So it becomes, as Goethe said, a discussion amongst four equals, amongst four friends, as opposed to a backup band with star soloist . So the idea of storytelling in music is something that's really important to follow.And we're going to throw both simple and complicated examples and see how your listening skills are.
Meghan Kent: Sure. Hi, I'm Meghan Kent and we're very pleased to be here today. We have two dancers from the New York City Ballet, New York City Ballet Corps de Ballet member, Amanda Hankes, and soloist , Adrian Danchig-Waring.So first of all just to get a little background on your training, kind of how you chose this career path, how you ended up to be a professional dancer what was that like, Amanda do you wanna
I could sell these on the black market in Beijing for 5 kuai, 10 kuai, 20 kuai a CD. But the soloist , the expressive jazz soloist doesn't seem to exist.
Dr. Paul Cohen is one of America's most distinguished classical saxophonist. Having appeared as a soloist for the San Francisco Symphony, the Richmond Symphony, the New Jersey symphony, and many others. He has published over 100 articles on the history and lost literature of the saxophone in prestigious music journals.
The true story was always one of collaboration." Perhaps you can expand on this point and explain about how we can create the conditions for soloists to become collaborators? Yeah. Well, look, I mean, I think I probably always go back to these stories of exploration because there's so much to be learned from those stories
like the polar explorers were doing geographically 100 years ago. So I really have been interested in soloist versus collaborator as just an idea, something that I've observed.
I was doing a lot of concert work here in New York. And I've been a soloist everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center. I was really trying to do the traditional A-list opera career.
Then we became corps de ballet members. And then she became a soloist . And now she's a principal dancer and the face of Under Armour.
And I don't need to have more than one instrument. But you're also a soloist , because of the transparency.
right? And maybe this is a good actual moment to bring on-- Absolutely. So we have two of our soloists from my Carnegie concert yesterday with us. We have Camille Brault, mezzo-soprano.
It's assumed that you're not going to do well, I think. I feel like people want soloists to fail when they leave the band, because they'd rather have the band. Yeah, I think so.
There's fragmentation right across the system. So what conditions-- or what's affecting that soloist behavior, and how do we create the conditions for collaboration? So we worked with Accenture, and Milken, and the World Economic Forum, and various people around a piece of research.
But now I've come back, trying to push it in the press, say, yes! The problem is I get hired so much as a soloist .
Um, yeah, that's a good question. And I guess for me it was like I I I was kind of traveling around the globe and I I'd been doing um I've been performing as a soloist for like five years or so and I was like this is awesome but I was I was like in Helsinki in the middle of the winter and it was really dark and I and I was with a great group of people but I
Let's say it's a first oboe or first trumpet or cello, there is a solo moment. And I personally listen, like listen to the soloist , how he or she presents the phrasing or-- and I listen and I say, and I often think, oh that's great.
like the polar explorers were doing geographically 100 years ago. Understood. And with this context set for soloists to become collaborators, I'm very keen to understand a little bit more about why you have become so interested in trust
But as a conductor and a concert promoter, you can't-- it's very hard to get all of these elements together. I mean, just the demands of the soloists themselves, there's just so many different languages that they need to sing in and so many sort of vocal traditions that they have to perform in.
Adrian Danchig-Waring: It really depends on the role. I think for like corps de ballet things you often, it's about getting in line and making the line like the physical line from like head to toe, and soloists and principal roles depending give you a lot more room for character development, a lot more room for explorations of the physical dynamic that exists in whatever idiom you're working.
like the polar explorers were doing geographically 100 years ago. We see gaps in what's happening, and that leads to soloist behavior not because people are bad, but because the conditions aren't necessarily
It's a pretty fantastic way to end, I think. Camille, you had told a fascinating story yesterday about your experience as a soloist on that stage. It was, from the audience's perspective, just this incredible blend of your voice leading "Rassemblons-Nous," and a choir in the background
So that's how I operate. They say, OK, so tonight probably the soloist had a bit of sore throat.
I think to be successful in any business, you have to have passion. So my passion, what drives me is I'm a soloist . Right? I love being out in the middle of nowhere by myself.
like the polar explorers were doing geographically 100 years ago. was not the differentiator and is not the differentiator of teams performing well or people moving from being soloists to collaborator.
And that's like one of those beautiful moments that I think about vérité filmmaking. But I have thought about a bit more about if people are going to push themselves as free-soloists .
And the saxophone was also an agent of social progress. Because in the 1880s and '90s, we had women become professional saxophone soloists . This is Bessie Mecklem.
It's going to be about people working together to achieve more. So being a competitor, a world-class competitor, working on your own as a soloist is good, but it's not good enough.
And I guess the way I put in the book was, I wanted to add my voice to the chorus, rather than overwrite that or be the soloist .
It is hard, because I feel like in a traditional Broadway show, as a soloist , you want to ride up-- I feel like I'm trying to ride above an orchestra
So that's how I operate. Because when you sing, when you play opera-- and you, of course, as conductor of orchestra , your company-- a moment of soloist singing-- you can hear the soloist sings
So that's how I operate. And sometimes you come out, you feel, oh, soloist is running out of breath, so we need a little help.
He did. But at the same time, he slowly started creating the foundation of the show, which was us not being soloists .
So that's how I operate. And the-- besides, of course, the musical differences-- because having more soloists and the different music, which
groups of violinists, ten in each group. They ask the teachers who, to divide them from the ones who are gonna become soloists , the one who are really become members of orchestras;