BRATTLEBORO — Now in his sixth year as music director of the Windham Orchestra, Hugh Keelan recently sat down with The Commons to talk about his orchestra, its new season, and the joy of making music.
“My mission as leader of the Windham Orchestra is nothing less than to keep people exploring,” says Keelan, with enthusiasm, “and by that I mean both our audiences and those musicians who play music together with us.”
Born in Kingston-upon-Thames, an area of southwest London, Keelan is a pianist, violinist, and an arranger of music. On leaving Felsted School, he studied music at Cambridge University and conducting at both Indiana University and Mannes College. He was tutored in New York under Vladimir Kin, and worked at the Juilliard American Opera Center at the Juilliard School in New York while studying with Kin.
Keelan has served as the musical director and conductor of prominent American orchestras, including as conductor of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic for 15 years, and music director of the Erie (Pa.) Philharmonic from 2000 to 2006. Keelan was conductor of the Blanche Moyse Chorale at the Brattleboro Music Center before becoming music director of the Windham Orchestra.
Founded in 1969, the Windham Orchestra marks its 48th year of making music in Brattleboro with the 2017-18 season. This community orchestra features local musicians and composers who take pride in providing symphonic music to Southeastern Vermont. Their commitment keeps classical music vital as it builds future audiences.
The Windham Orchestra serves four important roles in the musical community: performing live orchestral music in Brattleboro and surrounding towns, providing performance opportunities for musicians of all backgrounds, educating local schoolchildren, and providing an orchestral ensemble for performance of music by local composers.
Lunchtime concert
The first public event of Windham Orchestra's 2017-18 season is a lunchtime concert on Oct. 26 at the Latchis Theatre in downtown Brattleboro. From noon to 1 p.m., area residents can pack a lunch and sit in on the Windham Orchestra's performance of Joseph Haydn's “Military Symphony” and Aaron Copland's “Appalachian Spring.” The cost of admission for this concert is a donation of any amount.
“Both pieces we are performing are wondrous, and convey the intrinsic and irrepressible joy of things,” Keelan says. “The Haydn piece is characterized by an infectious spirit and includes the inventive use of percussion, while Copland's work is about leading the simple life.”
This is the first time the Windham Orchestra has given a lunchtime concert.
“We're really excited about it,” Keelan says. “I need to point out that although we call it a lunchtime concert, no lunch is provided. But we do encourage community members to brown-bag some food and bring it to the Latchis to enjoy with this wonderful music.
“This is an ideal concert for everyone working in downtown Brattleboro including, for instance, business people or those working or shopping at the Co-op. These lunchtime concerts and our regular Sunday afternoon concerts may cater to two different types of audiences, but we love to get a flavor of both.”
The music the Windham Orchestra is performing at the lunchtime concert will also be part of its upcoming concert, “Music & Life,” at the Latchis on Sunday, Nov. 12. For that concert, the orchestra will also be performing Benjamin Britten's “Sea Interludes” from his opera, Peter Grimes.
“The Britten piece is mind-boggling, dramatic stuff,” Keelan says. “Britten moves from calm to exuberance to rejoicing and then back to calm again, this time a nighttime calm. One interlude is an incredible storm sequence. As in storms in all operas, this one isn't really about the weather but the internal suffering of the hero, Grimes.”
From 'Russia' to the 'Grand Canyon Suite'
The program for concerts this season by the Windham Orchestra at the Latchis includes:
• Sunday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m., “Russia,” which features Prokofiev's “Romeo & Juliet” Suite No. 2 , op.64/3 and Rimsky Korsakov's “Scheherazade.”
• Sunday, April 8, at 3 p.m., “Beethoven & Brahms,” featuring Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral).
• Sunday, May 3, at 3 p.m., “Potpourri,” featuring Enescu's “Rumanian” Rhapsody No. 1 in A, Borodin's “Polovtsian Dances” from his opera Prince Igor, Bernstein's overture to his musical Candide, Anderson's Jazz Legato/Jazz Pizzicato, Mozart's Divertimento, and Grofe's “Grand Canyon” Suite.
“Potpourri” will have an additional performance Friday, May 11, at 7 p.m., in the new concert hall in the Brattleboro Music Center at 72 Blanche Moyse Way in Brattleboro.
“We are trying out one concert at the new space in BMC to honor this extraordinary venue,” Keelan says. “Our orchestra is eager to see what it is like to give a performance in this auditorium. But this is a rare occasion. The concert hall wasn't built for a large ensemble like ours. The Latchis will remain our home base.”
Yet if their concerts in the new hall may be the rare occasion, Windham Orchestra regularly will use the BMC concert hall for its rehearsals.
“Starting rehearsing in the BMC auditorium has made a quantum shift in our self-image as an orchestra,” Keelan confesses. “It is a much better facility than we are used to, with great acoustics and beautiful decor.
“Having our rehearsals there compels an upgrade in what we do. It invites a new level of attention to our work, a musical integrity to provide something beyond the ordinary. This is a forced goodbye for the Windham Orchestra to the rinky-dink and shabby.
“BMC's hall is an exciting and bracing new environment, and frankly we are still not quite sure what it is asking of us. After four rehearsals there, members of the orchestra come in each time in astonishment that they are working here. I see people smile and super engaged with what we do.
“This space makes us sit up straighter because we are addressed by it in a new way as musicians. We feel as if we are now being watched. This pulls us up to a higher standard.”
'A vast body of music'
Beyond the venue, Keelan says Windham Orchestra's rehearsals will be different this year.
“We are initiating a policy of rehearsing,” he explains. “We no longer will rehearse merely for the upcoming concert (although we of course do that too), but rather all the works we plan to perform for the entire season. Instead of going the traditional route of rehearsing concert by concert, whenever we rehearse one piece, we will rehearse it in relation to everything else we are doing.
“This way we build up a repertoire of music we are proficient at playing. Of course the rehearsals will be heavily weighted towards the upcoming concert, such as 'Music & Life' at the Latchis on Nov. 12, but I think it is important to explore these works in relation to a vast body of music we are capable of playing.”
Keelan believes rehearsals are important for the orchestra, and not just for getting prepared for a public concert. He feels that rehearsals and concerts are different animals.
“Related but different,” he adds.
Many musicians thrive in the Windham Orchestra because of the rehearsal process.
“The musicians who join this orchestra certainly don't do it for the money,” Keelan said. “They don't get paid. They join for a lot of reasons: to relax, to bathe in the emotions music provides, to grow technically, maybe even because someone told them to join. Whatever the impetus, they come together every Monday night from 7 until 9:30 because they desire to play great music.
“I want to jam-pack value into every minute we meet as a group. We are an eclectic bunch of musicians with some members having been part of the orchestra since its founding and our younger players 14 and 15 years old. For everyone, rehearsals are the opportunity to learn basic and essential skills of music-making that never will go away, and the more tools we address at rehearsals. the stronger an ensemble we become.
“My goal is to keep people growing as musicians. If I don't do that, it is poor leadership on my part. I need to keep us all searching, while at the same time making what we do challenging, interesting, and engaging, both for the musicians who play and the audience who will hear the music in concert.”