AN INTERVIEW WITH EDWARD ARRON
Our latest interview is with Edward Arron, a favorite performer of audiences everywhere who has been involved with FM since the very early days. We’re all looking forward to the Bach concerts coming up with Ed and Kyle Armbrust.
1. At what age did you start playing, and who were some of your earliest artistic influences?
I actually began with piano lessons at the age of five. I did not show much promise as a pianist, but always had my eye on the cello, and my parents finally let me begin cello lessons on my seventh birthday. At that time my father was a violist in the Cincinnati Symphony and my mother was the manager of the orchestra. I would sit backstage at Music Hall during concerts and listen and watch through the cracks in the stage door. I also heard chamber music being rehearsed or played for fun in my house all the time, and decided very early on that I wanted to do exactly that, and as often as possible.
2. What advice would you give a young musician thinking of entering the classical music field?
Take every opportunity that comes your way and turn it into something you can be proud of. Paths that will define your career as a musician will be created when you least expect them. Respect your colleagues and your audience and remember that music is an art form and that our job as musicians is to do justice to that art form. A professional musician must not only play to make a living, but must also protect, nurture and advocate for their art. If you are doing everything right, playing music is at best humbling. And as with just about everything in life, the more work you put into it, the greater the rewards.
3. Your mother Judith was a legendary figure at Carnegie Hall; can you relate some of your experiences there as a child?
When I was 10, my mother was appointed Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall, so my parents packed up our family and moved us from Cincinnati to New York. I tagged along with my mother to every concert I could possibly get to. I got to hear countless legendary performances, involving the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Shaw, Isaac Stern, and Mstislav Rostropovich, to name a few. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had exposure at that impressionable age to so many of the greatest musicians in the world. I also explored every imaginable stairwell, corner, and crevice of that building, and even made the acquaintance of a ghost or two along the way.
4. On average, how much do you practice each day?
Gulp…. Well, um… that is an interesting question… uh, let’s see here…. When I was growing up, I definitely put in some serious hours every day after school- usually between 3 and 6 hours a day. Nowadays, I am running around playing concerts and rehearsing with other people most days, so it is hard to keep a regular practice schedule. I try to get an hour or an hour and a half of practicing on my own done on most days, either before or after rehearsing as much as 8 hours in a day with others. When I am learning a hard piece or have a big program to prepare, I obviously have to tack on a few more hours of ‘alone practice’ wherever I can find the time. And then there are the blissful couple of days each month when the cello just stays in the case.
5. In addition to your performing schedule, you now run several chamber music series ranging from the Metropolitan Museum in New York all the way down to South Carolina. What are some great aspects of that work, and some of the challenges?
I really enjoy choosing the programs I play and putting together interesting combinations of great pieces of music, both old and new. I like to contextualize pieces, genres, and composers and I enjoy introducing the programs by talking to the audience. It has also been great fun to get to know audience members in different towns and to become a part of the communities where I put on concerts regularly. The challenges are wrestling with rehearsal schedules, coordinating travel and venue logistics, proofreading programs and getting my colleagues to return my emails in a timely fashion so that I can meet printing deadlines, all while still trying to remember how to play the cello.
6. Are you a sports fan? Packers?
I’m a Cheesehead!!! Well, actually that was a lie, in an attempt to get into the good graces of all of the lovely Wisconsinites who are reading this interview. Sorry about that…. Honestly, I still have a soft spot for the Cincinnati Bengals and Reds, and I now live in walking distance from Yankee Stadium in NY, so I try to catch a few games each season there.
7. What’s the most difficult thing about being a classical musician, and what’s the most enjoyable?
Most difficult: playing music
Most enjoyable: playing music
It is just difficult to go onstage day in and day out and live up to one’s own expectations and the expectations of one’s audience. It takes so much preparation, both physical and psychological, and still you are completely vulnerable when you are in front of an audience. Yet, there is nothing more satisfying than playing a phrase, or measure, or note of music the way you wanted to, so in the end, it is absolutely worth the struggle.
8. What’s your view on the classical music field right now? Is there a “crisis”?
Things are constantly changing in the world of music, and that is a good thing. You don’t ever want an art form to become stagnant. That does appear to present challenges for people who have turned the art form into a business model. Large classical music institutions and organizations appear to be struggling with their business models and the balancing of their enormous budgets these days, but the art of music itself seems, in my observation, to be stronger than ever. There are more outstanding musicians and musical scholars in the world today than ever before; the great compositions of the world are beautifully preserved on paper; and countless musical compositions are being born every day. Without a doubt, musicians and presenters will have to be clever going forward to make this art form marketable. For the record, I don’t believe in gimmicks or the “dumbing down” of music or programs in order to sell our art. As long as we, as musicians, present our music and our selves with integrity and sincerity, classical music will endure.
9. What kind of cello do you play on?
I play on a Joseph Panormo cello, made in England in the late 18th Century. English cellos from that era have a particularly warm quality, which is what attracted me to this particular instrument 17 years ago when I acquired it. And I switch back and forth between two bows: one by Isaac Salchow (an extremely talented bow maker currently living and working in New York); and one by the great French master, Dominique Peccatte.
10. Do you have any unusual or offbeat repertory or projects coming up?
I’ve been looking forward to playing the string trio version of the Goldberg Variations, which is, in and of itself, a pretty unusual thing to do. For years, I’ve listened enviously to pianists and harpsichordists play that glorious masterpiece, and now I finally have a chance to take part in it! After my trip to Milwaukee, I will tour some of the series that I organize on the east coast with a program of music by Shostakovich, John Novacek, Beethoven, Mozart and Schumann. And in mid-December I will be putting together a program at the Metropolitan Museum of music from Central Asia, along with a new composition by Colin Jacobsen and some more Shostakovich.
11. What makes a great live performance, as opposed to sitting at home and listening to a CD?
In a live performance, an “energy” is created that is completely unique to that time and space. The performer is vulnerable- anything can happen- but out of that vulnerability, spontaneous and magical things can occur. In a great live performance, a rapport is formed between the performer and the audience and the experience can be transporting for everyone involved. Attending a live performance can be an incredible escape from the evermore frantic pace and distractions of today’s society.