https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qjvskfCxL6Y<\/p>\n
Dear readers,<\/strong><\/p>\n My name is Courtney Lewis. I\u2019m a conductor.<\/strong><\/p>\n Later this month, I start working with the Jacksonville Symphony as Music Director Designate. As we speak, I\u2019m preparing for our first concerts together on Sept. 26 and 27. This is the first entry of a new blog I\u2019m going to post each month to keep you up to date with what\u2019s going on with our wonderful orchestra.<\/strong><\/p>\n So first of all, let me introduce myself. I grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As I\u2019m sure you know, Belfast has a chequered history due to the many different identities locals ascribe to. I call myself Northern Irish or British. My father was a barrister (lawyer) and my mother is a professor at Queen\u2019s University, Belfast. I also have a sister, Cara, and a brother, Adam, who are both doctors in London.<\/p>\n Thankfully, \u201cThe Troubles\u201d (the colloquial euphemism for the violent terrorism that scarred Northern Ireland from the 1960s until the late 1990s) didn\u2019t play much of a role in my childhood, which was spent singing in choirs, learning the piano and clarinet, playing in youth orchestras, writing music, running, rowing, acting and cooking. At school I loved literature, politics and debating but was absolutely useless at anything vaguely scientific or mathematical. In the summers, my parents often took us to France \u2014 usually to find as many good restaurants as possible \u2014 or to California, where much of my father\u2019s family lives.<\/p>\n Music was the most important part of my childhood. I had a fantastic teacher at high school who opened my ears to the richness of classical music. He taught me to listen to as much as possible (a habit surprisingly few classical musicians develop), from the Renaissance to living composers. I will never forget the first time he played the class \u201cThe Rite of Spring\u201d by Stravinsky, Beethoven\u2019s \u201cEroica\u201d and Bach\u2019s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1. I was intoxicated by the sheer power, joy and passion of this music, and knew I had to spend my life with it.<\/p>\n After high school, I went to university at Cambridge. The plan was to study composition, but I soon realised I didn\u2019t want to spend all my time alone with whatever rubbish I was writing. There were many opportunities to conduct since students, not professors, conducted all the student orchestras.<\/p>\n After bribing my friends to play for me with pizza and beer, I screwed my courage to the sticking place and auditioned to conduct the university orchestra. Somehow it went well and I found myself preparing Prokofiev\u2019s Symphony No. 5 with 100 eager, but frighteningly accomplished, musicians. Nothing prepares you for the first time you stand in front of a symphony orchestra and realise that everyone is staring straight at you! Terrifying, but thrilling. Simon Rattle once described conducting as \u201can un-kickable habit.\u201d I was an addict from day one.<\/p>\n After four years at Cambridge, I went \u201cUp North\u201d to Manchester to study conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music. From there I went to Boston for my first job with the Boston Philharmonic. During that time, my friends and I founded Discovery Ensemble, a chamber orchestra that played 18th- and 21st-century music, and also spent a lot of time going into schools in Boston that didn\u2019t have any music education programs. It was incredibly rewarding to see kids\u2019 faces light up when we introduced them to Beethoven and Ligeti.<\/p>\n As I write, I\u2019m propped up against a wall in an empty apartment in Minneapolis with a very confused Dachshund who doesn\u2019t understand where his favourite armchair has gone. I\u2019ve just finished five years as associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. Nobody could ask for a more supportive and brilliant group of colleagues with which to work. I\u2019m going to miss them. But September sees the start of two wonderful new chapters: life in Manhattan as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and in your vibrant city as music director of the Jacksonville Symphony, the first orchestra to trust me with its artistic leadership. It\u2019s going to be an exciting journey, and I hope you\u2019ll join us at Jacoby Hall on Sept. 26 and 27 as we begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qjvskfCxL6Y Dear readers, My name is Courtney Lewis. I\u2019m a conductor. Later this month, I start working with the Jacksonville Symphony as Music Director Designate. As we speak, I\u2019m preparing for our first concerts together on Sept. 26 and 27. This is the first entry of a new blog I\u2019m going to post each month to keep you up to date with what\u2019s going on with our wonderful orchestra. So first of all, let me introduce myself. I grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As I\u2019m sure you know, Belfast has a chequered history due to the many different identities locals ascribe to. I call myself Northern Irish or British. My father was a barrister (lawyer) and my mother is a professor at Queen\u2019s University,<\/p>\n