| Building A Reading Orchestra -- This Guy Loves The Arts | | Print | |
| Written by Michael Hassell | |
| Sunday, 28 May 2006 | |
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“I’ve gotten comments from as far away as the U.K.,” Hayden said concerning responses to his e-mail and internet bulletin board posts. Besides wishing the new venture well, voices from all over have helped him think through the logistical issues. The idea is not without precedent. While living in San Francisco, Hayden met a horn player for one of that area’s major symphonies who launched a reading orchestra there. “There were players from the Oakland and Berkeley symphonies, and players from other [suburban] ‘vanity orchestras’, musicians who weren’t working at the moment or had a night off when the readers rehearsed. One summer they pulled together to read all nine of the Beethoven symphonies”. And, yes, a volunteer choir showed up to sing in the chorus for the Ninth. Ideas like this find room to grow in a fertile imagination...and behind it all is the determination of an artist with more than passing experience with the arts. Talking to Hayden, one gets the sense this is more than just a concept borne of an abstraction, then hammered out of communal chaos. “Only Guy Hayden could start something like this [sight-reading orchestra] and make it work,” admits an admirer. He certainly has the experience. As conductor of the semi-pro Northern Neck Symphony based in Kilmarnock, he knows how to wave a baton. He’s done stints with community bands and orchestras on the Peninsula as conductor, but that’s only the latest phase in a life spent immersed in the Arts all over the nation. In spite of his notable success as a professional ballet dancer, theatre director, pianist and actor, this renaissance guy admits, with a chuckle, “All I really want to do is conduct!” A local friend and colleague calls Hayden “the best example of a polymath [a person of great or varied learning] I’ve ever met”. Underscoring the fact that Guy Hayden is, indeed, above average, he has a personality which dismisses much of the praise with a bit of “Aw, shucks” humility. Hayden, 61, is a Hampton Roads native who started out playing alto saxophone and violin, adding piano and organ as his parents could obtain the instruments. His first money-earning gig was during a Christmas season many years ago at Trinity Lutheran, Newport News, playing violin in a pageant composed by Fred Waring. Forays into conducting began at summer band camps in his early teens. By the time he enrolled at the Conservatory of University of Missouri, Kansas City, a budding interest in ballet took charge. He played for ballet classes and was encouraged to study dance himself. Transferring to the Cincinnati Conservatory, he continued ballet studies with émigrés from the Ballet Russe, then moved to New York City, returning to Williamsburg each summer to perform with the corps of “The Common Glory”, a theatrical extravaganza about colonial Williamsburg written by Paul Green and directed by Howard Scammon with choreography by Myra Kinch. “Glory” ran from 1940 through the 1970s, with a hiatus during World War II. The ruins of its outdoor stage can still be seen on the banks of Lake Matoaka, near Phi Beta Kappa Hall in Williamsburg. The working life of this dance gypsy moving up and down the eastern seaboard reads like a dancer’s dream-come-true. Hayden danced with the Richmond Ballet, the National Ballet School (DC) on scholarship; the Atlanta Ballet under conductor Michel Dutoit; New York’s Academy of Performing Arts. He was assistant Music Director for The Dance Theatre of Harlem and principal dancer for the Santa Fe Opera. He was dance pianist in New York to the same prima ballerinas who had escaped the Soviet Union to form a stupendous expatriate faculty of the Bolshoi and Kirov. During performance seasons, Guy played for Mde. Markevich, Thalia Mara and Vera Nimchenova, among others; and for American dance schools like the Graham, Ailey and Joffrey. And for Richard Thomas and Barbara Fallis in between times. Come summer, he’d arabesque his way back to Williamsburg for another tourist season at “Common Glory”. And so it went...and this was just part of his dance portfolio. His West coast career, interspersed with studies at San Francisco State University (Music, and Theatre Design), included the founding of Fulton Street Warehouse Theatre, an improv house which evolved into a hot one-act center, plus work at Golden Gate Theatre in the city’s Tenderloin district. From there, he did theatre (writing, directing, acting) at Chez Jacques; at The Eureka Theatre, where he joined Robert Woodruff’s directing workshop; at Theatre Rhinoceros and The Xoregos Performing Company of San Francisco...Between times, he became noted for his piano entertainment at a trio of swanky restaurants named for one famed chef’s paramours. He directed the San Francisco String Consort, Woodminster Summer Musicals in Oakland, CA, The Palo Alto Ballet, San Francisco Tap Troupe and The Berkeley (CA) Symphonic Band. All in a day’s work. Occasional returns to home turf -- intentional or not -- turned into major periods of activity, too. Locally, Guy had starring roles in community theatre productions (“Cabaret”, “Kismet”, “My Fair Lady”) and directed “West Side Story”, Fantasticks”, “Crazy For You”, “Nunsense”, “Oklahoma”, “Oliver”, and “Wizard of Oz” for various professional and amateur companies throughout Hampton Roads. (His first musical theatre experience was in “L’il Abner” at the once flourishing Barksdale Dinner Theatre). Many readers may not know much about the people or companies discussed above, but suffice it to say Mr. Hayden’s experience with major institutions and personalities such as these throughout his life makes him a well-regarded maven in several fields. Thus...and this is what really matters...Hayden brings great acumen and professional skill to this latest orchestra project, even if it is just for the amusement of participants. Amateur or professional players can gain experience this summer that is unavailable elsewhere even at a steep price. Oh yes, lest I forget, this reading orchestra will be offered at no charge, with no audition requirements, no attendance requirements, and with rotating open seating for all players (in other words, better players will not automatically take all the first chairs in sections). One requirement, though: participants MUST bring their own music stands. The rehearsal site, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Newport News, is located at 372 Hiden Boulevard, off Route 60 (Warwick Blvd), about a mile north of the Christopher Newport University campus. The initial downbeat begins Monday evening, June 12th, at 7:00 p.m. in the church’s parish hall. Questions? Mr. Hayden prefers to respond to e-mail ( dumusic@cox.net ), but can be reached at (757) 224-1275. Now it’s up to you to help make this thing work. So go rescue that clarinet or viola or trumpet of yours from the upstairs closet. There’s still time to get new pads, reeds, resin for the bow, and mouthpieces together in order to spend a few otherwise idle evenings this summer with the classics! And with a true local maestro! |
Where, O where has your old oboe gone? Dormant instruments stashed in attics and garages around Hampton Roads are starting to stir with excitement. Once active amateurs as well as under-employed pros are getting the call: “C’mon down! We’re putting on an orchestra!” A reading orchestra, that is. Guy Hayden, conductor, violinist, and music scholar -- among many other gifts and talents -- wants to launch Hampton Roads’ first sight-reading orchestra beginning Monday, June 12th.
No goals, no concerts. Just social and musical rewards like meeting fellow musicians, making new friends, maintaining playing “chops”, improving one’s reading skills. 