Brooklyn Philharmonic
Definitely not my comfort zone. I'm used to being behind the camera, hiding behind the lens. It just feels good to be actually being in the front seat of that. I guess also managing the conversation the whole entire interview. I'm trying to ask questions that has a lot of energy, has a lot of pop, has a lot of audience will see and you're like, oh, this guy's interesting. I feel more confident as a shooter. I want to shoot you because you're interesting. But I actually want to get to know you and share your story. And I think that's the most exciting part about this project. Established in 18 57, the Brooklyn Philharmonic is one of the oldest orchestras in the New world. It's had its share of ups and downs over the years, but it's now in a season of revival. And it's chosen an unlikely candidate for the job of director, a former MIT physics graduate, Alan Pearson. Alan is incredible. Alan's a wonderful guy. One of things I love the best about him is he's never actually run an orchestra before. Having an orchestra where there is an institutional will to be open to just be ready to try anything is an amazing thing. With Pearson at the helm, the orchestra has found new inspiration in reaching out to the culturally diverse communities of Brooklyn. The whole idea that we're going for in this reboot of the Brooklyn Philharmonic is to go super local, so that in each community that we're performing and we are connecting with the people that are there and really creating something with them and that speaks to them and it's about them, but that also is hopefully original for them. It's not just about giving them what they know they want, that's part of it. But it's also about creating an experience which will hopefully be fresh and exciting for them. What we want to try and do is to really become the in Brooklyn. One of these unique collaborations is with Bed Stuy native Yasiin Bey, by formerly known as Most Def. I think that the Brooklyn Philharmonic is really tapping into the different pockets of culture by combining hip hop and classical music. The Brooklyn Philharmonic is going beyond traditional concert programming. There's a huge audience then like as it went on, he sucked them into it, and it was very, very powerful. Continuing its journey through Brooklyn, the orchestra's next stop is Brighton Beach. For this predominantly Russian community. The Brooklyn film brings to life classic Russian cartoons. Those cartoons, we all grew up with those cartoons. Back in the days when we find out that they're going to be like local, we thought, why not give it a shot? Probably some of the freshest and most positive and ambitious programming I've seen. They're watching the screen and we're creating the soundtrack live for them. The audience has to get a unified experience where it all magically comes together. What I'm doing is doing live stuff like day stuff where everyone does it live. But rather than having two or three people doing, I'm just do it by myself. Not only that, many of the musical orchestrations were lost and had to be reverse engineered for this event, which was no small feat. Allen asked, can you can you write it out and I said, yes, I can. So, I took the recordings from the movies and I transcribed things as they were, almost as they were as close as possible as I could. Pearson not only has to conduct the orchestra, the vocalists, and the Foley artists, he has to do it all in time to the film playing above him. We grew up with the spoons, and our children grew up with the spoons. And especially with this music, it's very interesting that an American orchestra can play this music. The music is amazing. It was very edifying to see how it came out. I feel like that is the essence of what we're trying to do, bringing audiences and bringing music and bringing people together. It's very exciting right now, there's a change and we're all hoping for the best, over 1,000 people show up, which was really amazing. And I think the audience is very interactive and that's what we really want to these things Brook, from hip hop in Bedstead to Russian cartoon music in Brighton Beach. The Brooklyn Phil is transforming the musical landscape of Brooklyn. I think we're doing something really different from anyone else. I don't know of another approach that's quite like this. Alan ball of fire. He's got fire in his belly. This is a huge amount of fun. It's very intense and it's a little stressful sometimes. It's great, it's a glass.