by September 17, 2021
By Montague Gammon III
The newly appointed twelfth Music Director of our Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Eric Jacobsen, flew into town from his current home in Brooklyn late last month, hitting the ground – or rather the stage – running, with rehearsals, board meetings and meetings on programming concerts, “meets and greets with various VSO communities,” dinner, audio editing and then hastened back to Brooklyn, finding time at stops along the way to chat by phone and text about what he has in store for Virginia.
One comment he made is that he “likes to throw parties and to have people own that party.”
Conducting and programming a season of concerts is, to Jacobsen, much like giving a party. The musicians and the audiences are the guests, and the host/conductor is out to make their experience joyful and fun and meaningful and memorable. Most especially, to make it memorable.
