News & Record
GREENSBORO — Back in fourth grade, a classmate jokingly added Robert Moody’s name on the signup sheet for students interested in a strings class, covering the fundamentals of the violin, viola and cello.
He didn’t know until the teacher later called the names on the list to go to that class.
“I was 9 years old, and I didn’t know how to explain that to a teacher, so I just got up and went to the class — and here I am,” Moody said.
More than 100 vetted candidates later and for Moody and a small group of conductors it’s come down to this: the Season of The Seven.
That’s seven top-level conductors — a distinction based on reviews, industry insiders and the folks who have sat in an audience and seen them harness a creative energy with a simple baton — vying to become the music director for the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.
The person chosen will take the symphony into a new era.
They’ll also have a hard act to follow: Dmitry “Dima” Sitkovetsky, a world-renowned violinist who was a magnet as conductor the last 20 years, drawing world-class musicians to play here and filling concert seats with record-breaking sales — all while raising the profile of the symphony, and by extension, Greensboro.
Each candidate will create a Masterworks concert of their own design to be performed at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts with the orchestra players. Moody is up first, on Saturday at 8 p.m.
From California to Colorado, the others that follow have varied backgrounds and are associated with various orchestras across the country.
Who will lead when it’s all over?
“We are waiting,” said symphony CEO Lisa Crawford, “to be wowed.”
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The list was narrowed to those seven after a survey of member musicians and what symphony leaders call a “deeply engaging” interview process including how they would follow Sitkovetsky.
The committee had initially agreed to whittle the resumes to six. One problem: They couldn’t agree on the last candidate.
“So we made it seven,” Crawford said.
Electric.
Engaging.
Exhilarating.
Those words could be used to describe most if not all the candidates.
Garson Rice, chair of the search committee, described all of the candidates as outstanding conductors and “equally as important, accomplished musicians.”
It’s what got them to this point in the competition.
Now, they’ll need to display something more.
While keeping a focus on classical music, over the years the symphony has sought to reach a wider audience, which has included offering “Cirque de la Symphonie” with aerolists, and expanding its reach into gospel, rock and other areas — such as music from video games, which was a sold-out show.
Upcoming concerts include collaborations with former “American Idol” Ruben Studdard, who is covering the catalogue of the legendary Luther Vandross, and music from the “Harry Potter” movies.
But, for now, the focus is on the candidates. What can they bring to the city? What will separate one from the rest?
Of course, a very big part of their weekends is going to be that intangible thing called chemistry.
The audience. The musicians. The Masterwork subscribers.
They will all have a say in that.
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Moody, who has a busy performance schedule with the Memphis Symphony that he now leads, has also been hoping for a “Jeopardy!” game show invitation.
He records episodes when he is away and then binge-watches them.
“I phrase every answer in the form of a question out loud — to the chagrin of my partner or whoever is in the room,” joked Moody, who is able to laugh at himself. “I’ve applied and made a perfect score on the practice test — so I don’t know why they haven’t called me yet.”
Moody is likely among the more familiar candidates to symphonygoers in the Triad, having spent 13 years as the music director for the Winston-Salem Symphony. He also spent five of them attending Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, where his partner Jimmy Jones was the choir director and organist.
”I’m crazy about the place,” Moody said.
A native of Greenville, S.C., Moody doesn’t come from a musical family and wasn’t raised listening to classical music.
“I didn’t grow up with Bach, Beethoven and Mozart,” he recalled. “I grew up with Pentecostal church music, country music and college football. And then I’m a kid from the 80s, so throw in all that a smattering of Journey and the Eagles and Kansas.”
His signature collaborations are a fusion of it all — and more.
Yet that strings class changed his life.
“They put a cello in my hand, and I realized I had an ability and love for it,” Moody said.
And he found his voice, literally, also as a singer.
In high school he attended a school of the arts and state performing arts summer program, where he picked up a baton for the first time.
“They had a conducting class and competition, and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Moody said.
Moody has degrees in voice and cello from Furman University and his conducting degree from the Eastman School of Music in New York.
While he had been on staff of various symphonies across the country and the guest conductor at a variety of companies, Winston-Salem hired Moody in 2005.
“Rising star” was attached to his name.
He and Sitkovetsky, then the Greensboro conductor, later merged their symphonies for two large-scale concerts, putting more musicians on the stage than they could ever do on their own.
About half the symphony players already performed with both Triad orchestras. Cooperation between the cities allowed that, Moody said.
“It ended up providing a life and a full-time lifestyle for players who wouldn’t be able to obtain it otherwise,” Moody said.
Moody is the former director of the Portland Symphony as well as having conducted the major orchestras of the world, including in Chicago and Los Angeles. Under his artistic leadership, the Memphis Symphony has experienced growth in programming, recording, new commissions and endowment to over $25 million.
As for Saturday’s audition, he has chosen to start with the work of Arturo Marquez, a Mexican composer who uses Latin undertones.
“He wrote what, I think, is one of the most exciting pieces to play on the opening of a concert,” Moody said. “Talk about something that just sets the audience on fire.”
The melody is slow but picks up — Moody likens it to parts of an iconic “West Side Story” musical.
“Marquez is like a gift from me to Greensboro because you might not have heard it before,” Moody said.
He will also have a guest musician — cellist Gabriel Martins.
The concert ends with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
“One of the most powerful, beloved pieces,” Moody said.
One thing he has yet to plan is a weighty issue: what to wear.
Moody says the traditional white ties and tails have all but disappeared except for galas or special programs.
“I’ve experimented, and I’m sometimes successful and sometimes not,” Moody admitted.
He’s tried a black smock of sorts that is akin to untucked shirts with no real collar, attire made popular by others.
“I’ve tried them, and I felt like I was dressed in someone else’s clothes,” Moody said.
He prefers suspenders.
“It’s like the old joke: Why do firemen wear suspenders? To keep their pants up,” Moody said. “When you are using the aerobics a conductor uses, they kind of do the best job of keeping my pants up.”
As for the job: Any candidate’s goal is to continue the Greensboro Symphony’s legacy. To grow it. To make concerts appealing.
“I want people who do not attend the symphony to think of it as something to do,” Moody said.
