On Life and Music
doing physically . There should be a connection between what they ' re doing physically and what the resulting sound is from the orchestra . If you can ' t see that happening , that may be because it ' s too subtle for you to pick up on . That happens sometimes in the case of great , older maestri who have incredible control over an orchestra . In those cases , no one can quite figure out why they have that control . By that point , it often has a lot to do with the size of the conductor ’ s persona . But if what the conductor is doing does not seem to in any way be in sync with what you are hearing , there is a core problem .
Sherman : When you are preparing for a concert , do you give your ears a break and listen to other music to recalibrate , or do you immerse yourself fully in the music that you will be performing at that particular concert ?
Lockhart : I don ' t have the luxury of doing any concert in a vacuum . The week before the Broadway Today ! show , I ’ m going to be working on a project down at my summer festival in North Carolina with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz Orchestra at Lincoln Center . Two days before the Tanglewood performance , I ’ m going to be doing the July 4 Concert in Boston . You have to focus on what ’ s in front of you , and the preparation has to happen before that . There really isn ’ t a possibility of immersion , but I do think that you can get too caught up in the product and in the procedure . When I arrive at any concert hall , I fine-tune and make adjustments based on what I hear . For example , a tempo I thought made a lot of sense when I was sitting at my desk with the score might be too fast for the words to be understood by the audience , so I make a practical adjustment . Generally speaking , I rehearse , I close the book , and I move on to the next project .
Sherman : Do you have any superstitious , pre-performance rituals ?
Lockhart : I don ’ t really have superstitious rituals like other conductors may have . Seiji Ozawa had a particular part of the wooden frame of the stage left entrance door at Symphony Hall that he always used to rap on before he walked out . I ' m more of a routine guy . I need a nap , I need a meal at a certain time , and it needs to be a protein-oriented meal . I also need to not be interrupted for half an hour before I go out . Some of those sacrosanct rules get violated now and then , but generally that ' s what makes it feel like I know where I am , and I know what I ' m doing .
Sherman : How do you build a collaborative and respectful environment as a conductor with the musicians you work with , particularly when you ’ re working as a guest conductor ?
Lockhart : As a guest conductor , it ' s kind of like a blind date situation . You walk in , you ' re introduced , you get some tepid applause , and within 15 minutes , most of the people have judged whether they want to work with you or not . The biggest compliment you can get from the players is if somebody comes up to you and says , “ It is so easy to play for you .” That is the best thing anybody can say , because at the end of the day , my job is to remove all of the impediments so that everybody can perform at their highest level . A lot of times , orchestra members feel like they ' re on separate islands and playing a game of telephone . If you can make the players feel like they can hear each other — even if they can ’ t — that ’ s what ’ s most important . As long as they feel that your intentions are the right ones , that you want to make them sound good , and you want to create something that the audience will want to come back to , they will follow you .
On Life and Music
Sherman : If you didn ’ t work as a conductor , what other career would you have pursued ?
Lockhart : When I came out of high school and went to college , I didn ' t have any role models in this business . I thought , “ I know somebody must do it ,” but I didn ’ t know how to get there . I actually intended to finish an undergraduate liberal arts degree in music and then go to law school . That didn ' t happen , which might be better for the legal industry or not . I did the next best thing : I married a lawyer , so we have great arguments . ( Laughter ) Looking back , now that I know myself a little better than I did when I was 17 , I would be an author . I don ' t know if I ' d be a good author or not . It would remain to be seen , but I love words . I love the poetry and beauty of the written word , perhaps even more than I like music , which is a hard thing to say . But it was a big decision when I was a kid as to whether I was moved more by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky or by Shakespeare . I think I would probably be in a lonely cabin , trying to write the great American novel .
Sherman : I ’ m sure everyone asks who your favorite composers are , but I would love to know — who are your favorite authors ?
Lockhart : I love Amor Towles , who wrote A Gentleman in Moscow . I love Ann Patchett . I always like people who use language really well , like Milan Kundera , the person who wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being . Sometimes for me , an author ’ s ability to say things beautifully is more important than what they ' re actually saying .
Sherman : Were there any career setbacks , or fortuitous moments , along the way that led to you ultimately becoming conductor of the Boston Pops ?
Lockhart : The problem with conducting is that auditioning and nurturing conductors is very expensive . You can audition 200 violinists for a job , but you can ’ t audition 200 conductors , because you need an orchestra . In the beginning of my career as a conductor , I wasn ’ t being rejected because people didn ' t like my work ; it was that I wasn ' t getting invited to the auditions . When I started teaching at Carnegie Mellon University after doing my graduate work there , I was considering taking the LSAT and going back to law school . I started taking auditions for tenure track orchestra director positions at music schools , and I got rejected by one position at the University of Akron . The committee chair called me and told me that I taught the best conducting classes , but they said that I was too young for the job . Coincidentally , there were people on that committee who were faculty at University of Akron . They also worked for the Akron Symphony . The next year , the Akron Symphony was looking for an assistant conductor , and they reached out to me . I got hired there ,
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