read page 2 - Everett McCorvey

A2 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2014
FROM THE FRONT PAGE
LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER | KENTUCKY.COM
MCCORVEY
From Page A1
It was a Kentucky connection that brought him to this
return, as the newly appointed artistic director of the National Chorale, the only professional choral organization
to establish and maintain
an annual choral-orchestra
series in a major New York
City concert hall.
In July, the Chorale suffered a devastating blow with
the sudden death of its only
artistic director, Martin Josman, who founded the group
in 1967.
Active UK alumna Myra
Leigh Tobin has been a member of the Chorale board for
years, chairing it at least
three times. She said of Josman: “He was the lifeblood
of this group.”
McCorvey, 57, first encountered Josman when he
auditioned for the Chorale as
a young singer.
“He was a taskmaster,”
McCorvey recalls over lunch
at Benash Delicatessen, a
few blocks from the National
Chorale offices in Midtown
Manhattan. “He had a real
eye for quality in the vocal
sound and what he wanted
to accomplish musically. He
demanded excellence. I got
along with him well. That’s
because I came to rehearsals
prepared.”
McCorvey says working
with Josman and the National Chorale gave him a framework for his own approach to
music education.
“It was my experience
with the National Chorale
that helped me understand
what the requirements are
for professional musicians,
which are you have to be
a crackerjack sight-reader,
you have to be able to learn
music quickly, get it up to a
performance level, and perform it as if you’ve been performing it for six months,”
McCorvey says. “The people
who can’t do that will have
trouble being successful in
the business, because they
won’t get rehired.
“The conductor expects
them to come in knowing
the part, because it’s not just
learning notes, it’s making
music.”
Over the years, Tobin
kept McCorvey posted about
Josman and the Chorale, and
after Josman died, she asked
for his advice about a successor. But soon, she set her
eye on her own home state
favorite.
“I dreamed a dream,”
Tobin says of pitching McCorvey to the Chorale board.
“I guess I made a good sales
pitch.”
Not everyone bought in
initially.
“There were some naysayers who said, ‘What does
CARS
From Page A1
allow U.S. exports to Cuba’s
small class of private business
owners, which includes thousands of mechanics and taxi
drivers who shuttle Cubans
in battered sedans for about
50 cents a ride and tourists
in shiny, restored vintage vehicles for $25 an hour.
While the details of
Obama’s reforms remain uncertain, Cubans are hopeful
that their publication in the
coming weeks will end a fivedecade drought of cars and
parts.
“Maybe it will be possible
to get parts faster, at better
prices,” a hopeful Raul Arabi,
58, said while seated behind
the wheel of a cherry-red
1952 Chevy convertible that
still runs on its original 6-cylinder engine. “If they opened
a specific store for this, even
better.”
Cuba long restricted car
ownership almost entirely to
prominent bureaucrats, high
achievers in their fields and
professionals who completed
government service abroad.
That limit was dropped
PHOTOS BY RICH COPLEY | [email protected]
During his trip to New York this month for his first appearance as artistic director of the National
Chorale, Everett McCorvey discussed plans with Amy Siegler, the group’s director of operations.
a Kentucky director know
about New York City? New
York will eat him alive,’”
board chair Judith E. Rinearson says. “Then he came in
and blew all that away.”
At this critical point in the
group’s history, Rinearson
says, “Not only did we need
a consummate musician, we
needed a people person.”
And that was the mode
McCorvey was in while finding his way to the Avery
Fisher stage door to prepare
National Chorale has several
education initiatives in New
York City public schools, including a major partnership
with the Professional Performing Arts High School for
children who are professional
performers.
In his dressing room, decorated with New York Philharmonic programs that featured legendary figures such
as Gustav Mahler, McCorvey
contemplates whether to put
on his white tie and tails
Backstage, McCorvey
is making the rounds talking to conductors, many of
whom knew Josman and the
Chorale well and have a keen
interest in the organization’s
future.
Late into a group briefing,
where McCorvey introduces
himself and gets some pointers from conductors with
years of Sing-In experience,
conductor Gregory Hopkins
rises at the back and, on
behalf of all the conductors,
“There were some naysayers who said, ‘What does a Kentucky director know about
New York City? New York will eat him alive.’ Then he came in and blew all that away.”
Judith Rinearson, National Chorale board chair, speaking of Everett McCorvey
for the 47th annual Messiah
Sing-In, an audience singalong of George Frideric
Handel’s Messiah featuring
16 conductors, each leading
one of the oratorio’s choruses.
They included numerous
New York-based choral conductors and a few from outside the area. Among them
was Hugh Ferguson Floyd,
director of choral activities
at South Carolina’s Furman
University, whom McCorvey invited specifically for
his role as artistic director
of the New York State Summer School for the Arts. The
before or after making the
rounds to greet the conductors and soloists.
“I’d better do it before I
go out or I might get to talking and run out of time,” McCorvey says.
That is very easy to imagine, as his wife, Alicia, and
others talk during this quick
trip to New York about McCorvey’s legendary gift for
gab. Later in the evening,
UK Opera stage manager
Marc Schlackman goes to
retrieve a chatty McCorvey
from a post-concert party so
he can have dinner, well after
midnight.
During the Messiah Sing-In, McCorvey led the New York
audience in singing And the Glory of the Lord.
last year, but it was replaced
by markups that drove prices
as high as $262,000 for a Peugeot that lists for the equivalent of about $53,000 outside
Cuba. That leaves classic cars
as one of the only options
for Cubans needing private
transportation for themselves
or a business, although prices
of about $20,000 for old cars
mean buyers on the island
often need help for the purchase from relatives abroad.
With so much invested
in their cars, new engines,
hoods, fenders and transmissions are a dream for the
owners of what once were
known as “Humphrey Bogarts” and that remain a fixture
of the landscape.
“It’s pretty complicated,”
said Tio, 27. “The government won’t sell you glass for
these old cars. They won’t
sell replacement parts for
these old cars. Everything is
made by hand.”
A few years ago, the only
way Tio could get new tires
for his car was to rely on the
generosity of a relative who
brought some back from Venezuela.
In the meantime, necessity will drive invention when
welcomes McCorvey saying,
“We are excited to see what
music you bring to New
York.”
The National Chorale post
is in addition to his work at
UK. McCorvey — who is
legendary for sending emails
with time stamps from the
wee hours — jokes that the
Chorale “will fill my 3 a.m.
to 6 a.m. time slot.”
McCorvey notes that for
faculty at performing arts
schools, perform or perish
is their “publish or perish,”
and the Chorale helps fulfill
that requirement. And with
the Chorale’s involvement in
New York schools, McCorvey, who recruits just like UK
basketball coach John Calipari, can see the potential of
attracting talented students
to Kentucky.
The job will involve regular shuttling to New York for
which he hopes Alicia will
join him as they soon will be
empty nesters.
While plenty of the members of the Chorale, an auditioned group, were in the
Sing-In crowd, their first performance under McCorvey’s
direction will be in February,
following several days of re-
1+ %!" !1'+ ! +,!%1 & 32( 2.
)%!"+# #+*'$
For their quinceañeras last week, two Cuban girls sat on the back of a vintage convertible during
a ride along the iconic Malecón, the waterfront boulevard in Havana.
it comes to maintaining the
thousands of classic cars that
fill Cuba’s cities and countryside. Many are used for daily
needs and commutes; others
transport curious tourists
soaking up nostalgia, newlyweds, or girls celebrating
their quinceañeras — traditional 15th-birthday celebrations.
“ W h e n t h e m at e r i a l
doesn’t exist, one has to invent it,” said a mechanic who
agreed to reveal some of his
secrets on the condition that
he not be identified because
he feared possible repercussions.
Suspension systems are
among the most complicated
to repair, simply because
there are no parts available.
But he noted that trains have
similar springs that support
a lot of weight.
Train coil springs are smaller than those of the cars, but
the mechanic described how
they could be stretched with
a manual press until they are
the necessary height.
“We fix everything, all the
time,” he said proudly.
Such haphazard methods
are not ideal in terms of
safety: Putting powerful engines in cars with old bodywork and no seat belts or
airbags increases the risk of
A8>/,787B(&7+'+75/,
%,, * ##$%
!1'+!# !1'+ & 32( (2&2
5##$%+# #+*'$
+'% '1+" /4!%
5#')$%1 & 32( 223
"'1+"+# #+*'$
/--> C(>& A8
!# * ',
/! !%%!# !+ & 32( 22-2
,5',+# #+*'$
!# * ##,
!+1'+ ' 4$% ,'4+,
& 32( 22. $6##,+# #+*'$
!$ '', /5+1!,!%
& 32( 282
"6'',+# #+*'$
!//*5/,<
*->A*E/,
>C(>>75/,<
&7++7
hearsal for a show that will
be a joint appearance with
McCorvey’s American Spiritual Ensemble.
As much as the Chorale
years ago prepared McCorvey for a professional
music career, he says leading the American Spiritual
Ensemble, which focuses on
the preservation and performance of spiritual music,
prepared him to lead the
Chorale.
An early afternoon meeting with Chorale director of
operations Amy Siegler is a
flurry of plans and details,
both for the concert at hand
and the season to come. A
lot of discussion focuses on
generating new audiences
and donors for the group,
which, says everyone involved, seemed like it could
have folded after Josman’s
death.
“I’d like to find ways for
the organization to raise
more money, create some
endowments, maybe create some fiscal foundations
knowing there’s money to
present the season,” McCorvey says, then laughs,
adding, “It feels like talking
about UK Opera. It’s sort of
the same. The arts are always dicey.”
He also has ambitions to
raise the profile of the Chorale, looking at the New York
calendar for spots where
it might be able to present
events that would put it in
the mix of New York culture,
like the annual Alltech Celebration of Song in downtown
Lexington, which McCorvey
conducted the night before
his Chorale debut. Alltech
DESMOND BOYLAN | ASSOCIATED PRESS
A8>/,7 7B( ->7 0' FF'...'
44, * +!7 +,!%1
4#!,+ & 32( 23
++!7+# #+*'$
At the National Chorale, McCorvey succeeds Martin Josman,
who founded the group in 1967. Josman died in July.
& D(-%>/- 7+'7 1>8 (8
8>77 ,7(- D1788 /7 (8/B7 !/7
8A87(1>(/-8 - +88(" B7>(8(-%5 (+
8A87(1>(/-8 7 1E+ (- B- +8 /->>
A8>/,7 87B( > 0' FF'...' 0 !/7 17((-%5
& 1A+(8&7 787B8 >& 7(%&> >/ &-%
8A87(1>(/- 7>8 A7(-% >& >7, /! 8A87(1>(/-5 &
-/>( ,E E -/>( /->(- (- >& -C8117
(>8+! /7 />&7C(85 A87(1>(/- 7> &-%8 ,E
(,1+,-> E &-%(-% >& A7>(/- /! >&
8A87(1>(/-5
1+,-> /! ,(88 /7 ,% -C81178 7
7'+(B7 /- A-E /-+E (- E>> /A->E B7E
A-E (! E/A ++ >C- :?F 5,5 - .?F 5,5
++ /, +(B7E A8>/,78 C(++ 7(B -C81178
0
dangerous accidents.
And while Cubans’ ingenuity at keeping the cars
running is impressive, the
fact that they have patched
together the old cars with
scraps means the cars have
little chance of becoming collectors’ items in the United
States once the market between the two countries
opens up.
“I’m not sure there’s a single car on the road in Cuba
you could bring here and
put in a car show,” said Tom
Wilkinson, a classic car lover
from Detroit who recently
visited the island as part of a
cultural exchange.
0FF (+- B-A
D(-%>/- E5 $F#F
/, +(B7E >8
B7E E
/-E'7(E
/-E'>A7E
7(E'/-E
>A7E'A-E
founder and president Pearse
Lyons flew McCorvey to New
York and was one of several
Kentucky notables in the
Sing-In audience, which also
included Gov. Steve Beshear
and his wife, Jane; and Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, who
was in New York for a conference.
“He’s a rock star,” Gray
said of McCorvey. “He’s a
great ambassador for Lexington.”
Chorale board chair
Rinearson marveled, “We’ve
never had a governor at one
of our performances.”
McCorvey’s onstage demeanor would be familiar
to anyone who has attended
a UK Opera performance or
one of UK Opera’s Grand
Night for Singing shows.
He engaged the audience
in a show of hands to see
how many people had been
to two, five, 10 and so-on
performances, identifying
one audience member who
had been to all 47. And he
led vocal warmups, just as he
would for his singers at UK.
“Dad would have been
very happy with how he did
it tonight,” Josman’s daughter, Cathy Josman said, noting her family has roots in
Covington and Mount Sterling. “He had an energy and
enthusiasm that made me excited for the future.”
As any artist knows,
there’s a lot to be said for
getting a good review from
a tough critic in New York
City.
Rich Copley: (859) 231-3217.
Email: rcopley@herald-leader.
com. Twitter: @LexGoKY.
“You have to admire how
resourceful the Cubans have
been, keeping these cars running and modernizing them
as much as they can,” Wilkinson said. “That said, by the
standards of the American
collector, they’re way too
rough.”
That’s probably OK with
Cuba, where such cars are
like old friends that would
not be easy to part with.
“This is part of the national culture,” said Arabi,
who parks his red Chevy
convertible on Havana’s iconic seafront boulevard, the
Malecón, waiting for tourists
to pay for a ride.
“It is part of the culture
that tourists want to see
here ... and it is part of our
own culture. ... Cubans want
to celebrate their weddings,
their 15-year-old birthday
celebrations, in these cars,”
he said.
With that, Arabi ended the
conversation with a rev of his
engine as a couple climbed
in for a spin in his classic
auto — a timeless ride that,
somehow, despite years of
use and against engineering
odds, keeps on running, day
after day.
+88(!( B7>(8(-%
0' FF'.??':?##
0F<C*
0F<C*
0F<C*
<C*
#<C*
A7(-% >& !/++/C(-% &/+(E 17(/8 -A7E 0 @F0# -
A+E $ @F0#5
++ *- - >A7E<A-E A87(78 C(++
7(B -C81178 A7(-% >& !/++/C(-% A8E
1A+(>(/-8 0<F; 0<@F @<F? @<0: ?<F? ?<@# $<F $<@@
#<0@ #<@; ;<F. ;<@? :<00 :<@# <00 <@# .<F .<@@
0F<F; 0F<@F 00<0F 00<0: 00<@: 00<@ 0@<F0 - 0@<0#5
++ &/, +(B7E 8A87(78 7 8A)> >/ 05:#
17,(A, &7% !/7 >& !/++/C(-% @F0$ (>(/-8 00<F#
-7+ B7>(8(-%
2 #.3 @?0'?$@$
0@<@#9 ?5FF !/7 >& &-*8%(B(-% 117 00<@:<0$5 ++
&/, +(B7E 8A87(78 7 8A)> >/ 05:# 17,(A,
&7% !/7 >& !/++/C(-% @F0# (>(/-8 ?<0; ?<0 #<F@
<F@ <@0 .<@# 0F<?F 00<F$ - 0@<@#9 ?5FF !/7 >&
&-*8%(B(-% 117 00<@;<0#5 &8 17,(A, &7%8 C(++
&-% E/A7 1('>&7A >5 C81178 8/+ B( -C8
7*8 - 7>(+78 C(++ @5FF /- >&8 >85
7( 8A)> >/ &-%5 6 ;4 ->A*E 8+8 >D5
-+A (- >& 8A87(1>(/- >/ >& 7>&(>> /A->E
/( (8 +(B7E /! >& A-E D(-%>/- 7+'7 >
>& /8> /! @# 17 ,/->&5 A+(8& (+E - A-E (D(-%>/- ->A*E E >& +>&E /,1-E5 7(/(+
1/7>% 1( > D(-%>/- ->A*E5 2 F:$#'$@;F3
- 788 &-%8 >/ D(-%>/- 7+'
7 /5 0FF (+- B5 D(-%>/- E5 $F#F