{"id":1721,"date":"2014-06-17T14:28:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T18:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/?p=1721"},"modified":"2014-07-29T10:02:08","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T14:02:08","slug":"multitasking-maestro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/2014\/06\/17\/multitasking-maestro\/","title":{"rendered":"Multitasking Maestro"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do J. S. Bach, Leonard Bernstein, the Marsh Chapel Choir, and the Rolling Stones have in common?<\/h2>\n

By Lara Ehrlich | Photo by Megan Greenlee Photography<\/h4>\n
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As the music and arts director for New York\u2019s Trinity Wall Street church, Julian Wachner (\u201991, \u201996) programs more than 600 events. Photo by Megan Greenlee Photography<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Composer and Grammy Award-nominated conductor Julian Wachner<\/a> (\u201991, \u201996) answers his phone at the Jacksonville Airport baggage claim.<\/strong> This is his only opportunity for an interview, as he is about to embark on a trip with \u201cfive priests and a theologian.\u201d This might sound like the opening of a bad joke, but it\u2019s actually a retreat for the senior staff of New York\u2019s Trinity Wall Street <\/a>church, where Wachner is the music and arts director. Throughout the next four days, they will discuss the programming for the coming year, which will include more than 600 events. In his spare time, Wachner is also the music director of the Kennedy Center\u2019s Washington Chorus<\/a> and serves as a guest conductor at organizations throughout the country. As\u00a0he gathers his bags and traverses the airport to meet his colleagues, he keeps up his half of the interview with the dexterity of a seasoned conductor.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said you chose to attend BU to earn a well-rounded education. How did academics impact your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My career is grounded in study. I didn\u2019t jump from one huge musical success to the next; I had a long existence as a professor at BU and MIT, and then at McGill University. Now that I\u2019m in my early 40s, I\u2019m beginning to have the kind of success and recognition that some people have in their 20s. I\u2019m very happy about the way it\u2019s happened because I\u2019m very calm and confident in my musical abilities. I feel like I have something to say on a human level, not just a musical level.<\/p>\n

What do you want to say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a composer I tackle subjects like love and loss in Come, My Dark-Eyed One<\/em>, which I wrote for Scott Allen Jarrett\u2019s (\u201999, \u201908) Back Bay Chorale<\/a>, and thorny theological issues like in my first symphony, Incantations and Lamentations<\/em>, and issues of the day like in Du Yun\u2019s opera Angel\u2019s Bone<\/em>, which is about human trafficking. I\u2019m trying to make a difference in people\u2019s lives, whether to give them a glimmer of hope at Christmas, to make them think seriously about an intense subject, or to touch their souls.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m elitist in my choice of music or the way that I make music, and I think people feel that.\u201d\u2014Julian Wachner<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The New York Times<\/em> wrote of your Bach series at Trinity that, \u201cno one would mistake the crowd at the free Bach at One concerts for one percenters. Many are tourists, stopped in their tracks by what they hear.\u201d Who do you see as your audience?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019m elitist in my choice of music or the way that I make music, and I think people feel that. One of my models was Leonard Bernstein (Hon.\u201983), who felt that music should be for everybody, and that it is a way to bring people together. At our Trinity performances, we have people who don\u2019t know where they are going to sleep that night and people who live on the Upper East Side all in one place together, creating a community.<\/p>\n

The Trinity Wall Street Choir performed \u201cYou Can\u2019t Always Get What You Want\u201d with the Rolling Stones in December 2012. What inspired this collaboration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got a Facebook message from a critic whose husband is tied into the music business and was looking for a New York-based choir. She said, \u201cIt\u2019s a famous rock group, and I can\u2019t tell you any more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn was the first US performance of the Rolling Stones\u2019 50th anniversary tour, and they wanted the choir to be a surprise for the audience. When I got out onstage for the sound check, Mick Jagger walked over and was like, \u201cHey, I\u2019m Mick Jagger,\u201d and I was like, \u201cYeah, I know who you are!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the first time they had ever performed \u201cYou Can\u2019t Always Get What You Want\u201d with a live choir. You need<\/em> a professional-level choir to sing that high C for as long as it demands; we were lucky we had three ladies who could do it. When the Stones decided to come back in June 2013, they asked me to recommend a choir, so I suggested BU\u2019s Marsh Chapel Choir<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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