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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m M a r c h / A p r i l 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 33 Arts & Culture "The work of today is the history of tomorrow and we are its makers." -Juliette Gordon Low, Founder of Girl Scouts of the USA The Board of Directors of Girl Scouts of Connecticut congratulates for being recognized as a woman who means biz Mary Barneby I n July, Alasdair Neale will officially succeed William Boughton, who is retiring as NHSO music director after 12 seasons. The British-born Neale currently heads the Marin (Calif.) Symphony and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Idaho. But the 56-year-old Neale is no stranger to the Elm City or to Woolsey Hall, having spent six years here. He received his master's degree in con- ducting at the Yale School of Music in 1985, and served as the conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Is this your father's, your grandfather's — or, in the case of the NHSO, which is celebrat- ing its 125th birthday and is the fourth-oldest symphony orchestra in America — your great-grand- father's orchestra? How does a symphony orchestra survive in the 21st century? Nimbleness is the key. We all have to think more creatively and more flexibly. We used to think that audiences had to come to this grand temple of music — but I wouldn't dismiss that out of hand as an outdated concept. It represents a secular congregation, if you will, of people coming together to experience something and sharing in large numbers the vibrancy of what a symphony orchestra can sound like. That is nothing to apologize for, and is still at the core of what we do. I feel it is my responsibility first and foremost to serve the community. This is why this past year I spent time getting to know the city better. It's given me a much more fully formed idea of what the community consists of, and it's quite multi-faceted. My task is to serve as much of that com- munity as I can. It's all about creating a dialogue and forming relationships. An essential part of my job is outreach to much more than the tra- ditional orchestra constituents, and to bring in more people who wouldn't normally come to a symphony or- chestra concert. That's going to be a serious part of my attention. We absolutely have to go out into the community in as many ways as we can. It's hard to send an 70-piece symphony orchestra out en masse, but there are many ways of using smaller musical groups as advocates for the larger ensemble. We should not be afraid to try new things at the risk of not everything being a guaranteed success in ad- vance. Programming is key. It's like a restaurant — it's your musical menu. I can't get into specifics yet [about programming], but I can say there will be an exciting variety of music. There's no one area that's been con- centrated on. There will be something for everybody and there will be some surprises, some unfamiliar music that I really believe in and I think will be both accessible, informative and enjoyable to listen to. n — F.R. Q&A with new NHSO Music Director Alasdair Neale Passing the baton Neale earned his master's in conducting at the Yale School of Music in 1985 and while here served as conductor of the Yale Symphony.

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