Richard Young, director of the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington
richardyoung
After graduating in 2011 from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music with an emphasis in double bass performance, Richard Young — who grew up playing piano and violin as well — had every intention to pursue his passion for chamber music. Now in his second year of directing the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, however, he is the first to admit that he ended up on a different side of the fence than he initially expected to.
At the ripe young age of 22, Young is funneling a fresh, new perspective and vitality into the festival, which celebrates its sixth anniversary this year. While pursuing an administrative role may not have occurred to him during his years of studying music, he said his experience being musician and playing in festivals around the world contributes to the day-to-day tasks that go into organizing and directing the festival, which has expanded to include year-round programming.
“All in all, it’s sort of similar skills — being a music performer and a classical musician, you have to have a lot of preparation, a lot of looking way, way, way ahead, attention to details ... it’s a good transition,” he said.
Young’s contributions have included extending programming beyond the August festival, which features three days of performances by world-class chamber musicians on Fasig-Tipton Farm, with a focus on expanding the reach and audience for the event. In July, he organized 10 days of unannounced “flash mob”-style performances by young musicians (most of whom are master’s and doctoral candidates from some of the best music conservatories in the country) in unconventional locations around Lexington, in an attempt to expose a side of the music that many young people might not otherwise consider.
“I think a big problem for people my age who have not been raised as classical musicians [is that they] just don’t have the exposure to it and don’t realize that it’s actually really enjoyable music,” he said. “I want to show people that it’s really young and it’s really vibrant music.”
SB (Saraya Brewer): You started playing music at a very young age. Tell us a bit about your musical background and how it influences your administrative role with the festival.
RY (Richard Young): I remember being a kid and listening to music with my parents over the car radio on road trips. While it was more in the genre of Led Zeppelin and the like, I remember instantly being drawn to it, and my fascination with the way music can move and engage is what made me select music performance as my focus in school. While I was at CCM [the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music] I learned the skills of self-evaluation, goal orientation and the not-always-pleasant ability to sit in a tiny practice room by myself for eight hours a day and work on minutia. All these things that are so important to honing your craft as a musician are really valuable when you are on the other side of things — not to mention that being a musician yourself really helps when dealing with other musicians.
SB: What exactly is chamber music, and do you feel that there’s a general misconception about it with the general public?
RY: I think that when most people think of chamber music, they think of old stuffy Europeans in wigs with powdered faces playing Haydn or Mozart in red coattails. I think it has a very Victorian image to it. But that’s definitely not the case; chamber music is exciting, touching, intimate and engaging. It’s my favorite form of music, period, the end. I really consider chamber music to be any acoustic music that is played in a small setting with an intimate feel. Some people may jump on me for that, but I really think that you can go as far to stretch jazz, folk, and even more into chamber music — who’s to say it isn’t?
SB: In July, you organized a series of “flash mob”-style chamber performances in unconventional locations that ranged from a grocery store to a hospital to West Sixth Brewery. Talk about your efforts to put chamber music on the radars of new audiences.
RY: When we created our July Series, we made it to be a stark contrast to the traditional chamber music concert. I mean, most chamber music festivals take place in a hall, in front of a quiet audience, with a set procedure for processing the concert, when to clap and so on. But sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone to find new audiences. ... People want to stand up and cheer when they hear something exciting, not stifle their emotions. So we took away that atmosphere of rules. The performance in West Sixth Brewing was such a great example of that — everyone in the whole place was standing and clapping and cheering between movements, and even in the middle of pieces. ... It was so refreshing, and the music really seemed to feed off that energy.
SB: What’s the last concert you went to [aside from the Chamber Festival July series shows]?
RY: One of my friends is Kayoko Dan, who used to conduct CKYO [Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra] here in Lexington, but now is the conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony. A month or two ago, I drove down to Chattanooga to see Bela Fleck, the banjo player, play with the symphony there, and it was absolutely amazing. He has been one of my musical idols for as long as I can remember, and I was lucky enough to be able to hang out with him for a few hours after the concert.
SB: What’s something that most people don’t know about you?
RY: I love food. I cook all the time, and I am always messing around in one of my few vegetable gardens that are scattered around near my apartment. I even did this experiment a year or so ago where I made myself eat everything that I disliked, in order to enjoy it. It was great, and I overcame almost all of the dislikes I had. I actually gained a new favorite food out of it — Brussels sprouts. The last dislike to turn into a like, which was quite recent, was chocolate.
SB: What’s currently playing on your iPod?
RY: Well, currently I’m listening to Bill Evans Radio on Pandora, but the last thing I actually selected to play was the album “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake.
SB: What should people look forward to with this year’s Chamber Festival?
RY: I think that our August festival continues to be one of the best musical experiences around. Here are all these fantastic young musicians from the world’s top orchestras, playing some of the best pieces of music ever written, in an amazing space. What’s not to like? In addition to our core group of musicians, this year we have a fantastic horn player named Andrew Bain coming. Andrew is the principal horn of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and we’re really excited to have him. Chris Rogerson, from Yale University, is going to be writing us a new piece that will have its world premiere on Saturday night. Plus, we do have a few fairly substantial changes coming; make sure to keep an eye out for our reworking of our master classes and open rehearsals, and maybe a few more tricks that we can’t talk about quite yet. It’s gonna be a blast.
Chamber Music Fesival of Lexington
Aug. 27 - Sept. 2
Fasig-Tipton Pavillion Newtown Pike
For more information, check online at www.chambermusiclex.com