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By Javier C. Hernández
Reporting from Baltimore
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra had finished performing Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” on a recent evening when the ensemble’s new music director, Jonathon Heyward, returned to the level of Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
Rugs and chairs had been removed to evoke a living room, for an intimate nightly verbal exchange with the audience about music and life. Dressed in Converse shoes and sipping a glass of whiskey, Heyward, 31, talked about Respighi, his first season as musical director and becoming a father. (His daughter, Ottilie, was born in May. ) It’s the kind of informal collecting that Heyward, who this month takes over as director of the Lincoln Center Festival Orchestra, championed as he works to expand classical music. music audience.
“This art form is for everyone,” he later said in an interview. “We should all feel welcome here. “
Heyward’s efforts to break down barriers in concert halls earned him a nickname: the Converse bandleader. He is part of a generation of young masters, including Kentucky’s Teddy Abrams and California’s Anthony Parnther, seeking to shed classical music’s elitist symbol. music. These rising stars also hope their orchestras triumph over the disruption caused by the pandemic by hosting a wide diversity of artists and genres and bringing more music to the community.
These concepts were recently demonstrated in Baltimore, when about 3,000 more people gathered at Fort McHenry, a national landmark, to hear Heyward conduct a concert honoring the structure’s personnel who died in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted somber works such as Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Florence Price’s “The Deserted Garden,” as well as pieces by local artists, including hip-hop artist Anthony Parker, who passes through the level called Wordsmith.
Heyward, the son of a black father and a white mother, and the first user of color to conduct the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in its 108-year history, says orchestras have a legal responsibility to their communities.
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