This weekend the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra is collaborating with Andrew Bird, the iconoclastic multi-instrumentalist many first heard on a series of ‘90s records with Chapel Hill’s own Squirrel Nut Zippers. In his first performance with the orchestra, Bird is coming to downtown’s Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts as part of the 20th anniversary of his solo album Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs.
The performance is just one example of how the orchestra, like symphonies across the country, is reaching out to newcomers. From providing live accompaniment to the Harry Potter films to events that bring together composer John Williams’ music for Star Wars with Gustav Holst’s The Planets, the symphony is looking to break down what conductor and music director Christopher Dragon calls an unnecessary barrier some feel when it comes to classical music.
This week we caught up with Dragon, who is also music director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and resident conductor of the Colorado Symphony, to talk about his experience in Greensboro.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I wanted to first thank you, because last month my wife Amanda and I saw you conducting Verdi’s Requiem–the first live symphony experience for either of us. Neither of us has any real excuse for how that happened, and to be honest, we were a little nervous. A lot of people probably feel that way, but we both really enjoyed it.
I think you’re right. So many people grow up feeling isolated from symphonies. I think what you’ve described is very much the norm. A lot of places have a symphony there, but at least a younger crowd don’t necessarily go to it for entertainment like they’d go to the movies. For some reason there’s a stigma about it–they think it’s for a certain class of people or a certain demographic.
I think all symphonies are trying to change that perception. You see that with these pop collaborations or doing films. On the classical side of things, like the masterworks concert that you came to, at least since I’ve come in, I’ve been trying to program pieces where you’re maybe going to recognize at least one or two snippets from the overall piece. I think that’s one of the big shifts we’ve made.
This last season we opened with [Beethoven’s Symphony No.5] , which has the most famous four notes. We ended with Pictures at an Exhibition, which is again a big popular piece. Then, next season, the piece that I’m most looking forward to is us combining the piece The Planets with music from Star Wars, since they’ve both been so influential.I think there are ways of doing this where you find something people are familiar with, a way in for them.
These collaborations with artists you don’t necessarily associate with an orchestra can certainly be that way in.
They really can. Last season we had Gregory Alan Isakov, a folk singer. We had [country artist] LeAnn Rimes at the beginning of this current season. Once they play with an orchestra, it adds this layer of color to the music. I describe it as the ultimate playground. When an artist gets to work with a symphony, it really opens up the palette of what their music can become. A lot of times these artists love doing these collaborations, because when you write these songs do you ever imagine you’ll be doing them with a full symphony?
Maybe if you’re Sting. Probably not if you’re Metallica, who did do a whole live album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and loved it.
It’s a great way of getting new crowds in to witness the symphony that maybe haven’t been in to see a symphony before. Again, I think the big part is just breaking down that barrier. Because once you experience it, I don’t think you need to know every single little thing about the music, the history–music is music. I think an audience knows if it’s going to be something that they like or they don’t like. Good music is good—it doesn’t matter if it’s classical or rock or heavy metal.
I’m also with the Colorado Symphony. I’ve been here 11 years and we do a lot of these contemporary collaborations. That’s how I find ideas of what to bring to Greensboro. I’ve done shows with Cypress Hill and the Wu Tang Clan, groups you really wouldn’t ever really associate with an orchestra. But at the end of the day, a lot of their music’s made up of samples, some of them orchestral samples and bits, so it actually works.
Funk bands like Lettuce and Tower of Power—we’ve built symphony shows with them and they’re probably the most interesting.
That will put people my age in mind of the episode of The Simpsons where Cypress Hill plays with the London Symphony Orchestra.
That’s actually how it started! They’ve played now with the London Symphony Orchestra and we played that clip before they did the show with us in Colorado.
We’re really lucky to have so many opportunities to see so many different types of music here in Greensboro, from what you’re doing to the NC Folk Festival, which recently announced The Roots as one of the headliners this summer. Tanger Center also gets touring Broadway shows and performers who didn’t quite have the right size venue here in the past.
Yes, we’re really lucky to have so much music in Greensboro. The NC Folk Festival is a great organization and we love what they’re doing. We’ve had conversations about collaborating and what we could do with some artists coming in.
The Tanger Center has this state of the art [Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system] and there is such a variety of acts coming in. It feels like there’s something happening every week in Greensboro. And also at The Pyrle downtown—that’s a great venue where we’d love to do something.
You’re also working with Guilford County Schools and other educational organizations to expose more young people to orchestral music. How are the kids taking to it?
These kids come in having had lessons, as part of a whole program where they get a little context for it. But for most of them, it’s their first live experience with a symphony orchestra. That’s something you can’t get from YouTube or Spotify. Those moments where you feel the music against your skin, like you said, you feel that energy. Where you’re on a journey with an audience and you’re all experiencing this powerful music. You can’t get that through little speakers or earbuds or whatever.
You can really see the impact. The more we can get kids in to witness and experience that, the more curious they’ll become, maybe it will fascinate them.