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British conductor James Judd is internationally acclaimed for his remarkable versatility, unique musicianship and charismatic demeanor on and off stage. He is known for his exceptionally communicative style and compelling concerts and his regular performances in concert halls from Vienna to Tokyo are testament to his excellent contact with the public and musicians. His wealth of artistic activities have led him to cooperate with renowned orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Gewandhaus Orchester in Leipzig, Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and orchestras in Dallas, St. Louis, Baltimore and Montreal. Judd is a prominent interpreter of British orchestral music and has recorded Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 with the Halle Orchestra, which has brought him wide recognition from Elgar admirers. He has recorded extensively for the Naxos label in cooperation with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, where he was later appointed as Honorary Music Director. His recordings of works by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Beethoven, Bernstein, Copland and Gershwin have been very well received. He has conducted the works of Gustav Mahler on international stages and his recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 was awarded the Gold Medal by Diapason in France and by Toblacher Komponierhäuschen for Best Recording of the Year. Maestro Judd has also recorded extensively for Decca, EMI and Philips. Apart from his concert activities, James Judd is a regular guest
on opera stages like the English National Opera, Wexford Festival
and Glyndebourne Opera Festival, where he has conducted opera
productions of Il trovatore, La traviata, Rigoletto,
The Barbier of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro
and Cinderella. Between 1993 and 1996 he was Artistic Director
of the Florida Grand Opera where he presented Don Giovanni,
The Masked Ball, La Bohème, Madame Butterfly
and others. Besides staged opera productions, he has conducted
the concert versions of Tannhäuser, Fidelio and La clemenza
di Tito. He has also participated in recording the complete opera works
of Meyerbeer and Donizetti.
After completing his music studies at London Trinity College he became Lorin Maazel’s assistant in Cleveland. After two years in the USA he returned to Europe where he became Executive Director of the European Community Youth Orchestra, whose Chief Conductor was Claudio Abbado. He accepted the position of Music Director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for a period of eight years, and during this time contributed immensely to the artistic development of the ensemble and gained recognition on international concert stages. Under his leadership the orchestra undertook its first concert tour of Europe, performing in renowned halls like the Concertgebouw and Royal Albert Hall. Past positions have included Music Director of the Israel Symphony
Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille
in France, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and a groundbreaking 14 years as
Music Director of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra. During his tenure,
this regional ensemble became an orchestra of note. Thanks to the introduction of
innovative programs, the positive public response and support for
its especially successful summer festival, the ensemble enjoyed significant artistic
growth. Together with the Florida Philharmonic he made recordings
of the works of Walton, Bernstein and Mahler which received numerous
awards. 
In addition to his international conducting career, James Judd has led the orchestras of the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Guildhall School, Trinity College of London, Aspen Music Festival and the National Youth Orchestras of Australia and New Zealand. Since 2007, he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Asian Youth Orchestra, an ensemble of the most gifted musicians from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Korea. In 2008 he established the Miami Music Project in Southern Florida which received generous support from the John and James Knight Foundation for the enhancement of education and training, providing performing opportunities for hundreds of children from different social backgrounds and underprivileged communities in the city. The Miami Music Project, inspired by the Venezuelan model El Sistema, opened a music academy for teaching in the Miami communities Doral and Little Haiti and is planning to open another academy in Little Havana and Liberty City. The project provides talented young musicians with the opportunity to practice and play orchestral works with the Miami Youth Orchestra. Recent concert highlights have included performances of Britten's War Requiem at the Festival George Enescu with the National Radio Orchestra in Bucharest, staged performances of Carmina Burana at the spectacular desert ruins of Masada, a concert with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra at the Palais Princier in Monte-Carlo, a tour in Asia and Europe with the Asian Youth Orchestra, concerts in Sarrebrücken and Frankfurt with the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra etc… In September 2016 he was appointed Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra. In November 2016 he conducted the opening concert of the Slovak Philharmonic as part of the Bratislava Music Festival. From the 2017/2018 concert season James Judd is the Chief
Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted seven pairs
of subscription concerts and the opening concert of the 2017 Bratislava
Music Festival. -- Biography from Danthois Artists Management
(with slight corrections) |
JJ: Yes, sometimes. I study those
all the time, so on the plane is a great opportunity. I usually
watch at least one film, and read books, and try to sleep just a bit.
JJ: I don’t know that I would want to
particularly offer advice, because, as I said before, one does really
respect composers. Advice from a practicing musician is just to
give us material that’s as clear as possible, with your intentions clearly
stated. We have too little time to rehearse things today because
it’s so costly. So, the advice is mostly
all practical things. Orchestrate well, learn the fundamentals
of the business, and then write what you really feel and think.
Audiences respond, so don’t write down to audiences.
JJ: Yes, I see what you mean. That
would be nice, and it works both ways because in Florida we have all
the snowbirds — all the very sophisticated
people have been listening to orchestras in the north and at festivals.
I was in Aspen last year in the Grand Teton Festival, and now I am
here at Grant Park. Probably there will be people who spend the winter
in Florida. It’s ironic, because we do a Beethoven festival in Florida
in July, at a time when people said we would never find an audience, and
we actually get sixty per cent non-subscribers, full houses with lots of
young people. It’s terrific. It’s our third year now.
Most of our patrons and most of the Board of the orchestra are all up in
Tanglewood or in Aspen [laughs], so we have to tell them about the success
of the festival.
JJ: Yes, and then you have the challenge of finding
time for them to do that in their very busy schedules. How do you
organize that? The great orchestras are all chamber ensembles anyway.
JJ: Neither, because the notation on the page as it exists
is such a vague language, and the metronome marks for that day, in that
room, are fine, but in another place, they don’t work. Or suddenly
a composer’s idea about his music changes. Isn’t it wonderful when
we listen to great performances from the past, such as a Beethoven symphony
with Toscanini, with Klemperer, or with Furtwängler? You can’t
say one is right and one is wrong. It would be ridiculous.
You hear so many things in the sense than the composer himself would find
incredible richness and rewards. The music is so beyond any single
performance power to embrace it all.
JJ: It’s entertainment in so far
people turn up to a place of entertainment. You can call it entertainment,
but it goes so much deeper than that. There is something more in
great classical music. [Laughs] We call it by this horrible
name, but we’ve got to call it something, so let’s call it classical music.
There is something much, much deeper than in the best Andrew Lloyd Webber
— which I like as well —
or in the best musical. They’re great! There’s
nothing wrong with them. I go to see those things myself, but we
musicians who love music know that there are other, deeper levels. As
performers, we are fighting a little bit today against those who would
turn it just into a competing entertainment, which is silly because that
is perversely the elitist argument. Music is not elitist. It’s
for everybody, and everybody in their lives — especially
today — is looking for spiritual things,
and rewards, because the world’s so materialistic around us. In
my view, we should be marketing much more about promoting the idea of
deeper qualities of music, because, actually, people are all in contact
with that, and want to be in contact with it.
BD: Is it your responsibility to know every
piece of the orchestral literature?
JJ: [Laughs] These days it’s
a great idea. The means we receive music is going to be so different
soon anyway, isn’t it? We in the orchestra business are so rightly
concerned now about education, especially in line with the sociological
problems that we see around us which we were discussing earlier. So,
it’s more and more important that we reach children at the age of three
with classical music, and do this with parents. We’ve got to get
music to them, and what better way than to do it through the computer?
My three-year-old was using computers before I was using computers...
BD: Are we getting more and more people,
but not more and more percentage of the population?
JJ: Yes, I am. I’m really looking
forward to the fifty-thing which is coming up for me, because it’s a chance
to really reassess things. I’ve been, I would say, a slow developer
in many ways, not a Wunderkind, not one of these conductors that
is so confident at the age of twenty-five that he can do everything.
I enjoy the process, the struggle I go through, and it’s very rewarding
for me. I’m looking forward from the age of fifty for different
aspects of my life, including family life, and being able to be in a fortunate
position to do a lot of the things I want to do — the
repertoire I want to do, the places that I like, and finding orchestras.
They’re not always the most famous orchestras, just orchestras where
you have a sudden, incredible rapport. For example, I was in Australia
with three different orchestras in June, and I came across an orchestra
in Adelaide. They had just played the Ring Cycle with Jeffrey Tate, and I did
the Elgar First Symphony with them. At the first rehearsal, I
had never heard it so beautifully played anywhere in the world, even with
all the English orchestras I’ve done it with and recorded,
who are wonderful. It would challenge any orchestra in
this country, and it's not a famous orchestra. You have Sydney and
Melbourne to consider, but we had no idea what there is in the southern hemisphere.
They are wonderful orchestras that would be in the top category in this
country... maybe not in the Top Five, but certainly the Top Twelve. Sometimes,
as a musician it’s much less important to be famous, or a star, than to be
in a special place.César Pelli (October 12, 1926 –
July 19, 2019) was an Argentine architect who designed some of the world's
tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. Some of his most notable
contributions included the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur [shown in
photo below] and the World Financial Center in New York City. The American
Institute of Architects named him one of the ten most influential living
American architects in 1991 and awarded him the AIA Gold Medal in 1995.
In 2008, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat presented him with
The Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award.
He studied architecture at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. He graduated in 1949, after which he designed low-cost housing projects. In 1952, he attended the University of Illinois School of Architecture in the United States for advanced study in architecture, and received his Master of Science in Architecture degree in 1954. In 1952, Pelli moved to the United States with his wife, Diana Balmori (1932–2016), and became a naturalized citizen in 1964. After his graduation from the University of Illinois School of Architecture, Pelli worked for Eero Saarinen in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, for ten years. In 1977, Pelli was selected to be the dean of the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut, and served in that post until 1984. Shortly after Pelli arrived at Yale, he won the commission to design the expansion and renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which resulted in the establishment of his own firm, Cesar Pelli & Associates. Pelli was named one of the ten most influential living American Architects by the American Institute of Architects in 1991. In 1995, he was awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. In May 2004, Pelli was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Minnesota Duluth where he designed Weber Music Hall. In 2005, Pelli was honored with the Connecticut Architecture Foundation's Distinguished Leadership Award. |
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John Duffy, an Englishman born in Liverpool, UK, is a renowned Presenter and Promoter of concerts and artistes in the UK, USA and Asia. In the late '70s, John was the Personnel Manager of the London Symphony Orchestra and remained there until he moved to United States in 1986. He then joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra the Personnel Manager, and was able to work alongside the conductor Lorin Maazel, and other American based artists. So, it was no surprise when in 1991 he was invited to become Artistic and Operations manager to the New World Symphony, the orchestra created by Michael Tilson Thomas to help assist academically trained musicians to experience the finer arts of the orchestral world. In addition, John was also the Tour and Personnel Manager of the European Youth Orchestra (1981-1986) which gave him the opportunity to keep acquainted with the younger members of the orchestral world. Later, after a couple of years working independently in New York as a promoter and instrument dealer, John was given the opportunity to build an entirely new professional orchestra in Kuala Lumpur, The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. His other positions also include as the Auditions Co-ordinator for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, tour manager USA for Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Personnel Selection Assistant for Asian Philharmonic Orchestra, John received Musical Training at Royal Manchester College of Music, before joining the Halle Orchestra in 1958 where he was Principal Double Bassist under the conductor, Sir John Barbirolli. In 1966 he moved to London as a member of the London Symphony Orchestra. As well as performing with most other London based Orchestras, he enjoyed the opportunities to perform under all world-famous conductors, and with all internationally acclaimed soloists. Of course, constant international touring was a necessity for this level of artistic activity, and more than 50 countries were visited during his London years. |
© 1999 Bruce Duffie
This conversation was recorded in Chicago on August 13, 1999. Portions were broadcast on WNIB three months later. This transcription was made in 2019, and posted on this website at that time. My thanks to British soprano Una Barry for her help in preparing this website presentation.
To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been transcribed and posted on this website, click here. To read my thoughts on editing these interviews for print, as well as a few other interesting observations, click here.
Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001. His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.
You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests. He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago. You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.