Phillip Gainsley's Podcast

Robert Marx is president of The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, one ofNew York City’s leading arts philanthropies.  Since 1995, Rob has appeared on the Metropolitan Opera’s live Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts as an intermission host, commentator and Opera Quiz panelist.  His many broadcast interview subjects have included the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, stage director Robert Wilson, and former Met general manager Joseph Volpe.  From 1989-99 he was executive director of Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.   Among many new initiatives there, he created the Library’s first touring program, sending exhibitions about choreographers Alvin Ailey and George Balanchine, director Harold Prince, and stage designer Ming Cho Lee across America and to Asia.  Major collection acquisitions included the personal archives of choreographer Jerome Robbins, impresario Lincoln Kirstein, composer John Cage, stage designer Boris Aronson, and producer Joseph Papp.   From 1987-1989 Rob was director of the National Endowment for the Arts Theatre Program, and was director of the New York State Council on the Arts Theatre Program from 1976-1983.

David Feheley is a technical director, with 20 years of experience, specializing in producing opera and productions in repertory. He is currently the technical director for the Metropolitan Opera.David studied theatrical production at York University in his native Toronto before joining the newly opened York University Student Centre as its production manager.  He managed all aspects of the Centre’s program of concerts and events in its multi-use facility.He later branched out into the freelance world as a technical director before joining the production department at the Stratford Festival of Canada. He started as the Assistant Technical Director for the Festival Stage, and finished his time at the Festival as the assistant director of production.David moved into the world of opera when he joined the Canadian Opera Company in 2003. While there, he was part of the opening of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Canada’s first purpose-built opera house, and the COC’s Ring Cycle, Canada’s first home-grown production of the Ring.David moved to the United States in 2013 to assume the position of technical and production director for the Houston Grand Opera. While in Houston, he continued his association with Wagner’s Ring Cycle, as Houston produced its first Ring, the La Fura dels Baus production from Barcelona.Since 2016, David has been the technical director for the Met, overseeing all backstage operations as well as the construction work done in the scenery and scenic shops. The Met’s season of 19 productions running in repertory also includes building and producing 6 new productions each year.The Ring Cycle has played a prominent role in his time at the Met. A major technical overhaul of Robert Lepage’s 2010 production and its presentation as part of the 2019 season marked David’s third Ring.

Steven Blier is the co-founder and artistic director of the New York Festival of Song, and has served asprogrammer/translator/pianist/arranger of more than 150 of its programs.He has been a recital collaborator with some of the great singers of our time, including Renée Fleming and Cecilia Bartoli. He has recorded on the Koch, New World, Nonesuch, Albany, and RCA labels, and he won a Grammy Award in 1990. He was also nominated for Grammy Awards in 1999 and 1989.  Most recently, he issued six new albums on NYFOS Records, including Schubert/Beatles with Theo Hoffman and Julia Bullock.Blier has been on the faculty of the Juilliard School since 1993, and has given master classes around the U.S. in song repertoire. A longtime feature writer for Opera News Magazine, he has been guest faculty/recitalist at the Wolf Trap Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, and San Francisco Opera. He holds a BA degree from Yale University, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

After graduation from Macalester College in St. Paul, Lawrence Perelman imagined a performing arts cable channel. So he earned an MBA at Columbia Business School and later founded Semantix Creative Group, a strategic advisory firm for performing artists and global performing arts institutions. As Semantix’s CEO, Lawrence kept pitching his idea, and even discussed it with Carnegie Hall’s Clive Gillinson. In December 2021, Lawrence, as co-founder, was part of the team that launched Carnegie Hall+, a premium subscription on-demand channel on the Apple TV app. As you’ll hear in this episode, his parents always encouraged him to take risks: “You want to meet someone and accomplish something? Write them a letter.” That’s maybe the most valuable lesson he learned: "...to put your heart out there and make a statement." So, in 1994, he wrote a letter to William F. Buckley Jr. to thank him for emboldening Soviet Jews to come to America, as his parents did. Suffice it to say that over the years, Buckley became a friend and mentor who changed the course of Lawrence’s life "because he took time to answer my letter." This is a unique episode!

Earl J. Schub has had a distinguished career as an educator and arts administrator. For 12 years he was the dean of the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University.   He had served as Lyric Opera of Chicago’s director of public relations and marketing, and executive producer for television, and director of education.  He served as manager of the company’s Opera Center for American Artists, and as manager of Western Opera Theater, San Francisco Opera’s touring and educational affiliate. Earl has served on the Illinois Arts Council, the Chicago City Arts Council, and the California Arts Commission and he was as an on-site observer for the National Endowment for the Arts. He served on the education committee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra In addition, he has been on the board of trustees for a number of music organizations, including the Chicago Music Alliance, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony.

Richard Schoch is an historian whose research encompasses theater historiography, Shakespeare in performance, musical theater, and cultural history. Richard is the author of eight books, including the recently published Shakespeare's House: A Window onto his Life and Legacy. His latest book is How Sondheim Can Change Your Life, published last November. In 2021 he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy, Ireland’s highest academic honor. Richard Schoch is a professor of drama Queen’s University in Belfast. He graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University and earned his PhD from Stanford University. He has directed plays in New York City and worked for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Richard’s book shows how Sondheim’s lyrics relate to us all. But as important, Richard’s book reveals parallel styles between Stephen Sondheim and William Shakespeare. 

Jim Griffith is in his first season as the executive director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.        He was also the founder, president, and CEO of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in Fort Myers, Florida.  The landmark— an abandoned federal courts building, a neoclassical-style building with a row of distinctive ionic columns out front — is now home to concerts, art exhibits, plays, fundraisers, fashion shows and just about every other kind of art.  All of this after he was told it couldn’t be done.  That’s all he had to hear. Jim co-founded the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, Gulf Coast Music School, and New Arts Festival.  Jim Griffith is an accomplished violist who has even performed at Carnegie Hall.  He was a member of the Naples, Florida Philharmonic from 1989 to 2022.

Dave Bennett began his national touring career at the age of 14. He has been a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops and he has performed with 35 other US and Canadian orchestras including Nashville, Houston, Detroit, Rochester, Omaha and Toronto. Some of his annual appearances include The Elkhart Jazz Festival, The Suncoast Classic Jazz Festival, The Arizona Classic Jazz Festival, The Sacramento Hot Jazz Jubilee, The Clambake Music Festival, and The Redwood Coast Music Festival. Dave was featured on NPR’s  “Jazz at Riverwalk.”   He made his European debut in 2008 at The Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland in a combo with jazz legends and Benny Goodman alumni guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and vibraphonist Peter Appleyard. Dave is a recording artist on the jazz label Mack Avenue Records. His second release, Blood Moon reached No. 24 on the Billboard Jazz charts in 2018.  In March 2022, Dave and his band performed to a sold-out audience at New York City’s Birdland Jazz Club. Dave recently joined forces with guitarist/vocalist/pastor Tom Hampton for Dave’s first gospel project, recently released.

Behzod Abduraimov’s performances combine an immense depth of musicality with phenomenal technique and breath-taking delicacy. He performs with renowned orchestras worldwide including Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Concertgebouworkest, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB). Regular festival appearances include Aspen, Verbier, Rheingau, La Roque Antheron, Lucerne and Ravello festivals. Behzod’s second recording for Alpha Classics, featuring works by Ravel, Prokofiev, and Uzbek composer Dilorom Saidaminova, was released on 12 January 2024. The album was Gramophone’ Editor’s Choice in January 2024, and was included in Apple Music ‘10 Classical Albums You Must Hear This Month’ of February 2024.  The year 2021 saw the highly successful release of his first recital album for Alpha Classics based on a program of Miniatures including Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. In 2020, recordings included Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan, recorded on Rachmaninoff’s own piano from Villa Senar for Sony Classical, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3 with Concertgebouworkest, for the RCO live label. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1990, Behzod began the piano at age five, as a pupil of Tamara Popovich at Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent.

Ken Ludwig’s first play, Lend Me a Tenor, was produced on Broadway (1986) and in London by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It won two Tony Awards and was called “one of the classic comedies of the 20th century” by The Washington Post. His Crazy For You was on Broadway for five years, on the West End for three, and won the Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Musical. It has been revived twice in the West End and is currently touring Japan.   His shows have been produced in over 20 languages in more than 30 countries, and many have become standards of the American repertoire.   We’ll talk about these shows and many of his others, and we'll discuss his love of Shakespeare!

In the words of The New Yorker, Charles Neidich “is an artist  of  uncommon merit -- a master of his instrument and, beyond that, an  interpreter  who keeps listeners hanging on each phrase.”        Charles is the artistic  director of the Wa Concert Series at  the Tenri Cultural Institute in New  York, which he founded with his wife, clarinetist Ayako Oshima, in September 2017. This concert series is inspired by the  Japanese concept “wa”—  meaning circle, but also harmony and completeness; each  performance is  thus paired with visual arts and offers a variety of culinary delicacies prepared by Ayako Oshima. In recent seasons, Charles has added conducting to his musical accomplishments. He has led the Cobb Symphony Orchestra and Georgia Symphony in performances of the Franck Symphony in D Minor and Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto (also playing the solo clarinet part). Charles commands a repertoire of over 200 solo works, including pieces commissioned or inspired by him, as well as his own transcriptions of vocal and instrumental works. With a growing discography to his credit, he can be heard on the Chandos, Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Pantheon, and Bridge labels. His recorded repertoire ranges from familiar works by Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, and Brahms, to lesser-known compositions by Danzi, Reicha, Rossini, and Hummel, as well as music by Elliott Carter, Gyorgy Kurtag, and other contemporary masters. Although Charles became quite active in music at an early age, he opted against attending a music conservatory in favor of academic studies at Yale University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Anthropology. In 1975 he became the first American to receive a Fulbright grant for study in the former Soviet Union, and he attended the Moscow Conservatory for three years where his teachers were Boris Dikov and Kirill Vinogradov. Charles Neidich has achieved recognition as a teacher in addition to his activities as a performer, and currently is a member of the artist faculties of The Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes College of Music. During the 1994-95 academic year he was a Visiting Professor at the Sibelius Academy in Finland where he taught, performed and conducted. Mr. Neidich is a long-time member of the renowned chamber ensemble Orpheus.

Having grown up in Atlanta, with a long lineage of preachers and connections to gospel music to inspire him, GRAMMY-nominated Carlos Simon’s music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles, to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism.Carlos is the current composer-in-residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and he frequently composes for its National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera.This past season featured the premiere of his Gospel Mass, with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a work reimagining the traditional mass with gospel soloists and choir, with visual creations from Melina Matsoukas.Carlos frequently curates concert programs, which often highlight his own music as well as that of close collaborators. Curation concerts have recently been programmed by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Boston Chamber Players, Tanglewood Festival for Contemporary Music, and the Kennedy Center.Carlos also released the live premiere recording of brea(d)th, a landmark work commissioned by Minnesota Orchestra and written in collaboration with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, conducted by Jonathan Taylor Rush. “Arguably the most important commission of Simon’s career so far” (The New York Times), brea(d)th was written following George Floyd’s murder as a direct response to America’s unfulfilled promises and history of systemic oppression against Black Americans.  I’m especially proud to have discussed the piece with Carlos in this episode.

Kathleen MarshallKathleen began her Broadway career as an assistant to her brother Rob, the choreographer of Kiss of the Spider Woman, in 1993. The two also collaborated on She Loves Me, Damn Yankees , Victor/Victoria and Seussical. She was the artistic director for the Encores! series of staged musical revivals from 1996 through 2000. During that time, she choreographed The Boys from Syracuse, Li'l Abner and Call Me Madam and she directed and choreographed Babes in Arms and Wonderful Town.She also directed and choreographed the Broadway revival of Grease.  I was fortunate enough to catch the Encores! production of Wonderful Town when it transferred to Broadway.Kathleen was also the director and choreographer of the Broadway revival of Pajama Game which opened in February 2006 and which was the Broadway acting debut of Harry Connick Jr.  I’m happy to report I was there too!More pertinent, Kathleen directed and choreographed a Broadway revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes in 2011, with Sutton Foster as Reno Sweeney.  The show ran at London’s Barbican Centre in 2021 and was recorded for television (BBC) by Ross MacGibbon, later picked up by PBS in America.  Kathleen’s production is as close to perfect as can be. In fact, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer. Stephen RidleyIn 2021 Steve joined Kathleen as music supervisor and music director of Anything Goes at the Barbican.  He was also music supervisor of Oklahoma! at Wyndham’s Theatre.  Steve conducted the highly-acclaimed Broadway transfers of The King and I at The London Palladium and the Dominion Theatre and An American in Paris at the Dominion Theatre, and he was the music director of the Olivier Award winning revival of Ken Ludwig’s Crazy for You at the Novello Theatre.  He later was music supervisor of Kiss me, Kate at the Barbican, now being shown on PBS throughout the U.S.Steve is a music director, conductor and pianist based in London. He was born in Middlesbrough and is a graduate of the Royal College of Music. I’m thrilled that he joined us for this exciting episode!

Daniela Candillari grew up in Serbia and Slovenia.  She holds a Doctorate in Musicology from the Universität für Musik in Vienna, a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Master of Music and Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the Universität für Musik in Graz. She is also a Fulbright Scholarship recipient.Daniela is in her fourth season as principal conductor at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In celebration of its 50th anniversary season, she is conducting the company’s 44th world premiere, This House, with music by Ricky Ian Gordon and libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage and her daughter, Ruby Aiyo Gerber.Daniela made her New York Philharmonic debut in its inaugural season in the new David Geffen Hall, conducting cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Elgar’s Cello Concerto.  And she made her “Carnegie Hall Presents” debut leading the American Composers Orchestra in a program of premieres.  Other engagements include debuts with the Metropolitan Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin, and productions with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Minnesota Opera, Detroit Opera, Orchestre Métropolitan Montreal, and Classical Tahoe Festival.Finally, Daniela has been commissioned by established artists including instrumentalists from the Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh Symphonies, as well as the three resident orchestras of Lincoln Center: the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet. She is deeply involved with Music Academy of the West’s programming for young artists and she recently participated in master classes and discussions at DePaul University, Chicago Humanities Festival, and Valissima Institute.It's a pleasure to have her with me on this episode.

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo began performing professionally at the age of 11 and has since appeared in opera, concert, recital, film, and on Broadway. He has performed in the world’s great opera houses and symphony halls.In June 2024, he began his tenure as the general director and president of Opera Philadelphia.His most recent album, Anthony Roth Costanzo & Justin Vivian Bond: Only an Octave Apart was released in January 2022. His first solo album, ARC was released in September 2018 and nominated for the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. He also stars on the Metropolitan Opera’s recording and DVD of Akhnaten which won the 2022 GRAMMY award for best opera recording.Anthony was the recipient of the 2020 Beverly Sills Award from the Metropolitan Opera, a winner of the 2020 Opera News Award, and the 2019 Musical America vocalist of the year.He graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University where he was awarded the Lewis Sudler Prize for extraordinary achievement in the arts, and where he has returned to teach.

Freya’s music is characterized by contrasts between earthy rhythmic play and fragility, luminous spaces, and a sense of the otherworldly. She has been commissioned by numerous institutions and ensemblesHer current season includes Mother Tongue, a new four movement work for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ed Gardner; a new work for the Archipelago Collective’s 10th anniversary festival on San Juan Island WA; and a new work for classical orchestra for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in response to Fanny Mendelssohn’s Das Jahr. Also upcoming is the release on NMC of Waley-Cohen’s Debut Disc, Spell Book, with performances from the Manchester Collective as well as Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Ann Beilby, Nathaniel Boyd, Hèloïse Werner, Fleur Barron and Katie Bray.Other recent successes include the world premiere of Pocket Cosmos, premiered in June 2022 by commissioners London Chamber Orchestra and directed by Pekka Kuusisto, and staging of Freys’s contemporary dramatic song cycle Spell Book at Longborough Festival Opera and Waley-Cohen’s first opera WITCH, commissioned in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Music.Freya was the 2019/20 Associate Composer at Wigmore Hall, which held a day of concerts in March 2023 focused on her music. She was also Associate Composer of St. David’s Hall’s contemporary music series, ‘Nightmusic’, from 2018 – 2021. Winner of a 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, Freya Waley-Cohen held an Open Space Residency at Snape Maltings from 2015 – 2017 and was 2016 – 2018 Associate Composer of Nonclassical.I spoke to Freya from her home in London.

Peter Boyer is one of the most frequently performed American orchestral composers of his generation. His works have received over 800 public performances by more than 300 orchestras, and tens of thousands of broadcasts by classical radio stations around the world/Listen, as we discuss Peter’s major work Ellis Island: The Dream of America, for actors and orchestra. It has become one of the most-performed American orchestral works composed in the last 25 years, with over 300 performances by 125 orchestras since its 2002 premiere. Peter has received commissions from several of the most prestigious American institutions and ensembles, including the United States Marine Band, which commissioned and premiered his Fanfare for Tomorrow for the inauguration of President Joe Biden.In 2010, Peter was chosen for the Boston Pops 125th anniversary commission, honoring the legacy of John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy.  His The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers was narrated by actors including Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Alec Baldwin, and was conducted by Keith Lockhart.In 2019, Boyer received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is officially recognized by Congress as one of the most prestigious American awards, and has been presented to seven U.S. Presidents, as well as U.S. Secretaries of State, Supreme Court Justices, members of Congress, military leaders, and prominent Americans from many fields. Past medalists in the arts have included Renée Fleming, Quincy Jones, Rita Moreno, Gregory Peck, Itzhak Perlman, Chita Rivera, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Simon.  In addition to his work for the concert stage, Peter’s career has included work in the film and television music industry. He has orchestrated more than 35 feature film scores from all the major movie studios, for leading Hollywood composers.

Brent Assink served as executive director of the San Francisco Symphony for 18 years, a term during which the symphony significantly grew its artistic profile and community engagement.  His creative partnership with then-Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas produced celebrated projects such as the American Mavericks festivals, the Keeping Score multi-media series and SFS Media, the first orchestra-run record label in the U.S.Brent joined the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s artistic operations department in 1981. Six years later, he became the SPCO manager, and in 1995, its president.  He is currently the interim president of the Minnesota Orchestra, while it searches for a permanent president/CEO.

The King's Singers have represented the gold standard in a cappella singing on the world's greatest stages for over fifty years. They are renowned for their unrivalled technique, versatility and skill in performance, and for their consummate musicianship, drawing both on the group's rich heritage and its pioneering spirit to create an extraordinary wealth of original works and unique collaborations.

Kathleen van Bergen is in her 14th season as CEO and president of Artis—Naples.  In that time, she has been recognized throughout Southwest Florida and the greater arts community as an example of leadership geared toward prudent growth and relationship building. Named one of Musical America’s “Top 30 Professionals of the Year” in 2019, she is described as “a woman with a mission, a vision and a board to support both.” In 2022, she was named among Gulfshore Life magazine’s “Forces of Philanthropy,” a select few leaders of Southwest Florida who “propel the philanthropic community into the future through mentorship, collaboration and camaraderie.”From the beginning of her tenure, she has made balanced budgets and operational surpluses a priority: The balance sheet has more than doubled over the last decade, and, as of 2021, the organization is debt free.  On her watch, its endowment has surpassed $150 million. Kathleen’s vision for multidisciplinary thematic planning has allowed Artis—Naples to leverage its unique resources in order to enhance patron experiences with the visual and performing arts.The diversity of artistic excellence and world-class programming is one reason The Wall Street Journal said Artis—Naples has ushered in “an impressive new phase” for classical music in Southwest Florida.In 2022, Kathleen was a recipient of the Eastman School of Music’s Centennial Award, given in honor of its 100th year to 100 individuals who exemplify the school’s mission and legacy through their artistry, scholarship, leadership, community engagement and philanthropy