Conductor Courtney Lewis invigorates Boston's classical music scene

"Classical music needs to have an audience in the future. This is not an elitist art. It is something that everybody needs, like air," said conductor Courtney Lewis in a recent interview with WGBH's Jared Bowen.

That passion led to Lewis to create the Discovery Ensemble, a chamber orchestra formed in 2008
with a two-fold mission: to bring musical education to public schools and to offer invigorating programs to the public.

It's proved to be a smart idea - in just a short time Lewis and the Discovery Ensemble were getting a palpable buzz in the media. Boston Phoenix music critic Lloyd Schwartz wrote "In the past couple of years, they've presented some of the best concerts around, though they still haven't found the audience they deserve." He then went onto praise Lewis's conducting of Beethoven's Eroica as "one of the most exciting and moving" he had ever heard. Schwartz then called the ensemble an "ongoing discovery" in his list of the Top 10 Classical Music Stories of 2010: "The group has a noble mission of going into inner-city schools and exposing the kids, most of them for the first time, to classical music. Large adult audiences are only beginning to discover Discovery Ensemble's grown-up delights."

They will have an opportunity to do just that this Thursday night when the group returns to Cambridge's Sanders Theatre for a program entitled Three Faces of Romanticism. As they have in the past, they will mix the familiar with the less-known, in this case repertory favorites Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 3, "the Rhenish" and Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll will be played with Franz Schreker's largely unknown Chamber Symphony. A pre-concert talk will begin at 6:30 with Lewis and David St. George, the ensemble's co-founder and artistic director.

The lanky, good-looking Lewis admirably fills the bill of the dashing young conductor and his passion for music education brings to mind a pioneer in this area - Leonard Bernstein. A native of Belfast, Ireland the 26-year old came to Boston as a Zander Fellow with the Boston Philharmonic. It was on a 2007 trip to Venezuela with the orchestra that he witnessed that country's successful musical education program known as El Sistema and thought of bringing it to this country. With that and offering an outlet for Boston's wealth of young, freelance musicians, the Discovery Ensemble was born.

Speaking to Lewis, who divides his time between Boston and Minneapolis where last year he was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, his passion for conducting is immediately apparent, as his commitment to bringing fresh audiences through educational programs and the orchestra's concerts. He began the interview by laughing when asked how he likes called one of classical music's most notable up-and-coming talents.

A boy with his band

Courtney Lewis: I guess it's par for the course. I don't know. I don't mind it actually, to be in my position.

EDGE: Still it must have been a daunting task to start an ensemble like this. Was it difficult to find the musicians that shared your enthusiasm?

Courtney Lewis: Because Boston has so many brilliant freelance musicians in their 20s, finding the musicians was the easy part. Plus with there are so many younger musicians who are very keen in playing in an orchestra with a slightly different agenda than the other existing ensembles. So playing new music, trying to reach different kinds of audiences and our outreach to schools, has made it very easy to find enthusiastic musicians. The more challenging part is persuading the public to come hear the music because there are so many ensembles in Boston. That is something we are gradually doing, but that is a huge challenge.

EDGE: Did putting the ensemble together come from your interest in bringing music to public schools?

Courtney Lewis: Yes, but the ensemble is equally a music education program and a chamber orchestra that strives to be the best of its kind. If a city such as Boston doesn't have good musical education in the public schools, then classical music isn't going to grow, which it needs to do. Also this city didn't have a world-class chamber orchestra to rival the work of the symphony orchestras we have, so we saw the opportunity to build one.

EDGE: How did you get involved in music?

Courtney Lewis: I was a chorister in a choir since I was five, so music was always there. I didn't come from a musical family, but music was always a part of my life. By the time I was in high school, I was playing the clarinet. But it was a really wonderful high school music teacher who inspired me to look beyond just playing in an orchestra. He prompted my interest in composition and conducting. I had a really wonderful high school music teacher who inspired me to pursue a musical career. That is part of the reason why I get upset when I see schools don't have good musical education programs, because music is such an important part of life. When I think of my own experience, if my school didn't have a music program, I wouldn't be here today.

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Watch Courtney Lewis conduct the Discovery Ensemble in the first movement of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony:

Something different

EDGE: You call the program you are doing this week the Three Faces of Romanticism. Is this something different for the ensemble?

Courtney Lewis: We wanted to see if we could play a repertoire that is usually reserved for a larger orchestra. So the Rhenish Symphony (Schumann's Symphony No. 3) is completely different than anything we've played before. Plus it is a stodgy piece that people don't necessarily rush to buy tickets for. So we wanted to see if we could play repertory like that, but also find a way to make it fresh. The Siegfried Idyll is an incredibly beautiful piece - one that he took from the opera and wrote for her birthday. He gathered the musicians on the stairs outside her bedroom and she woke up to this music, so it was romantic with a capital R in the sense of romantic love being expressive. Lastly Franz Schreker's Chamber Symphony is an incredibly lush, decadent, sensuous piece of music. We always like to play music that audiences don't know so they can discover something they haven't heard before. This is one that I am really excited about - I don't think anyone in the audience will know it and it is such a treat.

EDGE: You and the ensemble have received some extraordinary reviews that point out how you invigorate overly familiar pieces, such as Beethoven's Eroica and Pastorale symphonies. Are you aware you are doing that when you are conducting?

Courtney Lewis: No. I don't think you could try to do that without being contrived and obvious. When we play a piece like a Beethoven or a Schumann symphony, the conductor has to know what going on in his head all the time. I try to let the orchestra play in the way I hear it in my mind. It's the way I hear it and the way I want it to be.

EDGE: Do you conduct with a score or without?

Courtney Lewis: I conduct from memory as often as I can. I usually conduct a symphony in a concert from memory. I find that it gives me much more freedom. The whole point is that we are in it together and it is in that experience of people sharing something where the most exciting moments happen. With your head in the score all the time you can miss those moments because you are not communicating with the musicians all the time. But if you know the music and there isn't this physical object (the podium) in the way of you, you are so much freer to listen to what's going on and be in constant eye contact with everybody. For me I don't really feel like I'm conducting if I am not conducting from memory.

EDGE: You have this strong personal relationship with the members of the Discovery Ensemble, but when you play with other orchestras - say the Minnesota - do you have the same rapport?

Courtney Lewis: No. It's different, but in Minnesota I do know them pretty well because I perform there quite a lot. But it is a different relationship because I am #2 conductor and often conduct with very little rehearsal time. But you come to trust each other - you realize what they need and how you can help. With the Minnesota Orchestra it is exciting because I get to do a lot of repertory I wouldn't get to do with the Discovery Ensemble. In St. Louis, I will be playing a lot as well.

But I have learned there is always a moment when you arrive as a young conductor where you can feel in the first few minutes the orchestra deciding if you are worth listening to. If it goes well, they trust you and listen to what you say. But it always hell at the beginning - it's like the beginning of a date where you think, 'is this going to work or is it going to be horrible?' And usually you can tell pretty quickly which it is going to be. And it is quite a challenge, especially if you are a young conductor.

Many bad dates?

EDGE: Have you had many of these bad dates?

Courtney Lewis: No, not in professional engagements, but I've had auditions with professional orchestras where I definitely had bad dates; but I am much too much a gentleman to tell you with whom.

EDGE: So you're not going to kiss and tell then. Do you get out to hear much music in your free time?

Courtney Lewis: My job also means that I have to cover a lot of concerts for other conductors, which is pretty much every week. I try to go to the BSO when I am here. But I don't go to a lot of concerts unless I know the conductor or the soloist because often they can be very disappointed. There are very few conductors that I trust and will go and hear if I have a free night. When you spend so much time with music, you often just want to do something else. I go to the theater - in Minneapolis, where I live, I go to the Guthrie.

EDGE: Are there composer you feel are overrated and underrated?

Courtney Lewis: Overrated? Shostakovich. It just doesn't work for me at all. Underrated? That's easy - the composer we are doing this week, Franz Schreker. I'd say his music is little bit more romantic and lush than Mahler. I didn't know any of his music until we programmed this piece and I've been listening to a lot of since and it is very attractive music that has a lot to offer.

EDGE: Now that you've established yourself not only in Boston but in other cities as well, what are the demands on your time like?

Courtney Lewis: Oh, yeah. It's very hard. When you have no work, you complain that you have nothing to; when you have work, you complain you're doing too much. But it is very exciting. You have to have a very accepting other half because you are away from home so much. And you have to get use to the time changes and not eat crap, and there's the endless search for gyms in each city. But none of this matters - what does matter is that I love music and I love making music. If I had to do all this traveling to do something I don't care about, it would be hell. But doing music every day reminds me as to why I travel so much.

EDGE: Is it difficult balancing a relationship with your busy career?

Courtney Lewis: It's a challenge, yeah. I am often away for two or three weeks at a time, then back for a short period; then away again. But what is nice about my schedule is that I still spend most of my time in Minneapolis, where I currently live; then the most time I spend anywhere else is in Boston, where I use to live and have a lot of friends.

EDGE: You often hear of how conductors jockey for different music directorships and learn of the behind-the-scenes maneuvers that transpire in the process. You have a growing reputation that is putting you in the forefront of young conductors being considered for gigs with major orchestras. Are you aware of the politics involved?

Courtney Lewis: Oh, yes. There is huge politics involved. Half the time conductors don't know what is going on - it is all very mysterious. You don't know why you are invited to conduct or not invited to conduct because you don't know just what's going on behind the scenes... all those negotiations between managers. In terms of my own career, you hope that the quality of the work speaks for itself, but that is all you can do.

EDGE: Has the Discovery Ensemble made any recordings?

Courtney Lewis: There are live recordings on YouTube. There's a Beethoven Eroica - that's the strongest thing we have. And that was one of the picks of the year with the Phoenix and the Globe. We will be making a studio recording in the future. You can also hear the broadcast on WGBH on their website, so there is a lot you can listen to of us now for free.

EDGE: What challenges do you face moving forward?

Courtney Lewis: We are very young. We don't have $200 million in endowment. We've only been around for two years, and it's always a bit hand-to-mouth at the beginning of any project like this. But a conductor's ideal is to have an orchestra that knows him pretty well. No matter how great a conductor you are there is always something that's not there until you've performed with a group a lot of times. I know the Discovery Ensemble so well - we've played together so many times - something special happens. We reach a higher place. So that's worth it for me.

EDGE: And when you're not conducting or teaching, what music do you listen to?

Courtney Lewis: I don't really like jazz, but I love pop music. When your a professional musician you don't want to listen to the music you are immersed in all the time, so I like trashy pop music - strong female singers - Lady Gaga, Scissor Sisters, Beyonce, stuff like that.

The Discovery Ensemble performs on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA. To learn about a free ticket giveaway for music students for this concert or to learn more about the ensemble, visit .

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