people on the board from business people to people who are currently not working to people who are in government to people who are in education, and that’s created a very vibrant and very fertile pool of ideas, and that’s been very interesting for us.
Major: How important have the various executive directors been in your ability to be effective?
Falletta: It’s -- the relationship between the music director and executive director is the most critical one because you really are partners. I mean, you have to be on the same page; you have to have the same vision for the organization, but you also have to be a check and balance on each other. The music director has to think artistically. The executive director has to try and facilitate those artistic visions but also understand that equally important is the financial health and stability of the organization, so the executive director and music director have to have complete trust in each other. And even though you have the same goal, even though your concerns getting to that goal may be different, you have the same hopes and dreams for the organization, so the executive director position is an absolutely critical one, and the relationship is critical.
Major: How has the job of executive evolved during your tenure here?
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Falletta: I don’t know if the job has changed so much as it’s been different for each executive director and what they’ve brought. One might have been very, very skilled at fundraising. Dan Hart in particular was a wonderful development director as well as an executive director. Some are more passionate about music; some are more skilled at government relations. So I think the job has changed only in that we were able to utilize the particular strengths and interests of the different people who had that position.
Major: Are there other staff positions that have been important also in your effectiveness?
Falletta: You know, all of the staff is important, but I guess marketing director and development director are incredibly important. The whole production department for me is critical because they are the ones who make sure that the musicians are at the rehearsal, that the chairs are set up, that the music is on the stands, that the musicians know exactly where they are going, that the hall is rented, the lights are on, the soloist is there. The production department is, for me, the core of what happens because I interact with them very, very closely.
Major: What is your role, when you interact with the musicians as staff in contrast to them as musicians—what is your role in interacting with them as staff?
Falletta: You know, that is not the case now because we don’t have musicians on staff right now, but we have had in the past several musicians who did double duty as staff members, and I always thought it was delightful because of course I knew them as artists, I knew them as musicians, as great artists, but to have them involved in the functioning of the orchestra, in the behind the scenes, was always very interesting because they seemed to learn a lot, and I got a different perspective from them as musicians who were also working in management, so it was a very, very good thing for me to be able to work with them. At this point, again, we don’t have that luxury because both jobs are just too all encompassing to allow it to happen now. Our staff has become so busy, but I learned a great deal from people like Rodney Martell who not only plays bass trombone fabulously but also was a great artistic administrator.
Major: Has the recruitment of orchestra members become easier over time?
Falletta: Yes and no, I would say. In some ways yes because the reputation of the Virginia Symphony has become better and better. Quality of life here is fabulous—people want to live here, people hear good things about it. On the other hand, our pay scale has remained low, and that is a challenge. That’s a challenge for people who, you know, are looking at a certain minimum wage to be able to have a certain quality of life. So, as we are able to raise the salary I think we’ll find that this will be increasingly able to draw people. We’ve been very, very lucky in that the auditions we’ve had have yielded extremely good people,
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and that’s shown in how the orchestra’s playing. We have excellent musicians on our stage.
Major: What has been the role of making the musicians salaried; it became salaried in 1985, I think.
Falletta: Well, I think the decision was to have a fully professional orchestra, knowing that was very, very different from an amateur or volunteer orchestra, which is a great thing in itself, and I wish that we had many, many more of them in our country. But the decision to become a professional orchestra meant that you had to pay musicians so that they could put their job with the symphony at the center of their lives. They wouldn’t have to teach full-time or work in some other environment. They would make the symphony their main occupation. So I think that was a great step because it enabled us to hire the best musicians, and since then we’ve been able to track with musicians and keep them.
Major: What incidents in labor relations have been notable in your time?
Falletta: In my time, I think we’ve had generally excellent labor relations. We haven’t had a great number of difficulties, and I have to say now that I give a great deal of credit for that to John Lindberg who has not only been our timpanist during all my time here but also has been union president, and as such has always wanted to be part of the solution. I’ve never felt that there was an us versus them mentality, management and union. It’s always been, how do we make this work and how do we do it in the best possible way for all concerned; how do we keep the symphony vibrant and thriving and also try and help the musicians have a better quality of life. So it’s been for me, the most extraordinary 17 years in that we haven’t had labor strife. Of course, we’ve had disagreements; we’ve had issues that we’ve dealt with; we’ve had problems come up, but they’ve always been resolved in a way that I think has been mutually beneficial, so I feel very lucky, and again I have to attribute that to our musicians and particularly to John Lindberg, who’s always wanted to be part of the solution for this orchestra.
Major: All of your interactions with the various different groups who are important to the symphony, what aspects of leadership come into play?
Falletta: I think the most significant aspect of leadership is helping people understand how important they are to the organization, and when you’re dealing with a large orchestra, when you’re dealing with staff, with the board, it’s unfortunately too easy for people to feel like a cog in a wheel, I suppose, just a small part of a whole. So one of the most important aspects of leadership is to help them recognize that they are vital and critical to the success of the organization whether they’re playing last ____ viola, or whether they’re a new board member, or whether they’re the assistant marketing director. They are critical to our success and irreplaceable in what they do, so I think that that’s been something that as someone in a leadership role is critical to be able to
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express that. I know from working with an orchestra how critical every single person in the orchestra is, so to be able to help them recognize that is something that I try to do.
Major: Who or what have been the significant influences on your development of leadership skills?
Falletta: I think the people in the team have been really the people who have taught me the most because when you are trying to inspire a team, when you’re to work with a team to get them to play their best, their reaction, their response, teaches you a great deal. So I think that in doing it and in working with such a highly talented team as an orchestra, which is an amazing team when you just consider the talent and hard work and inspiration and dedication that’s required, that those are your teachers in seeing how things work. We don’t really learn that in school, and we don’t really learn that in studying conducting, we don’t learn anything about psychology or people skills or leadership, but you do learn it as you’re conducting and as you’re trying to get people to be the best musicians they can be, you learn from them how to do that.
Major: Any mentors in developing leadership skills?
Falletta: No, not really. I mean, I certainly had mentors in conducting, my two teachers who I feel very, very strongly and thankful to them, George Mester and Sixten Ehrling, for helping me develop as a conductor. Each of them had very different leadership styles. They’re both, I think, great leaders—very different. So perhaps in observing them working with orchestras I was able to learn about leadership, but specifically leadership, no. I think that that’s something we all learn on our own, and it’s critical.
Major: Are there things you’d like to comment on that I haven’t asked about?
Falletta: Jean, you’ve covered a great deal. You know how proud I am of this orchestra. I feel that, in a way, I’ve grown up musically with them because I came to them really still at the early point in my career as a conductor, and I’ve found that they’ve been my greatest teachers. I mean, I...I... just to be able to work with these musicians has been astonishing for me to learn so much from them and from the board and from the staff but musicians most of all—to learn about music from them. So I feel that I’m in a very different place now than when I came here as a musician and as a person. I mean, from just learning from them, I feel incredibly lucky to have had this time with them. I can’t imagine an orchestra anywhere that I will ever love as much as this orchestra—ever. And I think that it’s just been a magical time in my life because of them, so I know when the time comes when I won’t be here, I’ll still, -- the pieces I’ve done with them; I still will see their faces, you know, conducting the hundreds, thousands of pieces that we’ve done together, and it’s been the happiest time of my life, so I can’t tell you enough how lucky I feel to have come here in, I guess it was 1990, well no, 1991
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perhaps, to have done the first concert with them as an audition and to have been offered this position because for me it’s been artistically the most satisfying position I can imagine.
Major: Thank you very much. This was wonderful and wonderfully helpful.
Falletta: Thank you, Jean.
END OF INTERVIEW
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