Like a wizard with a wand, a conductor with a baton creates magic.
“It’s like a lightning rod,” said Anna Edwards, who is serving her tenth season as Music Director of the Saratoga Orchestra. “You’re sending all of this energy into this tiny stick. How do you bring your comfort and ability through a baton? You do that through your presence, the way you stand, the way you look at your musicians.”
Since Anna Edwards was familiar with conducting and teaching across the country, the idea of hosting conducting workshops on Whidbey Island seemed a good idea.
According to her webpage, Anna Edwards “… balances her time between conducting in the Pacific Northwest, serving as a guest conductor/clinician across the country, and developing young musicians through instruction and collaboration with professionals in concert settings. The 2024-25 season marks the twelfth season for Edwards as Music Director of the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, tenth season as Music Director of the Saratoga Orchestra, eighth season as Music Director of the Pacific Northwest Conducting Institute, and fifth season as team member of Everything Conducting.”
Nine years ago, Anna was sitting at Pickles Deli with her friend Larry Heidel, Executive and Program Director of the Saratoga Orchestra.
“At that point the Saratoga Orchestra didn’t have any summer presence,” said Larry. “We were thinking what could we do during our summer and have it pay for itself. So…we outlined this workshop. Anna’s involved in a number of workshops around the country. We thought why not have it here? We have an orchestra. It made sense to try it. Our Board of Directors said OK, as long as it pays for itself. We charge tuition and it’s sustained through that.”
Following the conversation at Pickles Deli, the idea took hold, and the following year the Pacific Northwest Conducting Institute held its first workshop and concert in 2017 with the Saratoga Orchestra accompanying it.
To make the workshop impossible to resist, Anna invited her friend and colleague Diane Wittry, an internationally renown conductor, to teach the weeklong class. Diane is Music Director of the Allentown Symphony, PA , a professional orchestra, and author of “Beyond the Baton: What Every Conductor Needs to Know.”
“Diane has a name—people know her,” said Larry Heidel. “If this would be successful, we’d have to get Diane. We thought, if you bring Diane, they will come.”
Anna Edwards met Diane Wittry while pursuing a PhD in music at UW in 2015.
“I went to one of her workshops when I was working on my doctorate,” said Anna. “I loved the way she taught. She’s an incredible teacher. We became friends and colleagues. When I started the workshop I asked if she would co-teach with me. [At our workshop in Langley] Diane works with the conductors when they are with the orchestra. I take over and talk about what they did all day. What issues people had, and we do classes at night.”
The event has gained in popularity ever since it first began.
“The first year a woman from Finland, and people from all over the country came,” said Larry Heidel. “Another reason for our success—the conductors are housed with local families. That’s been quite a successful kudo for us. When we do our workshops the conductors love the fact they get to work with Diane and get to know the community through staying in people’s homes. This is a difference from other workshops, where they have to stay in hotels in cities, Über to workshops and not get to know the place. We try to make it more of an inclusive experience.”
Jane Spaulding and her husband live in Langley. Four years ago she read on drewslist–a subscriber email noting community announcements, stuff for sale, missing pets and more–that the Saratoga Orchestra/Pacific Northwest Conducting Institute was looking for locals to house the visiting conductors. Jane opened her home and has continued to do so every summer. She spoke about this year’s guest.
“She arrived Sunday and will stay for a week,” said Jane. “Since we’ve done this we’ve had a lovely cello concert in our living room. We’ve had four conductors. Our first was from San Francisco. He sat at kitchen table with a conducting stick practicing at the kitchen table. One was going to Kentucky. Last year a young man arrived from Phoenix.We integrate them into what we’re doing.”
This year the 18 conducting students are learning pieces from Beethoven, Elgar, Louise Farrenc—a French woman composer of the 19th century—extremely rare for her time; a living composer born in 2000—Joe Jaxson, and Mozart.
“We try to include women and diverse people who are composers to equal the playing field,” said Larry Heidel. “Louise Farrenc was a fascinating composer and advocated for equal pay at the Paris Conservatory for Women and got it. Her music has had a renaissance in the past 10-15 years. We’re playing her Symphony 3, and Diane edited the music—she took the original piece and wrote it out for orchestras to play.”
The Saratoga Orchestra is fortunate to have composer Joe Jaxson present at the Aug. 9 concert at WICA—Whidbey Island Center for the Arts. The orchestra will play his piece, Preserving.
“Joe Jaxson is getting his doctorate at University of Texas,” added Larry. “He’s the only living composer on the schedule. We’ve performed his music in the past. Joe’s an up and coming young composer. That’s another thing we’d like to highlight. It’s important the conductors can talk to a living composer. They can’t really go to Beethoven.”
As music reflects many threads of life, Anna Edwards is known for promoting underrepresented artists. As noted on her webpage she “…has inspired her mission to encourage and promote musical diversity at the highest level from professional, educational, and collaborative music organizations across the country. She is a passionate advocate of music from underrepresented composers on the concert stage.”
“My personal mission is to diversify the concert stage,” said Anna. “My goal is to find composers—women, underrepresented artists, finding great music and making it easily accessible for music directors when they’re programming.”
Anna likes to pair a classical composer with a lesser known artist—much like pairing wine and food. To facilitate this she has created Anna’s Composer Database…”a curated list of underrepresented composers that provides ideas for excellent, well-rounded, and interesting concert programs,” according to her webpage.
“We can pair, for instance, Scheherazade with Leanna Primiani,” said Anna. Leanna Primiani is a modern day composer/conductor. Anna’s commissioned premieres in the past included just such a combination of composers.
Larry Heidel said he’d like to toot the PNW Conducting Institute’s horn a little: “We’ve had people from Finland, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Australia, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and across the United States. We’ve had a lot of people from China and Korea who are in the USA going to Juilliard or Curtis and come for part of their professional development. They may have their own orchestra. It’s fun to see their career development. A take away—networking this way, the conductors get to know each other. They meet up over and over and through their professional careers.”
Join in and celebrate the skills of conductors as they perform with the Saratoga Orchestra Aug. 9 at 2 PM at WICA. Tickets are $30 and available at the WICA Box Office or online at wicaonline.org. More information about the concert by visiting Saratoga Orchestra’s webpage.