“I’ve been fortunate enough to witness an extraordinary growth with the orchestra,” says Peter Bay, music director of the Austin Symphony Orchestra since 1998, in an interview by Chris Johnson in Friday’s (10/16) Arts+Culture Texas (Dallas). “The overall level of playing has gotten better and better every year and that is a tribute to the work ethic of the musicians…. The challenges I face now have more to do with trying to advance the repertoire that we play….. There was already this huge energy in the city 18 years ago when I first came. In the time that I’ve been here, the downtown area has grown so much. We have an opera, a ballet, and so much rock and roll. The city has everything.” Peter Bay is also music director of the Hot Springs Music Festival in Arkansas and conductor of the Big Sky Festival Orchestra in Montana. In the interview, Bay also discusses the Austin Symphony’s performances next month of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe and Poulenc’s Gloria, with Austin-based vocal ensemble Conspirare; his work conducting the Austin Ballet and collaborating with choreographer Allison Orr of Forklift DanceWorks; and his early years playing the flute and watching Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts.
Posted October 19, 2015
