This sponsored article is a part of a paid partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music.
Teddy Abrams exudes heat and ardor. His clean-shaven face, halo of brown curls, and lightweight, bespectacled eyes counsel a youthfulness that eclipses his 37 years and greater than twenty years {of professional} expertise. But it surely’s not simply his picture – it’s his power. Up to now decade because the music director of the Louisville Orchestra (LO), Abrams has approached his position as each an inventive chief and a group consultant. Becoming a member of the ensemble within the aftermath of chapter and a strike, Abrams canvassed – actually – to assist within the restoration of the orchestra’s picture.
“A whole lot of what I did was extra like a politician,” he advised me in our current Zoom interview, “simply displaying up and assembly individuals, listening to their tales, shaking their palms, inviting them personally to the orchestra, and operating a sort of marketing campaign for years till we had regained that confidence.”
A part of that restoration is a return to the LO’s founding ethos as a spot the place new music and dwelling composers might thrive. You see it within the orchestra’s programming, and within the repertoire that Abrams conducts; this previous weekend, he was joined by violinist Ray Chen for the Barber violin concerto, the one canonical piece on a program that featured the Midwest premiere of Valerie Coleman’s Concerto for Orchestra (an LO co-commission) and works by the LO’s 2024-25 Creators Corps composers Baldwin Giang, Brittany J. Inexperienced, and Oswald Huỳnh.
In December, Abrams and Chen will reunite at their alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music, for a program dominated by Curtis alumni. Along with the Barber violin concerto, Abrams will lead the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in performances of TJ Cole’s Demise of the Poet and George Walker’s Pulitzer-Prize profitable Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra, closing out with the Third Symphony by Aaron Copland – a mentor to a different Curtis alum, Leonard Bernstein.
Teddy Abrams — Picture by O’Neil Arnold
The live performance is much less of a return and extra a continuation of the relationships Abrams constructed whereas he was a scholar at Curtis. He has collaborated with a number of Curtis alums previously yr and half. In January, he joined bassist Nate Farrington and percussionist Gabriel Globus-Hoenich for Nate’s World, a live performance of improvisatory fireplace and stylistic eclecticism. And his collaboration with pianist Yuja Wang on The American Challenge received the 2024 GRAMMY for Finest Classical Instrumental Solo.
“We don’t essentially make music the identical means or see music the identical means, however these of us and I’ve such a deep relationship to musical values that we’ve remained common collaborators and really shut mates since [our time at Curtis]… I work with these of us yearly, a number of instances a yr, and that continues as a result of we solid a deep bond for what we care about – not simply because we like taking part in music collectively, however why we play music collectively.”
This drive to dig deeper than creative objectives is a tenet of his work with the Louisville Orchestra. In some ways, Abrams is a return to a side of music directorship that has change into outmoded: talking on to audiences – not solely from the stage, however in all layers of life. This sense of civic duty has precedents set not solely by Bernstein, but additionally by Abrams’ personal mentor, Michael Tilson Thomas.
“I used to be so fortunate to have him as a mannequin rising up,” he shared. “That was simply an unimaginable stroke of fortune that I grew up in San Francisco when he was the music director of the San Francisco Symphony, as a result of that’s what I assumed all music administrators did. He has this communication with audiences that’s each verbal and musical, and he’s extraordinary at each. That’s how I’ve tried to mannequin my very own work: to make use of each out there useful resource that we’ve inside ourselves to carry individuals to the music and provides them a way of possession and relationship to the organizations that we run.”
Abrams’ fierce devotion to this objective was additionally mirrored in his work with Yuja Wang on The American Challenge. For him, the album was a option to inform Louisvillians – the world – that this midsized metropolis on the Ohio River has one thing vital to contribute.
“This album was a possibility to say look, the perfect on the earth, individuals like Yuja Wang, labels like Deutsche Grammophon, the nice classical label, wish to come work with us,” he advised me. “Sure, we’re attempting to make an awesome album and make nice music – however I’ve a second mission: I would like individuals in Louisville to see that and go, ‘we’re heard, we’re seen, we really feel valued.’ That’s a factor that an orchestra can do for a group. It’s not musical precisely, however it’s essential civic work.”
The LO’s Schooling & Neighborhood Partnerships crew is the most important division on workers. Their funding in applications like The R.A.P. College – a partnership with Hip-Hop N2 Studying (HHN2L); their Creators Corps residency; MakingMUSIC faculty program; and the orchestra’s state-wide In Concord Tour are a novel method for an American orchestra, a incontrovertible fact that brings an edge to Abrams’ usually optimistic voice.
“One of many issues that basically frustrates me is, there are numerous huge establishments that go on and on about all their group applications. Then, you have a look at the budgets and also you discuss to the individuals who run these applications, they usually all really feel like they’re strapped for consideration, they’re strapped for funds, they don’t get the assets that they want… so we’re attempting to place our cash the place our mouth is after we say that we worth that. We’re placing the cash there, we’re making use of for the grants, and actually having the workers and the assets to execute this stuff successfully. This can be a thorn within the trade’s aspect – there’s an excessive amount of lip service to these things.”
Teddy Abrams — Picture by Lauren Desberg
In classical music, technical mastery is commonly conflated as creative achievement, however Abrams has a extra holistic view of an orchestra’s responsibility. He asks his collaborators to present their all no matter venue or location, whether or not it’s Carnegie Corridor or a faculty auditorium in Harlan, Kentucky. And as somebody who applications new music as naturally as respiratory, he expects musicians to make time to be taught the music – to essentially sit with a piece and discover its sides, a luxurious that’s often solely afforded to canonical works.
By all of it, Abrams nonetheless seems to the recommendation of considered one of his Curtis professors as a beacon. “I’ve to present an enormous shoutout to Dr. Ford Lallerstedt, who is likely one of the most superb lecturers there and set this concept for me, of in search of creativity as an important factor in an inventive life,” he mentioned. “He impressed so many individuals in our community to hunt one thing past the expectations and to worth one thing that’s going to be probably the most musically fulfilling factor in your life, since you’re in search of that deeper sense of the artistic impulse.”
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