Taking Flight With the Brooklyn Phil

Michael Christie is no newcomer to challenges. At 32 years old, the music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic has revamped and refreshed the orchestra’s outlook. In just two years at the helm, he can be credited with producing composer Tan Dun’s monumental “The Gate,” and with programming that includes the orchestra’s innovative collaborations with Joanna Newsom, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and, beginning this weekend, a festival to celebrate composer John Corigliano’s 70th birthday.And, as he proved in a meeting to discuss the orchestra’s upcoming programming, he can make even an interview become an adventure, as it did when Mr. Christie suggested that a reporter from The New York Sun might enjoy an evening flight in his single-engine airplane, a Mooney four-seater.Having taken the reins of the Philharmonic from Robert Spano in 2005, Mr. Christie supplements his position in Brooklyn with directorships, including one at the Phoenix Symphony and, for fun and convenience, flies himself among jobs. He joined the Civil Air Patrol while in high school, and has been a certified pilot for eight years, extending his licensing to include flying by instruments.On the drive to Teterboro airfield in New Jersey on a clear afternoon, Mr. Christie spoke of his musical career, which has taken him from childhood in Buffalo to the trumpet section at Oberlin Conservatory, and the award for outstanding potential in the First International Sibelius Conductor’s Competition in Helsinki, Finland, in 1995. He also spoke of his love of flying. “My first job was mowing the lawn at the local airport,” he recalled, “and if the orchestra world ever collapses, I could always become a charter pilot.”When he first became curious about conducting, it wasn’t a professional decision. “I kept my subscriptions to the magazines up,” he said. “That’s the joke — the trumpet players reading while the conductor worked with the string sections.” But after a school concert one day, Mr. Christie ended up speaking with the conductor Eiji Oue, who discerned something in the teenage trumpeter, and took him under his wing. “He’d always say: ‘Just let it go!’ He invited me to the NDR Symphony a couple of seasons ago,” Mr. Christie recalled of his trip to conduct in Germany. “He’s still something of a mentor.” A sign on Teterboro’s glass doors warned against jet blasts, and private Gulfstreams that dwarfed Mr. Christie’s plane taxied past. With the in-wing fuel tanks checked and the chocks yanked from the tires, the Philharmonic’s communications manager climbed in the back and Mr. Christie — “223 Kilo Tango” — checked in with air-traffic control. “We’re just kind of flying by their rules, after they give us some radar vectors,” he said through the headsets. With the low half moon over Manhattan, he followed those vectors out toward Long Island Sound, speaking of his next important tutor, Franz Welser-Möst, currently director of the Cleveland Orchestra.Mr. Welser-Möst was on the Sibelius jury, and told Mr. Christie to “‘try to get as much diverse repertory into your blood by 35.’ He asked, ‘Do you want to be a flash in the pan, or a slow, vibrant burner?'” Mr. Christie became Mr. Welser-Möst’s assistant conductor at the Zurich opera house, where he learned the art of “coaching singers, being at staging rehearsals, ballet performances. If you go into a staging rehearsal thinking you’re number one, wait until you get that famous diva.” A third influential conductor was Mr. Spano, Mr. Christie’s predecessor at the Philharmonic, with whom he first had contact at Oberlin, where Mr. Spano was on the faculty. Mr. Christie first approached him in advance of the Sibelius competition. “I went to him for help,” Mr. Christie said. “I’d never stood before a professional orchestra before.”Several thousand feet over Montauk, with only the moon and infrequent ground lights as points of navigation, the instrument panel tracked the horizon through a slow 360-degree bank. Then Mr. Christie turned west again, toward New York. “We talk today about community engagement, of the maestro being more than someone standing at the podium — he’s an advocate, strategic planner, fund-raiser. Both my parents worked as managers, so I understand process. I like things that are enduring.”With the Corigliano festival this season and world premiere choreography for Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” by Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Maestro Christie is looking to engage new audiences in Brooklyn, and beyond. “Ours is a sophisticated audience,” he said, following the controller’s heading toward a distant tower’s blinking red lights, “but with very little orchestra experience, especially live performances. Beyond donors and ticket buyers, we want patrons who’re advocates for us.”

Taking Flight With the Brooklyn Phil

Taking Flight With the Brooklyn Phil

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