“As a boy, Roderick Cox joined his mother and brother in their Macon, Georgia, gospel choir,” reports John Mancini on Tuesday (8/1) at NBC News. “At home he would put on his own concerts in his room—with the help of his action figures. ‘They were my chorus,’ he remembers…. At Northwestern University … Russian conductor Victor Yampolsky … ‘told me “You should be a conductor.” At first—I laughed at him. But after he reiterated that, it started to become a reality for me,’ says Cox. Now … associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, he’s come a long way from leading a convocation of action figures.” In 2015 he joined the Minnesota Orchestra’s conducting staff, and in 2016 he was one of five conductors in the League of American Orchestras’ Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview in Nashville, Tennessee. “Cox said he … is working hard to break down the barriers…. ‘I think it’s important for people of different races and backgrounds to see themselves represented onstage,’ says Cox…. ‘As our country continues to diversify, we as an orchestra have to diversify. Diversify our music choice, diversify our vendors, diversify our audience, diversify the musicians on the stage,’ he says.”
Posted August 3, 2017
Pictured: Minnesota Orchestra Associate Conductor Roderick Cox during rehearsal
