This afternoon, I attended a very informal and relaxed question and answer session with Constantine Orbelian, Music Director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. The q & a was sponsored by the Anchorage Concert Association
It's a gorgeous Fall day so I was tad reluctant to head inside for a talk - there are just days when one doesn't want to be intellectually stimulated. But, boy am I glad I showed up. The talk was absolutely fascinating.
Mr. Orbelian was extremely intelligent, articulate, and interesting without a smarminess or egotistical quotient. Very approachable which is definitely unusual.
Orbelian explored some of the ins and outs of chamber orchestras. Evidentially, top flight muscians love to play in chamber orchestras. Chamber groups are so small that every musician counts and can be heard. Also, every member must be there for every rehersal, every concert, etc. There is no bench of reserves. For example, the ensemble has one double bass player - who, as Orbelian stated, is completely devoted. He's been with the orchestra for thirteen years and has never missed a rehersal or performance. Of course, he's gone through three wives...
Mr. Orbelian has a fascinating background - he's an American. Born and raised in San Francisco. However, his parents are Russian emigrees and their stories are epic - Intellectuals, raised in Stalinist Russia, spent World War II in Nazi Concentration camps, came to the U.S. at the end of the war, rose to from janitor to manager of Gumps in two years, etc. Click here for a fascininating Moscow Arts article on Orbelian's family.
Mr. Orbelian was asked to describe his most moving moment as a performer - a potentially schlocky question. However, Orbelian's answer left most of us sniffling - two years ago, on September 9th, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra arrived in San Francisco for a thirty city U.S. tour. Well, we all know what happened on September 11th. The Orchestra's first scheduled concert was in Petaluma a few days after the 11th. The concert went on as scheduled and the thousand seat hall was overflowing with fifteen hundred people. The Orchestra's standard last encore number is a bravura version of Yankee Doodle Dandy. Usually audiences laugh as they recognize the opening bars. However, that night, the entire audience of fifteen hundred sobbed as one.
I am really looking forward to tonight's performance.
3:29:01 PM 
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