As a girl in New Zealand, Gemma New never dreamed that Over the Rainbow was over in New Jersey.
Under the Rainbow is more like it. In a magical meteorological moment last summer, the heavens unfurled a ribbon of colors over the New Jersey Symphony moments before New led the orchestra in the classic movie song at Giralda Farms in Madison.
“It was perfect!” said the NJSO’s associate conductor, who returns this Sunday, June 22, 2014, for the The 31st annual Giralda Music and Arts Festival.
Gates open at 4 pm for an afternoon of art sales, poetry, picnics (prizes for the best themes!) and of course, music. Proceeds benefit the nonprofit Morris Arts.
Last June’s celestial display, it turns out, was a perfect metaphor for New’s experience in the Garden State.
The 26-year-old musician calls Jersey City home, and insists that places in NJ remind her of luscious NZ. She has packed lots of Jerseyana into Sunday’s program, which will celebrate the state’s 350th anniversary.
Look for a Jersey Boys tribute and yes, some Sinatra–which New’s grandparents played on their stereo back in the God Zone.
But she’s also quick to point out that John Philip Sousa summered in Atlantic City, Rachmaninoff had a house in Rumson, and sharpshooter Annie Oakley, memorialized in Annie Get Your Gun, was more partial to Nutley than the Wild West.
Whenever New feels homesick, the NJSO is there for her.
Unlike some orchestras that rehearse, perform and go home, the New Jersey Symphony criss-crosses the state for shows in Morristown, Princeton, Englewood, Red Bank and elsewhere.
“This orchestra is like a family to me. We travel together every week, we look out for each other, we eat together, hang out together. It’s such a warm, close orchestra. I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere,” New said.
The orchestra also is willing to experiment.
“A conductor gets an idea and it’s, ‘Yup, let’s try it.’ They’re proud of their work, and open to ideas. That attitude is really great,” she said.
MUTUAL RESPECT
Although no longer a novelty act, women conductors still are few and far between. And while talent, youth and good looks are pluses in most professions, old attitudes die hard in some corners of the music world.
Vasily Petrenko, the Russian chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, caused a stir last year when he suggested that female conductors distract male musicians, and are prone to distractions when raising families.
New said she’s been lucky so far, encountering “mutual respect” at every step of her career. Nobody has given her the young-upstart treatment or dismissed her as just another pretty face. Almost certainly, her approach has something to do with that.
“I’m serious about my work. I’m professional about my work, and I’m very lucky to have other musicians who are professional as well,” she said.
“I don’t go into any orchestra ever saying I know everything. That’s definitely not true. I go in and say, ‘I’m really passionate about this, I’ve worked really hard for you guys, I’ve prepared as best as I possibly can, and we’re going to work together on this and I totally want what you have to offer.'”
As for having it all, New said other conductors have managed the rigors of music and parenting. But such questions are for another day. For now, she is focused on music and in a solid relationship with piano soloist John Wilson.
She conducted her beau in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the New Amsterdam Symphony in April.
“He’s a fantastic player. I just treated it like any other job. I don’t even think the orchestra knew we were going out,” New said.
Who gave flowers to whom after the concert?
“I think his mum gave me flowers!” New said with a chuckle.
TRADING BOW FOR BATON
New studied violin, but knew she would trade her bow for a baton after conducting her high school orchestra at a teacher’s farewell concert. She was 15.
“I realized it was something that came naturally, something I loved doing, and people loved performing with me. So I set up my own orchestra at the school.”
New studied at the University of Canterbury, the New Zealand School of Music, and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. She has won several international awards; conducted orchestras in Europe, Canada and New Zealand; and premiered 26 new works as director of Baltimore’s Lunar Ensemble. Last year she made her conducting debut at Carnegie Hall.
Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand, but conducting is what holds this Kiwi spellbound.
“I just loved bringing people together,” New said. “For me, orchestral music, the reason why I love it, I’m absolutely fascinated by it, is the fact that no one can do this by themselves.
“Every single part is needed, and it brings all these people together and really values everyone there. And that’s such a great example of humanity in my mind. I just am fascinated by that concept, that we are creating something together that we cannot do alone. And it’s higher than ourselves in some way. I wouldn’t want to say it’s lofty, it’s just inspiring.”
It may sound “cheesy,” she added, but the best conducting advice she has gotten applies to almost every other endeavor.
Be honest. Be yourself.
“When you get up on the podium and work with musicians, there’s got to be a great level of self-integrity and mutual respect between the players and yourself. To do that you have to be absolutely honest with who you are, and what your goals are as a musician,” she said.
“You’re quite vulnerable up there. To be strong and be who you are is number one, because you have to be strong, and be a good foundation, to lead people forward. To be honest and happy with who you are … will make sure you have no diversions or insecurities that will take away from bringing the group forward with the vision of the music.”
Good mentors help, too. New’s include Gustav Meier, Marin Alsop, Markand Thakar and NJSO music director Jacques Lacombe, “an incredible musician and leader” who has challenged her to thoroughly memorize every work she conducts.
CALCULATING CONDUCTOR
She achieves this with a blend of calculus–she came within a few credits of completing a second degree in math–and artistic intuition.
“Mathematics isn’t just black and white. It’s a method, a way to describe and figure out life’s problems or life’s phenomena,” New explained.
“I took ways of proving things and logic theory and made my own way of finding in this music … patterns and structure, and understanding the language of the music.
“Every composer has a different way of expressing music: A different way of choosing which instruments to use, and how many melodies, who has a harmony, where is the rhythmic part of the phrase. So I definitely use a lot of that for figuring out how to remember something.”
A Beethoven symphony, for example, starts with exposition, a statement of the piece that is reprised at the end. But the great master always adds something different in his recaps, New said.
“So I figure out what the differences are, and why they would change… I look at where did those parts come from, how is it evolving, and that gives me a really natural, inside understanding of how things are structured,” she said.
New jots down these shifts and patterns in huge notebooks. And she remembers musical phrases as shapes. That’s where the math becomes magic.
“What does this music mean to you? You’re not going to tell the orchestra ‘This means this.’ It’s just for you to know, and you to feel, and somehow it will be emitted to them in some way, shape or form, if it’s helpful.”
Here in Jersey, those feelings might even take the shape of a rainbow.
The Morris Arts 31st annual Giralda Music and Arts Festival
Featuring the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
Gemma New, conductor
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Giralda Farms, Dodge Drive/Madison Avenue, Madison
Gates open at 4 pm. Admission:
In advance: $15 for adults, $4 for children
At the gate: $20 for adults; $5 for children; under 4, free.
Tickets online, and at Kings Supermarkets, Gary’s Wine and Marketplace.
Rain venue: Dolan Hall, College of Saint Elizabeth
