April 5, 2024 • 17 mins
As the cosmos aligns for a total eclipse in East Texas, we're joined by Richard Lee, the musical director of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, for a conversation that promises to be as mesmerizing as the stars themselves. Lee discusses ETSO's upcoming symphonic celebration that will marry the majesty of classical music with the cinematic splendor of composers like John Williams, Strauss, and Holst. He discusses the magic behind curating a soundtrack for the skies, the exhilaration of pairing this auditory feast with the visual spectacle from TJC's Earth and Space Science Center.
Meanwhile, on the terra firma of East Texas, football reigns supreme, and so does the spirit of the "Gridiron Symphony," a triumphant testament to the region's cultural heartbeat. Lee shares the odyssey behind the creation of this homage to high school football, capturing the essence of community pride and the orchestra's intrinsic connection to the local ethos.
(Show notes are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
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LANDESS (00:04):
You can expect a musical soundtrack as East Texas
prepares for the total eclipsethat will cross Texas on April
8th.
That soundtrack will beprovided by the East Texas
Symphony Orchestra, and UT TylerRadio connects with music
director Richard Lee.
Have you ever directed amusical event that was related
to a celestial event before?
LEE (00:24):
The short answer is no, definitely not.
It's a unique thing.
It's a unique idea.
Happy, we're doing it, but itwas a little bit tricky to
program.
It's such a specific kind ofevent thematically that it
really doesn't work.
LANDESS (00:41):
Now the performances are on April 6th and the
Saturday before the actualeclipse.
Tell us about them and themusic that you chose.
LEE (00:49):
I know it's going to be spectacular.
The folks I've spoken to havereally talked up how special,
mystical even the event that isthe event on the Saturday on the
6th.
We're calling it a totality.
It's a very brief programthat's thematically based on,
well, the Eclipse music, if youcan find it, but otherwise sort
(01:10):
of just vaguely celestial music,both classical and sort of
cinematic soundtracks will lastabout an hour.
I think it'll be a lot of fun.
LANDESS (01:19):
Well now, the performances of John Williams,
for instance, is an easy choice.
Yes, it was, but tell me aboutchoosing Strauss and Holst.
LEE (01:28):
The first thing I did was this sounds so prosaic, but I
went to Google and I typed inclassical music, eclipse, and
see who popped up.
And the first thing that poppedup was a piece called Totality.
That was written the last timethe eclipse came through this
country, not so long ago.
So apparently the composerwitnessed it, was so moved and
(01:48):
inspired he wrote a piece basedon sort of the actual event of
the eclipse, sort of starting,progressing, you know, arriving
at full totality and thenreceding and becoming normal
daylight again.
And it's a short littlefour-minute piece that depicts
this event so literally that wedecide to make that sort of the
center point of the program.
(02:08):
So video totality.
And then we surrounded withmusic the things that came up
Total Eclipse of the Heart.
Did I look for an arrangementfor an orchestra of Total
Eclipse of the Heart?
Yes, there is one, but it's outof print.
I can't get it anywhere.
LANDESS (02:22):
Oh gosh.
LEE (02:26):
And you know, I thought of here Comes the Sun by the
Beatles.
I tried to look for anythingand everything.
It was varying degrees ofsuccess, I can tell you that.
So we end up with the Straussis very simple, it's the fanfare
from.
Most people know it from 2001,.
A Space Odyssey, that minute.
And there's the monolith and,yeah, the Holst.
(02:49):
Of course he wrote a piececalled the Planet, so it's
really more from an astrologicalstandpoint, but it references
all of the known planets of thetime.
So there's a piece about Marswhich we're doing, there's a
piece about Jupiter and thereare other pieces about Neptune
and Saturn, all that sort ofthing.
So we're playing excerpts fromthat too.
I think it's going to be areally broad-ranging program.
It's designed to befamily-friendly, it's designed
(03:09):
not to be too long either, whichis important, I think.
LANDESS (03:13):
As if the music were not exciting enough, TJC's Earth
and Space Science Center isgoing to supply visuals for the
audience.
LEE (03:21):
What's that going to be like?
Well, you know, I've seen allthe visuals.
The one for Totality is veryspecific to the eclipse.
The other ones will be more ofa slideshow, I think.
So, for example, guess whathe's going to show.
When we're playing Mars,there'll be a lot of images of
said planet, right, and it'ssort of the very literal.
What we did decide, though, is,when we're playing that, we are
(03:42):
playing the Star Wars theme.
Why not?
Right?
I mean, it's based in a galaxyfar, far away, so it's it's
certainly space themed.
We are not going to be showinglightsaber duels, and no.
Darth Vader It'll be moregeneric stuff.
But yes, there will be sort ofa because again I think I said
this already we expect familiesto show up to Tyler looking for
(04:04):
things to do that weekend.
You know that don't knowanything about the city, about
what's on offer, so we wanted tomake sure this was really
available to a broadcross-section of folk.
And you know that was part ofthe idea to make it even have
young children in tow, that youcould bring this concert for an
hour, then go to the planetarium.
I mean, it was just such agreat partnership to be able to
(04:29):
partner with the Space andScience Center over at TJC,
because they provide so much ofthe technical aspect of this
event.
LANDESS (04:37):
Some are predicting that Tyler's population will
double that weekend before thetotal eclipse.
Of course, as you said, youhave an opportunity to reach a
wide variety of people.
Two performances with seatingfor just over 700.
Are you going to sell it out?
LEE (04:50):
That's the goal.
I hope so.
I think it would be veryunlikely that there would be a
lot of tickets left at the door,if any.
So if this is something thatinterests you, unfortunately you
all need to sort of pre-planand sort of buy tickets online,
which you can do at etsoorg.
I can look right now.
We have a 4 o'clock and a 7.30show on the 6th of April.
(05:11):
Yeah, it's.
I don't know if you've beenthere, mike.
It's a beautiful hall but it'sa small hall and when they fixed
it up a couple years ago theyweren't able to increase the
footprint any that was reallyset in stone.
So increase the footprint anythat was really set in stone.
So the capacity didn't changethat much.
(05:31):
So it's a little bit small.
In terms of the capacity ofpeople, the stage is perfectly
big enough for the symphony but,yeah, the crowds, the audience
part of it, is still a littlebit undersized for a typical
symphony orchestra.
LANDESS (05:43):
No, no, no, not undersized, it's intimate.
LEE (05:47):
It is very intimate though You're right, but it's funny.
When I'm on the stage thereversus Cowan, you can really
clearly get a sense of thedifference in volume between the
two spaces, between UT Tylerand TJC.
LANDESS (06:00):
You know, it strikes me that any musical director of
any symphony orchestra, of anysize, is constantly challenged
to find ways to engage thecurrent supporters and to start
cultivating the futuresupporters.
LEE (06:13):
Yes, because often they don't have the same priorities
or tastes or vision in terms ofwhat we ought to be playing.
But folks have been prettyopen-minded here and they've
certainly understood that I needto be provided broad leeway to
(06:33):
program the way that'll continueto grow.
I mean, grow is even a strongword, you know survive.
You know orchestras mostorchestras are in survival mode.
This is not a great post-COVID.
Covid was awful for symphonyorchestras.
There's still a whole bunch oforchestras in this country that
are still feeling the lingeringafter effects of that.
You know they lost a year and ahalf of their income, their
(06:56):
revenue.
Musicians did too, and a lot offolks haven't recovered to the
level in terms of audienceparticipation that they had
pre-COVID.
I mean, they haven't gottenback to the swing of things.
It's always difficult.
It's more difficult now.
The swing of things, it'salways difficult, it's more
difficult now.
But I think the board, thepublic in general, at least in
my face, have been very, very,very, very nice about what I've
(07:19):
been trying to do, which isreally, you know, the easy
tagline is music for everyone.
There's going to be familiarmusic, there's going to be
challenging music, there's goingto be new music, there's going
to be old music, music peopleknow Music, old music Music
people know them.
Music people don't know.
I think you've just got tothrow everything out there and
people have got to trust in theday that I'm not going to put
terrible music on the stage.
(07:40):
You know that I'm decidingwhat's good and what isn't, and
that's essentially my job whenit comes to programming.
LANDESS (07:44):
I'm looking forward to hearing Total Eclipse of the
Heart.
I can't wait for that.
LEE (07:50):
I wish I'd found the arrangement, but we are doing
Star Trek.
I don't know if you're aTrekker or a Trekkie or whatever
you want to call them, butwe're doing a medley of Star
Trek themes, which I was when Iwas growing up, I mean in middle
school and high school Iwatched a lot of Star Trek.
So to be able to play throughsome of those 80s and 90s sort
of TV soundtracks, tv themes,I'm looking forward to it.
LANDESS (08:12):
I get that Absolutely.
Just recently, you worked withUT Tyler Music professor, dr
Kyle Gullings, to presentGridiron, a musical tribute to
Friday Night Football in EastTexas.
Now, as I understand it, thiswas your idea, and quite a
project.
LEE (08:25):
It was my idea and people thought it was crazy.
You know, classical music andfootball isn't something that is
twinned often, but when I gothere, well, let me tell you when
they did.
When they got here.
You probably haven't figuredthis out.
I'm not from here, although Isound more and more East Texan
each passing year.
You do y'all, I know right.
(08:46):
I started to say y'all onlyabout two years ago.
I kind of resisted, for so longand I said okay, well, I live
here now.
You've got to fit in, I've gotto be the way I'm supposed to be
here in East Texas.
So the first thing I said waswhat makes this place?
You know, because I need toknow the program, I need to know
what pieces in Toronto or inWinnipeg.
You know where I'm from.
(09:07):
You kind of know, broadlyspeaking, what the tastes of the
audiences are here.
I had no idea.
You know, I was hired.
I'd never lived here.
So one of my first projects wasto really sort of figure out the
region and I drove around,spent time in Marshall and
Jefferson and all these otherplaces and, of course, in Tyler.
(09:29):
One of the things thatimmediately struck me was how
sports-crazy people were.
That in itself is not unusualin this country.
There are all sorts of sportsfanatics, nuts fans in the
United States, let's say that.
But what I found very odd was,you know, I'd turn on the
television, I'd listen to thelocal sportscast.
Instead of talking about thelocal, you know, the
professional baseball team orwhatever, they'd be talking
(09:50):
about high school football.
I mean, the entire segment wason and it was obviously filmed
on someone's iPhone from thestands.
And I said this is different,what is going on here?
And it became apparent to meespecially when I met Julie, my
wife, julie Philly, who works atUT Tyler.
I have two brothers-in-law nowwho are football coaches.
(10:12):
I've never had football coachesin my family before.
So you had hockey players and Ihad to start going to football
games, which I'd never done.
So it's like, okay, high schoolfootball is a thing here, like
a real thing.
And then I did some moreresearch.
So if I said we have to, my jobis to make the orchestra
(10:35):
relevant.
You know, are we going tocontinue to play Beethoven?
Yes, but he's not ours.
At the end of the day, he's, hedoesn't belong to this culture.
It's great music and we'regoing to keep playing them, but
part of the mandate of thesymphony is to figure out how to
represent who we are now.
And I said, well, who we arenow here, gosh, I mean, part of
it's got to do with high schoolfootball and how do we celebrate
(10:57):
that musically.
And that's when I approachedKyle.
I said, kyle, I have this crazyidea.
Would you be interested inwriting a piece about it?
LANDESS (11:03):
Actually, kyle said that when you talked to him on
the phone you said don't hang up, it's a crazy idea.
LEE (11:11):
It's a good idea, I mean, and the results speak for
themselves.
He did such a great job.
The piece was so well received.
But I think folks initiallywere very confused by the idea,
didn't quite understand what itwas going to be all about.
But I think the end result wasgreat and it did indeed
celebrate who we are.
(11:31):
I think people, when they cometo the symphony, need to know
that this is something that Ihope when my tenure is over,
whenever that may be that theyunderstand that part of my
mission is to make sure theorchestra feels like they belong
to the folks in the hall.
It's not my orchestra.
I'm only going to be alive for ashort time, you know.
Hopefully this orchestra willbe around for generations to
(11:54):
come and the whole idea is theETSOs got to belong to East
Texas, got to belong to thepeople out there who are
listening and they have to feelsome sort of stake in what we do
.
And I think that was part of mymission doing Gridiron Symphony
, saying, hey, I wouldn't dothis if I were in Toronto.
Of course I wouldn't do this.
If I were directing theorchestra in Winnipeg, where I
(12:14):
was before coming here, ofcourse I wouldn't do this.
But this is because we are here, because this is the orchestra.
This represents to some degreewho we are and what makes us
special, and I think it made alot of people pretty pleased to
see that and it's always fun tohave high school band kids play
with us.
That was fabulous, it was agreat time.
LANDESS (12:35):
My question to Kyle was okay, you're going to perform
it once, but surely you're goingto perform it again.
I mean, we have nothing elsethis fall.
LEE (12:45):
I hope so.
I mean, let me just say thisthe classical music industry is
not built like the pop musicindustry.
Pop music industry is built onreplaying a song over and over
again, kind of ad nauseum, forseveral months, you know, and
then it recedes.
I think classical music, youthink the long game, I think it
(13:06):
will be redone, but it's a lotharder to have folks redo works,
and In other places it's just.
I think if you're anestablished composer maybe that
happens.
But you know, the joke is it'syou know, when you premiere a
piece it's almost always one anddone.
It really really is, and you'vegot to be happy with your
(13:27):
single performance, because thelikelihood of it being picked up
by other orchestras aroundacross the country is pretty
minimal.
This piece is so special,though I think there's a far
better chance that that wouldhappen.
LANDESS (13:38):
It was the first thing I said to Kyle.
I said I'm thinking DallasSymphony, the Houston Symphony,
the Austin, san Antonio.
I mean this is a Texas thing.
LEE (13:46):
It is, it is and it is.
It is portable.
I mean I think you could have alot of success.
What folks don't realize isthat Kyle post-composition was a
huge part of this right,because it took a lot of
coordination just just gettingthe band kids on stage with us
(14:06):
playing, you know.
So all that stuff was extremelystressful and Kyle took the
lead role in that too from alogistical standpoint.
So it's great music, but ittook a lot of of of lot of work
behind the scenes to make sureit actually was successful.
It was when we did it, but yes,I hope so it deserves to be.
(14:27):
It's a really beautiful pieceof music.
There are a lot of people in myfamily, I mean we play all
sorts of great things.
We play more John Williams andwe played all sorts of great
stuff in the program, but mysister-in-law, one of them, said
that her favorite thing wasKyle's Beast.
It was the slow movement fromKyle's Beast, which is something
because he was up against someheavy hitters in the
(14:49):
compositional world, so to speak.
So yeah, he did great.
LANDESS (14:53):
You mentioned your wife , Julie Philly.
She is number two at theUniversity of Texas at Tyler and
now named a finalist to replaceDr Kirk Calhoun when he retires
in May.
You have strong roots here inEast Texas.
Looks like you'll be here forthe foreseeable future.
What kinds of projects do youhave in mind for the future?
LEE (15:13):
You know it depends on what time frame you want me to talk
about.
I think the foreseeable futureis our program for next year's
set.
It's been released to start toget people excited about that,
but also, yes, to plan for thefuture.
To figure out I think youalluded to this before.
I think there's always abalancing act for me is to
figure out how to balance whatpeople want with what people
(15:38):
don't want, how to balance theold and new.
How to balance the vision ofthe subscribers who've been here
, been coming, for 40 yearsversus the person who's just
coming for the first time.
How to balance folks who are,you know, 85 and love class
music versus a young familywho've never been to symphony
before.
This is a really hard job and Idon't think I'm perfect at it
(15:58):
yet, but I'm definitely gettingbetter.
But it's something that I needto be really constantly honing
my ability to sort of figure outwhere that balance is.
But yes, I would think that youknow I would anticipate more.
Maybe integration is the rightword.
What my, what Julie, my wife,is really good at is figuring
(16:19):
out how to use use B and use thesymphony in ways that will
deepen the connections betweenUT Tyler and the ETSO, and
that's not a dumb thing.
Of course she wants that.
I want that too.
This is our home.
When we play, we normally playat the council, which is a great
venue, much better, Certainlywith the addition of the Shell
that we did several years back.
(16:41):
So I know she has some projectsin mind.
We were doing something prettysoon that she's calling medicine
and music.
LANDESS (16:51):
Oh, yes, yes, and that's what the woman's doing
that is really really big andit's very successful.
Yes, hospitals and medicalfacilities across the country.
LEE (17:00):
There's no question that music is a contributor to health
in some way, shape or form, andto explore that avenue is very,
very important to me as well.
I don't think I would be assane as I am I hope I'm sane If
it were not for music listeningto, performing, studying.
It's a huge part of who I am,and it should be a big part of
(17:22):
everyone's lives as far as I'mconcerned.
LANDESS (17:25):
Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio connects with
Richard Lee, Musical Director ofthe East Texas Symphony
Orchestra.
For UT Tyler Radio News, I'mMike Landis.
You can expect a musical soundtrack as East Texas
prepares for the total eclipsethat will cross Texas on April
8th.
That soundtrack will beprovided by the East Texas
Symphony Orchestra, and UT TylerRadio connects with music
director Richard Lee.
Have you ever directed amusical event that was related
to a celestial event before?
LEE (00:24):
The short answer is no, definitely not.
It's a unique thing.
It's a unique idea.
Happy, we're doing it, but itwas a little bit tricky to
program.
It's such a specific kind ofevent thematically that it
really doesn't work.
LANDESS (00:41):
Now the performances are on April 6th and the
Saturday before the actualeclipse.
Tell us about them and themusic that you chose.
LEE (00:49):
I know it's going to be spectacular.
The folks I've spoken to havereally talked up how special,
mystical even the event that isthe event on the Saturday on the
6th.
We're calling it a totality.
It's a very brief programthat's thematically based on,
well, the Eclipse music, if youcan find it, but otherwise sort
(01:10):
of just vaguely celestial music,both classical and sort of
cinematic soundtracks will lastabout an hour.
I think it'll be a lot of fun.
LANDESS (01:19):
Well now, the performances of John Williams,
for instance, is an easy choice.
Yes, it was, but tell me aboutchoosing Strauss and Holst.
LEE (01:28):
The first thing I did was this sounds so prosaic, but I
went to Google and I typed inclassical music, eclipse, and
see who popped up.
And the first thing that poppedup was a piece called Totality.
That was written the last timethe eclipse came through this
country, not so long ago.
So apparently the composerwitnessed it, was so moved and
(01:48):
inspired he wrote a piece basedon sort of the actual event of
the eclipse, sort of starting,progressing, you know, arriving
at full totality and thenreceding and becoming normal
daylight again.
And it's a short littlefour-minute piece that depicts
this event so literally that wedecide to make that sort of the
center point of the program.
(02:08):
So video totality.
And then we surrounded withmusic the things that came up
Total Eclipse of the Heart.
Did I look for an arrangementfor an orchestra of Total
Eclipse of the Heart?
Yes, there is one, but it's outof print.
I can't get it anywhere.
LANDESS (02:22):
Oh gosh.
LEE (02:26):
And you know, I thought of here Comes the Sun by the
Beatles.
I tried to look for anythingand everything.
It was varying degrees ofsuccess, I can tell you that.
So we end up with the Straussis very simple, it's the fanfare
from.
Most people know it from 2001,.
A Space Odyssey, that minute.
And there's the monolith and,yeah, the Holst.
(02:49):
Of course he wrote a piececalled the Planet, so it's
really more from an astrologicalstandpoint, but it references
all of the known planets of thetime.
So there's a piece about Marswhich we're doing, there's a
piece about Jupiter and thereare other pieces about Neptune
and Saturn, all that sort ofthing.
So we're playing excerpts fromthat too.
I think it's going to be areally broad-ranging program.
It's designed to befamily-friendly, it's designed
(03:09):
not to be too long either, whichis important, I think.
LANDESS (03:13):
As if the music were not exciting enough, TJC's Earth
and Space Science Center isgoing to supply visuals for the
audience.
LEE (03:21):
What's that going to be like?
Well, you know, I've seen allthe visuals.
The one for Totality is veryspecific to the eclipse.
The other ones will be more ofa slideshow, I think.
So, for example, guess whathe's going to show.
When we're playing Mars,there'll be a lot of images of
said planet, right, and it'ssort of the very literal.
What we did decide, though, is,when we're playing that, we are
(03:42):
playing the Star Wars theme.
Why not?
Right?
I mean, it's based in a galaxyfar, far away, so it's it's
certainly space themed.
We are not going to be showinglightsaber duels, and no.
Darth Vader It'll be moregeneric stuff.
But yes, there will be sort ofa because again I think I said
this already we expect familiesto show up to Tyler looking for
(04:04):
things to do that weekend.
You know that don't knowanything about the city, about
what's on offer, so we wanted tomake sure this was really
available to a broadcross-section of folk.
And you know that was part ofthe idea to make it even have
young children in tow, that youcould bring this concert for an
hour, then go to the planetarium.
I mean, it was just such agreat partnership to be able to
(04:29):
partner with the Space andScience Center over at TJC,
because they provide so much ofthe technical aspect of this
event.
LANDESS (04:37):
Some are predicting that Tyler's population will
double that weekend before thetotal eclipse.
Of course, as you said, youhave an opportunity to reach a
wide variety of people.
Two performances with seatingfor just over 700.
Are you going to sell it out?
LEE (04:50):
That's the goal.
I hope so.
I think it would be veryunlikely that there would be a
lot of tickets left at the door,if any.
So if this is something thatinterests you, unfortunately you
all need to sort of pre-planand sort of buy tickets online,
which you can do at etsoorg.
I can look right now.
We have a 4 o'clock and a 7.30show on the 6th of April.
(05:11):
Yeah, it's.
I don't know if you've beenthere, mike.
It's a beautiful hall but it'sa small hall and when they fixed
it up a couple years ago theyweren't able to increase the
footprint any that was reallyset in stone.
So increase the footprint anythat was really set in stone.
So the capacity didn't changethat much.
(05:31):
So it's a little bit small.
In terms of the capacity ofpeople, the stage is perfectly
big enough for the symphony but,yeah, the crowds, the audience
part of it, is still a littlebit undersized for a typical
symphony orchestra.
LANDESS (05:43):
No, no, no, not undersized, it's intimate.
LEE (05:47):
It is very intimate though You're right, but it's funny.
When I'm on the stage thereversus Cowan, you can really
clearly get a sense of thedifference in volume between the
two spaces, between UT Tylerand TJC.
LANDESS (06:00):
You know, it strikes me that any musical director of
any symphony orchestra, of anysize, is constantly challenged
to find ways to engage thecurrent supporters and to start
cultivating the futuresupporters.
LEE (06:13):
Yes, because often they don't have the same priorities
or tastes or vision in terms ofwhat we ought to be playing.
But folks have been prettyopen-minded here and they've
certainly understood that I needto be provided broad leeway to
(06:33):
program the way that'll continueto grow.
I mean, grow is even a strongword, you know survive.
You know orchestras mostorchestras are in survival mode.
This is not a great post-COVID.
Covid was awful for symphonyorchestras.
There's still a whole bunch oforchestras in this country that
are still feeling the lingeringafter effects of that.
You know they lost a year and ahalf of their income, their
(06:56):
revenue.
Musicians did too, and a lot offolks haven't recovered to the
level in terms of audienceparticipation that they had
pre-COVID.
I mean, they haven't gottenback to the swing of things.
It's always difficult.
It's more difficult now.
The swing of things, it'salways difficult, it's more
difficult now.
But I think the board, thepublic in general, at least in
my face, have been very, very,very, very nice about what I've
(07:19):
been trying to do, which isreally, you know, the easy
tagline is music for everyone.
There's going to be familiarmusic, there's going to be
challenging music, there's goingto be new music, there's going
to be old music, music peopleknow Music, old music Music
people know them.
Music people don't know.
I think you've just got tothrow everything out there and
people have got to trust in theday that I'm not going to put
terrible music on the stage.
(07:40):
You know that I'm decidingwhat's good and what isn't, and
that's essentially my job whenit comes to programming.
LANDESS (07:44):
I'm looking forward to hearing Total Eclipse of the
Heart.
I can't wait for that.
LEE (07:50):
I wish I'd found the arrangement, but we are doing
Star Trek.
I don't know if you're aTrekker or a Trekkie or whatever
you want to call them, butwe're doing a medley of Star
Trek themes, which I was when Iwas growing up, I mean in middle
school and high school Iwatched a lot of Star Trek.
So to be able to play throughsome of those 80s and 90s sort
of TV soundtracks, tv themes,I'm looking forward to it.
LANDESS (08:12):
I get that Absolutely.
Just recently, you worked withUT Tyler Music professor, dr
Kyle Gullings, to presentGridiron, a musical tribute to
Friday Night Football in EastTexas.
Now, as I understand it, thiswas your idea, and quite a
project.
LEE (08:25):
It was my idea and people thought it was crazy.
You know, classical music andfootball isn't something that is
twinned often, but when I gothere, well, let me tell you when
they did.
When they got here.
You probably haven't figuredthis out.
I'm not from here, although Isound more and more East Texan
each passing year.
You do y'all, I know right.
(08:46):
I started to say y'all onlyabout two years ago.
I kind of resisted, for so longand I said okay, well, I live
here now.
You've got to fit in, I've gotto be the way I'm supposed to be
here in East Texas.
So the first thing I said waswhat makes this place?
You know, because I need toknow the program, I need to know
what pieces in Toronto or inWinnipeg.
You know where I'm from.
(09:07):
You kind of know, broadlyspeaking, what the tastes of the
audiences are here.
I had no idea.
You know, I was hired.
I'd never lived here.
So one of my first projects wasto really sort of figure out the
region and I drove around,spent time in Marshall and
Jefferson and all these otherplaces and, of course, in Tyler.
(09:29):
One of the things thatimmediately struck me was how
sports-crazy people were.
That in itself is not unusualin this country.
There are all sorts of sportsfanatics, nuts fans in the
United States, let's say that.
But what I found very odd was,you know, I'd turn on the
television, I'd listen to thelocal sportscast.
Instead of talking about thelocal, you know, the
professional baseball team orwhatever, they'd be talking
(09:50):
about high school football.
I mean, the entire segment wason and it was obviously filmed
on someone's iPhone from thestands.
And I said this is different,what is going on here?
And it became apparent to meespecially when I met Julie, my
wife, julie Philly, who works atUT Tyler.
I have two brothers-in-law nowwho are football coaches.
(10:12):
I've never had football coachesin my family before.
So you had hockey players and Ihad to start going to football
games, which I'd never done.
So it's like, okay, high schoolfootball is a thing here, like
a real thing.
And then I did some moreresearch.
So if I said we have to, my jobis to make the orchestra
(10:35):
relevant.
You know, are we going tocontinue to play Beethoven?
Yes, but he's not ours.
At the end of the day, he's, hedoesn't belong to this culture.
It's great music and we'regoing to keep playing them, but
part of the mandate of thesymphony is to figure out how to
represent who we are now.
And I said, well, who we arenow here, gosh, I mean, part of
it's got to do with high schoolfootball and how do we celebrate
(10:57):
that musically.
And that's when I approachedKyle.
I said, kyle, I have this crazyidea.
Would you be interested inwriting a piece about it?
LANDESS (11:03):
Actually, kyle said that when you talked to him on
the phone you said don't hang up, it's a crazy idea.
LEE (11:11):
It's a good idea, I mean, and the results speak for
themselves.
He did such a great job.
The piece was so well received.
But I think folks initiallywere very confused by the idea,
didn't quite understand what itwas going to be all about.
But I think the end result wasgreat and it did indeed
celebrate who we are.
(11:31):
I think people, when they cometo the symphony, need to know
that this is something that Ihope when my tenure is over,
whenever that may be that theyunderstand that part of my
mission is to make sure theorchestra feels like they belong
to the folks in the hall.
It's not my orchestra.
I'm only going to be alive for ashort time, you know.
Hopefully this orchestra willbe around for generations to
(11:54):
come and the whole idea is theETSOs got to belong to East
Texas, got to belong to thepeople out there who are
listening and they have to feelsome sort of stake in what we do
.
And I think that was part of mymission doing Gridiron Symphony
, saying, hey, I wouldn't dothis if I were in Toronto.
Of course I wouldn't do this.
If I were directing theorchestra in Winnipeg, where I
(12:14):
was before coming here, ofcourse I wouldn't do this.
But this is because we are here, because this is the orchestra.
This represents to some degreewho we are and what makes us
special, and I think it made alot of people pretty pleased to
see that and it's always fun tohave high school band kids play
with us.
That was fabulous, it was agreat time.
LANDESS (12:35):
My question to Kyle was okay, you're going to perform
it once, but surely you're goingto perform it again.
I mean, we have nothing elsethis fall.
LEE (12:45):
I hope so.
I mean, let me just say thisthe classical music industry is
not built like the pop musicindustry.
Pop music industry is built onreplaying a song over and over
again, kind of ad nauseum, forseveral months, you know, and
then it recedes.
I think classical music, youthink the long game, I think it
(13:06):
will be redone, but it's a lotharder to have folks redo works,
and In other places it's just.
I think if you're anestablished composer maybe that
happens.
But you know, the joke is it'syou know, when you premiere a
piece it's almost always one anddone.
It really really is, and you'vegot to be happy with your
(13:27):
single performance, because thelikelihood of it being picked up
by other orchestras aroundacross the country is pretty
minimal.
This piece is so special,though I think there's a far
better chance that that wouldhappen.
LANDESS (13:38):
It was the first thing I said to Kyle.
I said I'm thinking DallasSymphony, the Houston Symphony,
the Austin, san Antonio.
I mean this is a Texas thing.
LEE (13:46):
It is, it is and it is.
It is portable.
I mean I think you could have alot of success.
What folks don't realize isthat Kyle post-composition was a
huge part of this right,because it took a lot of
coordination just just gettingthe band kids on stage with us
(14:06):
playing, you know.
So all that stuff was extremelystressful and Kyle took the
lead role in that too from alogistical standpoint.
So it's great music, but ittook a lot of of of lot of work
behind the scenes to make sureit actually was successful.
It was when we did it, but yes,I hope so it deserves to be.
(14:27):
It's a really beautiful pieceof music.
There are a lot of people in myfamily, I mean we play all
sorts of great things.
We play more John Williams andwe played all sorts of great
stuff in the program, but mysister-in-law, one of them, said
that her favorite thing wasKyle's Beast.
It was the slow movement fromKyle's Beast, which is something
because he was up against someheavy hitters in the
(14:49):
compositional world, so to speak.
So yeah, he did great.
LANDESS (14:53):
You mentioned your wife , Julie Philly.
She is number two at theUniversity of Texas at Tyler and
now named a finalist to replaceDr Kirk Calhoun when he retires
in May.
You have strong roots here inEast Texas.
Looks like you'll be here forthe foreseeable future.
What kinds of projects do youhave in mind for the future?
LEE (15:13):
You know it depends on what time frame you want me to talk
about.
I think the foreseeable futureis our program for next year's
set.
It's been released to start toget people excited about that,
but also, yes, to plan for thefuture.
To figure out I think youalluded to this before.
I think there's always abalancing act for me is to
figure out how to balance whatpeople want with what people
(15:38):
don't want, how to balance theold and new.
How to balance the vision ofthe subscribers who've been here
, been coming, for 40 yearsversus the person who's just
coming for the first time.
How to balance folks who are,you know, 85 and love class
music versus a young familywho've never been to symphony
before.
This is a really hard job and Idon't think I'm perfect at it
(15:58):
yet, but I'm definitely gettingbetter.
But it's something that I needto be really constantly honing
my ability to sort of figure outwhere that balance is.
But yes, I would think that youknow I would anticipate more.
Maybe integration is the rightword.
What my, what Julie, my wife,is really good at is figuring
(16:19):
out how to use use B and use thesymphony in ways that will
deepen the connections betweenUT Tyler and the ETSO, and
that's not a dumb thing.
Of course she wants that.
I want that too.
This is our home.
When we play, we normally playat the council, which is a great
venue, much better, Certainlywith the addition of the Shell
that we did several years back.
(16:41):
So I know she has some projectsin mind.
We were doing something prettysoon that she's calling medicine
and music.
LANDESS (16:51):
Oh, yes, yes, and that's what the woman's doing
that is really really big andit's very successful.
Yes, hospitals and medicalfacilities across the country.
LEE (17:00):
There's no question that music is a contributor to health
in some way, shape or form, andto explore that avenue is very,
very important to me as well.
I don't think I would be assane as I am I hope I'm sane If
it were not for music listeningto, performing, studying.
It's a huge part of who I am,and it should be a big part of
(17:22):
everyone's lives as far as I'mconcerned.
LANDESS (17:25):
Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio connects with
Richard Lee, Musical Director ofthe East Texas Symphony
Orchestra.
For UT Tyler Radio News, I'mMike Landis.
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