Previews - Christopher o'riley interview

>> Laura Sullivan: Pianist Christopher O'Riley and cellist Matt Haimovitz are classically trained musicians, but both believe music doesn't have to be classical to be good. The duo's Penn State concert based on their album "Shuffle.Play.Listen" features classical, rock, jazz, and pop music. PreViews writer Jennifer Pencek speaks with O'Riley about what it means to be a contemporary artist and his fondness for various music genres. O'Riley also discusses his fourteen years as host of National Public Radio's "From The Top," which showcases today's most talented young classical musicians. >> Jennifer Pencek: You've spent the past fourteen years hosting NPR's "From The Top" and hosted the television version for a few years. How important is it to nurture and appreciate up-and-coming artists? >> O'Riley: Well we're in our fourteenth year now on radio and starting to go a little bit international. We did our first international show with the Youth Orchestra of Columbia and then went to the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China and did two shows there. I think it's important to appreciate young musicians not only to keep the health of classical music alive, but more importantly to give the message to the listening audience that these kids are playing classical music but they are doing all kinds of other things as well. They're proof that the next generation of kids is not going to hell in a handbasket and there is reason for hope because they're really excelling and applying themselves in some really wonderful and passionate pursuits. So I think it's less about classical music and more about just you know, kids growing up into being really exciting and contributive citizens really. >> Pencek: Do you think it also helps to disprove the stereotype that young people can't be passionate about classical music? >> O'Riley: Exactly, well the whole thing is these kids play classical music and it's part of their lives without which they... would not do well, I mean they would not like their life as much without classical music. But it also gets across the fact that you don't have to be into it 24/7 and if you clap in the wrong place we won't kill you. I think the idea is kids really are the best emissaries for this music. They're coming on the program, they're playing literally their favorite five minutes of music, and they also get to talk to me about and talk to the audience about why they love the piece and why they love playing. What other things they get up to as kids and that goes a long way to get a leg up for particularly uninitiated listeners who don't know about classical music. >> Pencek: Do you have your own definition of what classical music means and because I know that you've performed and recorded both classical and non-classical. Why is that important to you? >> >O'Riley: Well I think it's important that we live by the Duke Ellington adage, "There are only two kinds of musicÑ good music and the other kind" and what he was speaking to at that point was that sort of, splintering of jazz into a downtown Carnegie Hall, George Gershwin version and of the uptown Harlem version. But when I hear that I'm basically hearing the idea that who decides what is good music and what isn't. I think performers have the responsibility -- I as a performer have a responsibility to present that which I feel most passionate and devoted to to the best of my abilities and that has tread all over genre lines in my lifetime and more and more so with the kids that are on the program. That's more and more the case. They're into all kinds of music. There's all kinds of music that can give the kind of excitement and inspiration that we get you know, in a front row at a rock concert as we do at a mall or symphony concert. >> Pencek: Now, did you grow up listening to different types of music or was there something that drew you to classical but still kept you in all the other genres as well? >> >O'Riley: I started with classical and kept with it through my whole life. I just thought I'd be a little bit more popular if I played some rock music [laughter] so I tried that. I kind of kept with it and played jazz professionally through high school. But when I went to New England Conservatory in Boston I decided that it was better too you know, just follow one path and get all I could out of the classical training and that's generally the kind of advice that most people would give you even if you are interested in trying a different type of music now and then. So it's only been in recent years that I've gone back over and dabbling in pop music again, composing and things like that. >> Pencek: Well, I guess going on to the Penn State concert, you'll be performing with Matt Haimovitz. You both seem to break out of the box of classical music. Just for people who are kind of wondering what the concert is going to be like, what would you say that they can expect from it? >> >O'Riley: Well, we made our double record set about a year ago "Shuffle.Play.Listen," which is also the name of the concert. In a way it was kind of an homage to the iPod. You know the tenth anniversary of the iPod and the idea that the proximity of different musics is really important and an exciting. So putting your iPod on shuffle gives you know, Penderetsky next to Portishead, there can be some really interesting sort of commonalities. In the classical pieces that we've chosen for that recording and that are included in the concert, there are elements of, There are arrangements for instance in the classical realm that of course you know the pop stuff that we do are our arrangements, different transcriptions, different sort of ways of playing a piece, cello, and piano as opposed to orchestra and playing the George Stravinsky piece. We break it up a lot and have a lot of different styles and different works by different artists but essentially I think the audience can expect that very high-level you know and spontaneous and intuitive chamber music playing because no matter what genre we're playing we're listening very attentively and spontaneously to one another and so it's a very high level of performance. We do other pieces that don't appear on the record, and actually one of our next big projects is going to be a Russian CD. So I'm pretty sure at Penn State we're going to be rolling out our Shostakovich sonata, which we will probably you know we do interspersedly through the concert. In other words, we won't do all three movements at once but we'll probably do one movement in the first half and maybe the second, third somewhere in the second half. So that also kind of gives it kind of a seven course meal kind of thing. We're really setting it up as a menu and we're trying to make a dramatic arc from beginning to end the concert made up of these shorter pieces. So there will be a lot of variety but there'll be a lot of high-end performance and learn a lot of really beautiful music. Tickets are on sale for Christopher O'Riley and Matt Haimovitz performing "Shuffle.Play.Listen" January 18, 2013, at Penn State's Schwab Auditorium. Order online at www.cpa.psu.edu or by phone at 1-800-ARTS-TIX