Maestro Roger Kalia will bring the sounds of Symphony NH to Greeley Park on Oct. 2. The concert will feature the brass and percussion sections.

NASHUA – Acclaimed maestro Roger Kalia will conduct Symphony NH’s brass and percussion in a free concert that will be held in Greeley Park on Friday, Oct. 2 from 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Concert goers are asked to bring their own chairs and blankets to the park and allow for social distancing.

As music director of the Granite State’s 97-year-old Symphony NH, the Indian American Kalia was also recently named music director of Indiana’s 87-year-old Evansville Philharmonic.

With COVID-19 changing the face and sound of how audiences enjoy the arts, this season also introduces a new online series entitled, “Granite State Conversations with Roger Kalia,” featuring bi-monthly episodes showcasing Kalia as he discusses topics such as upcoming orchestra concerts and the cultural landscape across New Hampshire.

There’s no question however, that the arts have taken a huge hit over the past several months.

“I think that all of us are craving to perform and everyone is really missing live music right now, especially our audiences,” he said. “Lots of orchestras are postponing their seasons or cancelling their seasons but we decided that we’re actually going to be performing.”

Although it’s not the full 60-piece orchestra that fans might have hoped for, Symphony NH will present sections of the orchestra in each live music performance.

“We’re featuring small ensembles this season,” Kalia said. “For instance, next Friday at Greeley Park will feature our brass and percussion sections. And then in November, it’s a small string orchestra. It’s really an opportunity to highlight the musicians and give them work.”

Kalia said that the orchestra will move forward, albeit with tweaks, such as socially distancing and having members of the orchestra, such as percussionists or string musicians, wear masks.

“There’s a lot of safety protocols that go into it,” he said. “But at least we’re performing again which is really exciting and nice for us.”

Kalia has remained incredibly busy throughout the spring and summer, although he admitted that when the health crisis first hit, the was glad to have a break.

“Lots of my concerts got canceled all over the country,” he shared. “I had a lot of guest conducting engagements and also my last concert with Symphony NH, our final classical concert of the subscription series was canceled. That was disappointing but it gave me time to reflect.”

Once the aftermath of COVID-19 had set in, Kalia said it was time to reimagine how Symphony NH was going to march on.

“We had to completely reimagine everything,” he said. “Programs, guest artists, venues – all had to be changed. And what we did was to focus on virtual content.”

Kalia said it wasn’t just with Symphony NH, but other philharmonics that he is involved with who all faced the same challenge, in redesigning and reconfiguring how they could get music to the masses.

“In general, I was doing virtual watch parties on Facebook,” he said. “We did a virtual trivia night with Symphony NH. My wife and I did a mixology video as well. It was just a lot of different ways to engage with our audience, to keep them interested and to let them know that we hadn’t forgotten them.”

This is the third re-imagination Symphony NH’s concert season. Kalie hopes that this is the final one, but said he “wouldn’t be surprised if I still have to reimagine the rest of the season in different contexts.”

Conducting smaller components of the symphony adds a unique challenge to Kalia.

“This is more chamber music,” he said. “In a way, it’s more intimate in the way that I approach it. I change my conducting slightly to give the musicians more opportunities to shine, if you will. It’s more about solos and individuality in this case.”

With fewer musicians, Kalia steps aside as there is not as much coronation involved.

“There is not as much distancing involved,” he said. “It’s a unique opportunity to let the musicians take over. Of course, it’s still a team effort but it’s going to be new for many of our musicians.”

The performers will be six to eight feet apart and rehearsals are also approached differently.

“We play for a certain amount of time and then we take a break,” Kalia said. “And then we play another certain amount of time and then another break. The reason for the multiple breaks is due to air quality and circulation in the hall.”

Luckily, this first concert being held at Greeley Park is outdoors and alleviates much of the strategizing when the symphony is playing, or will play, indoors.

“More air will be circulating,” he said. “And we can’t do that in New Hampshire for the whole season, with the weather. But I think in this more intimate setting, the musicians are going to standout more. And my job is a little less busy in terms of conducting.”

Kalia dismissed that there is competition among musicians and said the ensemble plays as one.

“No, there is no competition,” he said. “I wouldn’t use that word in describing an orchestra. It’s a team effort. We all have to sound exactly the same. We have to sound like one instrument – we can’t sound like multiple parts. It has to sound like one big instrument.”

To communicate his ideas to the orchestra, Kalia prefers to allow the orchestra to play large portions of music, to interpret the composition and follow his lead.

“I don’t like to interrupt too much,” he said. “That can be very frustrating for musicians if you stop every few bars and say, ‘Fix this’ or ‘Fix that.'”

In terms of his approach to rehearsals, when Kalia speaks to the orchestra, his uses analogies or different descriptive words to convey the mood of the piece.

“You want to tell a story about each piece,” he said. “That’s what you’re trying to do. Not only that but you’re trying to give historical context to each work – when the piece was written, or what was happening in this composer’s life at the time. That will really inform the musician on how to play a certain phrase or series of notes.”

Kalia said musicians want to perform at their highest level possible- even when that means having to perform the same piece publicly up to five times.

“With Symphony NH, we typically only have to do two performances,” he said. “The biggest challenge for an orchestra is adapting to new venues and different acoustics. But the standard will always remain at the highest possible level in order to allow for emotional, connected performances.

Kalia said his musicians bring their A-game to a concert. And the audience does as well.

“We feed off that audience energy and involvement,” he said. “A lot of times, if we don’t have a big audience, we’re still going to put on a great show but it might not be that level of excitement then if we had a full house.”

Kalia said he always includes the audience in each performance by addressing them, speaking from the podium and explaining a bit about the music and thanking them for their support.

As conductor, Kalia’s ultimate goal is to bring a committed, emotional performance to the audience.

“I always think about the audience,” he said. “They come from different backgrounds. Maybe someone has a tragedy in their life. I’m there to ensure there is an emotional connection rather to just entertain.”

And as a conductor, Kalia added, “With the score that I’m conducting, I always try to get in that composer’s head. What was that composer thinking when he or she wrote that piece? It’s important to realize that the conductor has to bring his own interpretation but in the end it’s really about what the composer wrote on the page and trying to bring that to life with as much energy and commitment as possible.”

Kalia commented that the conductor does not make the sound; the musicians make the sound.

“My job is to enable the performers to give their best,” he said. “To really create an atmosphere where they feel they can play at their best is so important to me as a conductor rather than me just standing up there waving my arms.”

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