What You Did This Summer

Brant Taylor

We are now in mid-summer, and countless musicians of all types are at various summer music festivals and camps engaging in musical activities that likely differ in some way from the artistic lives they lead during the rest of the year. Whether a student or a professional, a change of scenery and the opportunity to meet and collaborate with new colleagues has many benefits. Certainly, for those of us who spend the academic year engaged primarily in one musical activity, summer is a valuable opportunity to do something different.

For professional musicians, the tendency to be defined by their “main” musical job or pursuit is strong. A quick look down the faculty roster of the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, from which I just returned to my full-time position with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, reveals mostly players with jobs in large orchestras. What business do we have coaching chamber music? Why would a student come to a chamber music festival to hear “orchestra players” play string quartets? If adaptability and versatility are more important than ever in 21st-century musical life, it’s interesting how often artists are defined primarily or solely by their “main” activity.

Even in music school, I remember some of my peers staking their claims early on to a particular area of the music profession. There would be whispers of, “He’s forming a serious quartet that’s going to stay together after finishing school.” Or, “She’s aiming to be a soloist.” Or, “He’s practicing Don Juan already because he’s going to win an audition for a major orchestra.”

I happen to play in a major orchestra as a part of my artistic life. But if someone asked me what makes an “orchestra player,” I smile and must admit that the negative stereotype is the first thing to come to mind: a bitter player with a pair of earplugs shoved all the way in, shooting daggers at the conductor and constantly checking the clock to see how much longer he or she will have to rehearse Beethoven 7 for the 315th time. (Yes, there are equally colorful popular images of soloists, quartet players, freelancers, and teachers.)

This is on my mind having just finished a particularly intense period of musical activity in which I played a concerto with a regional orchestra near Chicago, joined the Formosa Quartet for a short concert tour, went to the Mimir Festival to play and coach chamber music, and played concerts with my regular ensemble. Here’s the point: embrace the summer festival season to stretch your boundaries artistically. Do something unexpected. Don’t be pigeonholed. Take a risk. The intense bursts of practicing/rehearsing/performing that occur during the summer are great opportunities to make rapid progress. Carry the sense of newness and self-discovery that often comes during summer study into the rest of the year. After all, before we are any “kind” of musician, we are simply musicians, and will benefit from gaining the broadest possible set of musical experiences and skills, no matter what the context.

Subjects: Artistic Vision

Tags: Brant, chamber music, collaboration, experiences, festivals, music, music festivals, musicianship, opportunities, orchestras, practicing, rehearsing, Summer, Taylor, Travel

AUTHOR

Brant Taylor

Born in New York, Brant Taylor began cello studies at the age of 8. His varied career includes solo appearances and collaborations with leading chamber musicians throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as orchestral, pedagogical, and popular music activities. After one year as a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Taylor was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Daniel Barenboim in 1998. In Chicago, Mr. Taylor's recital appearances include the Dame Myra Hess Concerts, First Monday Concerts, Rush Hour Concerts at St. James Cathedral, the Ravinia Festival's Rising Stars recital series, and regular live radio broadcasts from the studios of WFMT. He has appeared regularly with the Chicago Chamber Musicians and on the contemporary chamber music series MusicNow.

Mr. Taylor made his solo debut with the San Antonio Symphony at the age of 14 after winning a concerto competition, and has since been soloist with numerous orchestras, performing the works of Dvorak, Haydn, Elgar, Shostakovich, Lalo, Boccherini, Saint-Saens, and Brahms, among others.

From 1992-97, Mr. Taylor was cellist of the award-winning Everest Quartet, prizewinners at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet performed and taught extensively in North America and the Caribbean, and gave the world premiere performance of a work by Israeli-American composer Paul Schoenfield.

In 1997, Mr. Taylor was a member of the New World Symphony. He has returned to appear as soloist with that orchestra under the batons of Michael Tilson-Thomas and Nicholas McGegan, as well as to teach and participate in audition training seminars.

In 2002, Mr. Taylor began a seven-year association with the band Pink Martini. With this eclectic ensemble, he has appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", "The Late Show with David Letterman", at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and in venues ranging from nightclubs to concert halls across North America. He can be heard on Pink Martini's 2006 release, "Hey Eugene.”

Mr. Taylor is a frequent performer and teacher at music festivals, including the Festival der Zukunft in Ernen, Switzerland, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Shanghai International Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, the Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Music Festival Santo Domingo, Michigan's Village Bach Festival, and Music at Gretna in Pennsylvania, where he has made repeated appearances as a concerto soloist. Mr. Taylor has also served as Principal Cello of the Arizona Musicfest Orchestra since 2006.

Active as a teacher of both cello and chamber music, Mr. Taylor serves on the faculty of the DePaul University School of Music. He has also been a faculty member at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts and Northwestern University's National High School Music Institute, and has led classes on pedagogy and orchestral repertoire at the University of Michigan. Mr. Taylor holds a Bachelor of Music degree and a Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he won the school's Concerto Competition and performed as soloist with the Eastman Philharmonia. His Master of Music degree is from Indiana University. Mr. Taylor's primary teachers have been Janos Starker and Paul Katz.

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