Art Chowder September | October, Issue 17 | Page 45

M
ainly known to us here in
Spokane for his energetic conducting
of the orchestra, he also holds the
position of music director for the
Long Beach (California) Symphony
Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber
Orchestra. Intelligent, disciplined, and
surprisingly funny, he has spent the last
fifteen years enriching our community
through spectacular performances,
musical education outreach and artistic
collaboration. He even had a hand in
saving our beloved Fox Theater.
With a love of both neglected classics
and contemporary music, he’s done an
excellent job broadening the orchestra’s
base of appeal with concerts featuring
film scores such as Harry Potter and Star
Wars. I had the opportunity to witness
him in action at the Classics concerts. His
hands at times extended as gracefully as
any prima ballerina. Other times, his feet
left the podium as he leapt into the air
and crashed back down, emphasizing a
dramatic downbeat. Described as sinuous,
precise, and charismatic by audience
members, his longtime followers claim
that he always delivers a brilliant
performance.
Now Maestro Preu is preparing for his
final season with the Spokane Symphony.
In it he will lead five of the ten Classics
concerts. Season finale, Classics 10,
will be his farewell performance. With
so much to do, Preu still made time to
speak with me and it was my privilege to
interview this accomplished, enthusiastic,
and humble man of music.
Art Chowder: For those of us who don’t
know what a music director does, besides
conducting, please describe your duties.
PrEU: Everybody knows theoretically
what a conductor does, but that is only
part of being the music director. The
music director handles everything
that has to do with the musical side
of an orchestra. That means making
programming and personnel decisions,
hiring soloists, and developing new
formats or concepts for concerts.
Photo credit: Nancy Crawford
Besides all the musical stuff, it’s also
communicating with the administration:
the executive director, the general
manager, personnel manager, the board
and so on. For the marketing people
I do visibility things, like interviews,
speeches at the Rotary Club or
retirement homes. For the development
department, if needed, I talk to sponsors.
Basically I am the face of the orchestra.
Art Chowder: About how many hours
go into preparing a single performance?
PrEU: From my perspective? You can’t
really put an amount of time to it. It
depends. From the initial idea you have
to figure what the major piece of the
program will be. Who will be soloist?
What is the opening piece? Then it’s
sort of developing the concept of the
program. I mean, if you do simple math,
you have 90 minutes of music and 25
to 30 different instruments on stage. To
read each line of their music takes 30
to 40 hours and then you still haven’t
done any real analyzing, nor had any
real musical thought. No research on the
history. So, it takes a while.
Art Chowder: Beyond that you’ve also
done a lot of community outreach. What
are some of the projects you’ve been
involved with?
PrEU: We’ve done a lot of things. It
depends on how you define outreach. For
me, the free Labor Day parks concerts
are outreach, because there we reach
thousands of people who will likely
never show up for a classics concert. But
that one time of year, they will listen to
classical music and have a good time.
I think a lot of our education programs
are outreach, whether it’s “Music
Innovates,” “Link Up,” or our fourth
and fifth grade concerts. We’ve also had
all sorts of new concepts and formats
for concerts like the “Symphony on the
Edge” series at the Knitting Factory, and
the Terrain “Uncharted!” concerts where
the orchestra worked with local bands,
singer-songwriters, artists, poets, dancers,
and DJs. We all created a full evening
of artwork together. That was one of the
most fun, most novel things I’ve done
with the orchestra.
We’ve also done “Beethoven & Brews”
with No-Li Brewhouse creating craft beer
to match the music, “Best Fest,” and our
summer programs at Arbor Crest Wine
Cellars. Of course all of these events take
time a nd money. An orchestra is a very
expensive business. Whenever you put an
orchestra on stage, it’s tens of thousands
of dollars. So it’s easy to have these
ideas, but to maintain, fund and promote
them is a big business.
September |October 2018
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