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An Interview with
Anne Manson

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Conductor Anne Manson has achieved a series of historic milestones. She was the first woman to conduct at the historic Salzburg Festival, where she led the Vienna Philharmonic and a cast that included Samuel Ramey and Philip Langridge in a production of Boris Godunov, which met with great critical acclaim.   Ms. Manson is one of only three women to have been appointed music director of a leading American symphony orchestra, having served as music director of the Kansas City Symphony from 1999 to 2003.   She launched her career in 1988 as music director of the London-based Mecklenburgh Opera, where over a span of eight years she programmed operas ranging from Mozart to commissioned world premieres from a host of contemporary composers.

Her recent American guest-conducting engagements include appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Other European appearances include concerts leading the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Anne Manson had a chance to talk with us at Juilliard between rehearsals...

Classical Domain:    Let's start with a bit of background, when did you decide that you wanted to be a conductor?

Anne Manson:    I had done some conducting in college, but I was not seriously considering becoming a professional conductor... What got the “bug” for me was my second year in London and I conducted Cosi, the Mozart Opera.   I did it with a bunch of students, friends really, I did it in an open an open courtyard in London.   It was kind of a transformative experience, I really decided then that this was what I had to do.

CD:    I read that you wanted to be a Doctor?

AM:    Well, I did do some pre-Med, but I got a scholarship to study music in London, I went over to study thinking that I would probably come back and work at a college in the US as a choral conductor.   I studied orchestral conducting in London., after I had been there a year someone asked me if I would consider conducting Cosi.   I had never thought about conducting Opera before, and that is what did it. After that I did a lot of opera in London.   I was music director for close to ten years for an opera company that specialized in contemporary, or 20th Century, chamber operas.

CD:    You also conducted Pierre Boulez's Ensemble Intercontemporain.

AM:    Yes many times, though that was a little later. What happened was that I conducted Boris Godunov at the Salzburg Festival, I filled in for Claudio Abbado, it was kind of at the last minute, and Pierre Boulez came. That was in ‘94.

Pierre Boulez after that asked me to work with the Ensemble, I worked with them for several years in a row, we worked on many projects. We toured Warsaw and Germany, I did a big dance project that they did with Lucinda Childs.

CD:    Isn't it strange, all the years leading contemporary operas - and it's Boris that paved the way into the Ensemble.....

AM:    Yes, it is strange.

CD:    And in 1999 you accepted the music directorship for the Kansas City Symphony.

AM:    My career was entirely based in Europe, from the time I went over to study onwards, and I never did any engagements in the U.S. at all. I did one opera in 1995, in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center, what they now call Washington National Opera, but aside from that I did not work in the US at all.   I was keen to work in the US.   What happened was that Henry Fogel, who was then running that Chicago Symphony, came over and saw a performance I did in Europe.   He recommended me to the Kansas City Symphony, and so they asked me to come over to do a concert, which I did. Then they asked me to be Music Director.

At that juncture I was very keen to be a music director, the idea really appealed to me.   They were very interested, very serious about building the quality of the orchestra.   Which we did over the period I was there, the orchestra transformed itself in quality.

CD:    Was that you first time dealing with the traditional “bread and butter” symphonic repertoire?

AM:    Not entirely but very close to.   I'd done a bunch of Dvorak symphonies, and the standard concertos in England, but my focus for most of my career had been on contemporary music and opera. In Kansas City I did all the Brahms symphonies, all the Beethoven symphonies there, Mahler.   Naturally, there was a lot of the standard repertoire.

CD:    Did you think you would have any difficulty meeting any of the extra-musical assumptions of orchestra or audience?

AM:    It was very interesting, I was told when I first started thinking about coming back to work in the US that it's very difficult for a woman to get a music director jobs here.   In fact I think it's easier for women to get music director jobs here than it is in Europe – there are effectively no women music directors in Europe.

One of the things I was told was that a lot of the volunteers in midlevel orchestras – and major orchestras as well, are women. They run the junior league, and all of those other things – and that they really like to have a male figurehead to look up to. That, I was told, was one of the things that would be a real barrier.

So it was very interesting to me when I came to Kansas City.   I had a young child at the time that I took the job.   In fact when they offered me the job I was pregnant, and when I first started working with the Symphony my son was three months old or so.   The women volunteers it turned out were very excited about having a woman, and a mother, as the Music Director of the orchestra.   It was not at all the barrier that people had told me.   I was selected by the orchestra.

In Kansas City, I think for the community it was an exciting thing to have a woman as Music Director, because the there were so few of them.

I left Kansas City to pursue more work in Europe and particularly more opera work, and that's what I have been doing, that is what I wanted.   Operas take a long period of time, that was tricky at Kansas City. I like a balance between opera and orchestral works.   I was loosing that balance by just doing orchestral concerts for a while.

CD:   In 2004 you did your first Juilliard Focus concert, an all Charles Ives program, and now your back conducting three recently composed works. Can you tell us a little about the program?

AM:     It's a really interesting program, all the pieces were written in 2005. The oratorio in the second half Channah, by Paul Schoenfield, is a commission for this concert.   Paul is a very interesting composer, this piece is totally different than anything he's written before.   He heard while driving, a preacher on the radio, named Reverend R. A. Vernon.   He gave a rousing sermon.   Paul who is an orthodox jew, was so taken by this sermon that he decided to write a gospel oratorio.   That's what we have here.   Basically a lot of it is gospel, the harmonic language is much more interesting, I think.   The bulk of the work is gospel, with rum kit, electric organ, electric guitar – plus symphony orchestra.   Not at all what you'd expect from him.

The first piece on the program is Zhou Long's The Enlightened.   He's an extraordinary composer, he's Chinese in origin but has lived here since the 1980s.   He writes a kind of music which has an Asian, Chinese, sound – but with Western instruments. There are no Chinese instruments in this orchestra. It's a very interesting and beautiful piece.   To my ear it seems rooted in the far-east, he's interested in the idea of “enlightenment” one that you reach through a special diet, meditation and so forth.   The thing that is interesting to me about this piece are the passages which seem to represent the “enlightened” next, the outside world crashing in, and then the enlightened person regaining enlightenment.   There are passages that feel like one of these huge raucous Chinese circus parades crashing through, and then it dissipates, and the enlightened regains his enlightenment.   At least this is the way I hear the piece.

Following that we have the Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra by Jukka Tiensuu Spiriti. Tiensuu is a Finnish composer, and Mikko Luoma the soloist, is also Finnish, he played the premiere.   It's a wild piece.   Luoma is also wild, a crazy Finn. Most of the piece is written, but Luoma does improvise a little bit and he's an incredible performer.   The work is a difficult piece to describe, very rhythmical.....

CD:    Even with the Accordion.....

AM:    Yes, the sounds that he makes on it with the accordion are really interesting.   Sometimes the sound is like a group of woodwinds and brass instruments together, sometimes the sound is more like a stringed instrument.   Then he has the orchestra create some sounds that sounds a bit like an accordion.

CD:    You have had to learn three new contemporary works, and work with an orchestra and soloists who are also new to you. How do you manage this?

AM:    Zhou Long work was a score I chose to do, I saw the score in October.   I looked at it and I thought it was terrific, I love his music, so I programmed it.  I chose the Tiensuu concerto to do in this program, I also saw the score in November.

For Paul Schoenfield's piece, I received material gradually.   I received the full score between Christmas and New Year's, but I had seen bits of the score earlier, the vocal score I had since the summer.   I have spoken with Paul about the work, he will be here on Sunday for the first rehearsal in the theater.

I've had rehearsals this week with the orchestra and with the soloists and with the chorus, we have a rehearsal almost everyday, so it's a decent amount of time.   The students here, I have to say, are really gifted, they seem so open, fresh and enthusiastic.   It makes it such a pleasure to work here.

CD:    Well, last question because I know you have to go back to rehearsals, what's next?

AM:    I've got a bunch of concerts in Europe, not really contemporary music, just a range of repertoire.   Concerts in Spain, Germany, and an opera in Finland's Savonlinna Opera Festival.   Next fall I am returning to Juilliard for a project – but it's a secret......

CD:    Ok, I'm curious but I can wait.   Thank you for speaking with us, and see you Friday evening at the Focus concert.

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Focus Festival 2006
Friday, February 3 at 8:00 pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Juilliard School

Anne Manson, Conductor
Juilliard Symphony
Juilliard Choral Union, Director Judith Clurman

Brenda Rae, Soprano   •   Ronnita Nicole Miller, Mezzo-Soprano
Jeffrey Behrens, Tenor   •   Randall Scotting, Countertenor
Matt Boehler, Baritone

Mikko Luoma, Accordion

Zhou Long: The Enlightened (New York premiere)
Jukka Tiensuu: Spiriti (American premiere)
Paul Schoenfield: Gospel Oratorio No. 2 (Channah) (world premiere)

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