Boston
Singers' Resource News Bulletin, August
25, 2005
In addition to his prominence in the Boston/North Shore area as the conductor
of the highly-regarded Hillyer Festival Orchestra, Dr. Dirk Hillyer has
directed productions for the New England Light Opera (Mark Morgan*, Music
Director) and The Bostonians (Richard Conrad*, Music Director). He is
a member of both the Boston Lyric Opera and the Boston Virtuosi, playing
French horn with those ensembles. He is also a tenured member of the faculty
of the Music Department of Salem State College, Salem, MA, where he has
taught since 1985. Other credentials include Stage or Music Direction
at the Aspen Music Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, Lakewood Theatre (Oregon),
Boston Conservatory of Music and the Lake George Opera Festival. The Hillyer
Festival Orchestra performs at the Esplanade Hatch Shell next Wednesday,
August 31 at 7:00 PM as part of the WCRB summer classical series.
A conversation about
music with Dirk Hillyer is a conversation about musicians. To talk about
his Hillyer Festival Orchestra, founded in 1998, is to talk about instrumentalists
with 'great Classical playing skills as well as swing.' To talk about
the success that the HFO has had in its short life is to talk about great,
gifted, intelligent singers, as well as other talented guest musicians,
and about the pleasure he takes in presenting works by local composers
to a wide audience.
Since an early age, Maestro Hillyer has had an interest in all forms of
music. At 12 the Portland, Oregon native took up the French horn and at
13 he joined the Portland Junior Symphony, the first youth orchestra in
America. While in high school he organized folk singing groups, rock groups,
and a very popular 'Tijuana Brass‚' style band for proms and debutante
balls. His love of opera and operetta has its roots in his family where
both his mother and sister were singers.
Dirk Hillyer is a showman and an educator. Whether his baton is leading
the HFO in the 'Festive Overture‚' of Shostakovich, or a vocal solo
from George Gershwin's 'Crazy for You,' or a chamber ensemble in an evening
of Opera arias, Dirk involves his audiences; regaling them with stories
that put the music into a helpful context. And the HFO gives him an ideal
format to share his many musical interests. In addition to a commitment
to introducing new works and new arrangements in the pops repertoire,
the HFO has presented works from the classical repertoire by such composers
as Foss, Finzi, Mascagni and Mahler.
Dr. Hillyer takes his work as the conductor of the Hillyer Festival Orchestra
quite seriously, proud of its identification as a pops orchestra. He sees
the Pops‚' as an important cultural institution and not, as he describes
it, "a light-hearted, throw-off money-maker for the classical orchestra
on the off-season." Rather, it's a way to bring new listeners into
a world of fine music in its many forms and to educate informed listeners
about new or seldom performed music and new performers.
Seeking and finding good talent is a continual pleasure for Maestro Hillyer.
"I meet good singers in all kinds of venues and gigs and often introduce
myself. We‚ll have conversations about vocal music and orchestral
accompaniment, that kind of stuff, I'll get to know them and I'll invite
them as a soloist." But he has expectations of anyone he considers
hiring. "They can be from musical theater or opera; it doesn‚t
matter to me, as long as they can cross over. In other words, a musical
theater person with some real pipes will work for me or an opera person
who has an open mind to try different things. Ever since I saw Teresa
Stratas, back in the 70's, do the full version of (Alban Berg's) 'Lulu‚'
at the Met, upside down, singing I forget which aria. I thought to myself
"Singers are flexible. They can do what they want." I don't
need to think about this whole prima donna thing because it's not necessarily
true. They want to try new things. They're interested in not just standing
and delivering."
Working with singers is always a collaborative venture with Hillyer. "The
musical ideas of the conductor and the singer must involve compromise.
I'll come in prepared with my ideas and I might suggest: 'What do think
about this? This feels good to me‚. But I'll ask the singer what
they've been working on, how have you been interpreting this thing? The
first concern (of a conductor) should be, what can the voices do and what
are they going to do."
Building trust is another part of any project with Maestro Hillyer. "If
you want to work with a singer, to gain their trust, you have to show
that you've studied the vocal score. Sometimes conductors don't. They're
worrying about the bassoons or about the cellos holding together. But
if you show singers that respect, then you're in good shape." Hillyer
goes on to explain. "The repertoire is full of rubato. It's capricious.
That's the fun; the constant flexibility. But that's also, I think, what's
very difficult. You don't have the same kind of control as you might have
over 80 musicians. And that's okay. You share the control with the singer.
Ozawa said that he didn't get into opera conducting until he retired and
went to Vienna. He said he was working up to it."
Perhaps. But Dr. Hillyer has been working on it for a while now. As a
young instructor of music at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY he stumbled‚
across a recording of Menotti's 'The Telephone‚' a work not well-known
at the time. Although the College had neither a theater department nor
a voice department, he found a student willing to take on the coloratura
role and he put on a production at the College. The success of that venture
encouraged him to direct 'The Old Maid and the Thief‚' the following
year and several other smaller operas throughout his tenure there. Since
moving to New England in the early 1980's (he is a long-time resident
of Marblehead, MA) he has worked with vocalists in all genres with productions
of 'Hansel and Gretel‚' 'Threepenny Opera,' 'Barber of Seville‚'
'West Side Story‚' and 'Follies‚' among his credits.
Later this month the HFO presents the final WCRB Classical Concert of
the 2005 season at the Hatch Shell in Boston. This is the fourth year
in a row that Hillyer and his Orchestra have been invited to this event
and the program is typically diverse with a mixture of orchestral and
vocal music, of contemporary and traditional music, written by the masters
and as well as by local artists.
The concert by the Hillyer Festival Orchestra has three links with Boston
Singer's Resource. First up, soprano Rochelle Bard*, the featured vocalist
of the evening, will sing 'Depuis le Jour' from 'Louise‚' by Gustave
Charpentier and 'Ain't it a Pretty Night!' from 'Susannah‚' by Carlisle
Floyd. Then, the HFO will premier the full orchestral version of the Fanfare
Opening of 'Strength in Knowledge,' a new work by composer Robert J Bradshaw*
of Gloucester, written to dedicate the 150th anniversary of Salem State
College in Salem, MA. Finally, for the true opera lover, the HFO will
be premiering 'Opernwelt' by Longwood Opera's Jeff Brody*. The seven-and-a-half
minute work is an arrangement of 40 extremely well-known aria and opera
overture snippets. A partial description from Hillyer is: "It begins
with 'Dutchman‚' ends with 'Gotterdammerung‚' and has all the
great Italian literature in the middle."
The program also includes orchestral music by Shostakovich, Mendelssohn
and John Williams, choral music by Copland, presented by Chorus North
Shore, Sonja Dahlgren Prior, conductor, music for strings by Faure, music
from 'Five Pieces for Tuba‚' by Sanae Kanda and featuring Michael
Milnarik, plus a few more surprises.
The Boston Phoenix has said "Dirk Hillyer conducted a performance
of musical distinction." The Daily Item of Lynn has written "Dirk
Hillyer's Festival Orchestra contributes genuine and, it is hoped, permanent
value to the North Shore musical landscape" and speaks further of
the 'tireless, ferocious energy' under Hillyer's practiced baton.' A review
by Dalia Geffen of the Boston Wagner Society states that "the sounds
(Hillyer) elicited from the players was terrific."
But don't take their word for it. Go hear the HFO and decide for yourself.
The Hillyer Festival Orchestra will be appearing on Wednesday, August
31, 2005, at 7:00 PM in the season's final WCRB Classical (and free) Concert
at the Hatch Shell in Boston.
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Other up-coming performances by the Hillyer Festival Orchestra:
December 2 & 3, 2005, 8:00 PM. - Peabody City Hall Holiday Concert,
Peabody, MA.
December 4, 2005, 6:00 PM. - Peabody City Hall Holiday Concert, Peabody,
MA.
December 11, 2005, 3:00 PM. - St. Mary's Church, Lynn, MA Holiday Concert.
The HFO web site can be found at: http://www.hillfest.com/
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Performers on the bill for August 31, 2005, Esplanade Hatch Shell:
Rochelle Bard: http://www.rochellebard.com/index.html
Jeffrey Brody: http://www.jeffreybrody.com/pages/1/index.htm
Robert J Bradshaw: http://robertjbradshaw.com/pages/1/index.htm
Chorus North Shore: http://www.chorusnorthshore.org/
Sanae Kanda: http://www.innovatabrass.com/kanda1.htm