Irishman and Toronto resident Kevin Mallon directs orchestras in Toronto (Aradia), Ottawa (Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra) and New York (West Side Chamber Orchestra). With 50 Naxos CDs to his name, he guest conducts in Canada and internationally.
1. What are we interrupting (i.e. what music-related activity are we taking you away from to write this)?
At this moment (Friday, May 24), a very busy season is coming to an end and the last responsibility I have is a fundraising concert with the Thirteen Strings in Ottawa on June 8. The event is being sponsored by the Czech embassy – so there is a Czech theme with symphonies by Johann Stamitz and František Benda and waltzes by Dvořák.
2. What, if anything, are you most looking forward to as an audience member between now and September 7?
Since I am conducting in two opera festivals in the summer, my main experiences as an audience member will be to hear the other operas being produced (the ones I am not conducting) – Gianni Schicchi by Puccini in Italy and Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites and Sondheim’s A Little Night Music in Halifax.
3. How about as a music maker/player?
On June 11 I travel to Ireland to visit my family and then on June 17I fly to Italy to conduct Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy (COSI). This is my fourth year conducting at COSI. Aradia is the orchestra in residence, so it is a wonderful residency for the orchestra and I. The day following this festival, July 21, I have an epic travel day: Sulmona to Rome, Rome to Munich, Munich to Montreal, and Montreal to Halifax. All this to conduct Figaro at the Halifax Summer Opera Workshop! I love going to Nova Scotia and working with the orchestra there regularly. This is the first time the Halifax Summer Opera Festival will have an orchestra and the players are taken from the Symphony Nova Scotia – so, I am happy about that too. It will be a long time away from home – nine weeks – but that, alas, is the life of a conductor!
4. What are you already preparing for musically beyond the summer? And (how) do your summer plans tie in with these longer term plans?
My summer plans don’t have any direct bearing on the immediate work ahead. Aradia going to Italy is a fun and important experience for the players, and I appreciate the continued repertoire we are able to explore together. The long-term plan is to produce one of the operas we do in Italy in our Toronto season. We were able to do this once with Handel’s Giulio Cesare – and indeed last year we performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater six times in Italy and then performed it as the first concert in Aradia’s Toronto season (we are also performing Vivaldi’s Gloria six times in Italy this July, but have no immediate plans to perform this in Toronto). With the Halifax Opera, I continue to develop my relationship with Nova Scotia and the players there.
I am preparing for another busy season starting in September: I have full seasons with Aradia and the Thirteen Strings in Ottawa. I have concerts and a CD release with my orchestra in New York – the West Side Chamber Orchestra. There are three CD projects with Naxos next season: Purcell and Vivaldi with Aradia and Franz Beck’s Op. 2 symphonies with the Thirteen Strings. Aradia has its yearly collaboration with Opera in Concert – this time performing Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie. I have guest conducting jobs with two Canadian orchestras, Hamilton and Thunder Bay, two concerts with orchestras in the US in Seattle and Boston and concerts in the Northern Lights Festival in Mexico.
