Conducting isn’t just for pros anymore. Advances in technology now enable classical-music lovers to virtually put themselves in Leonard Bernstein’s place. They can even do it at home; with The Maestromusic, a videogame for the Sony PlayStation system, maestros use an interactive baton that plugs into the console to follow the music on TV. The experience is surprisingly realistic; as a videogame reviewer on the British Web site Gamespot reflected, “If you suck, well, so does the whole orchestra.”
Some lucky laymen can even take a stab at conducting a real orchestra. Each year, KMZT (“K-Mozart”) radio in Los Angeles holds a contest to select who will conduct the American national anthem with a string quartet from the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. “We get people from every walk of life,” says KMZT spokeswoman Denise Maynard, who recalls a tux-clad 6-year-old showing up at a tryout. “Some are serious music lovers that want to become composers or conductors, but we’ve also had our share of eccentrics.” This year’s winner, James Myers, 44, has only a rudimentary music education and honed his conducting skills at house parties with friends. The Hollywood Bowl was a slightly bigger venue. “It was a complete rush,” he says. “My only regret is not milking the applause longer.”
For some amateurs, conducting becomes an obsession. Gilbert Kaplan, an economist and founder of Institutional Investor, got hooked when he heard Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in 1965. He says an “unexplainable connection” drew him into the music and he began daily conducting lessons with a private teacher 15 years later. The difficult piece requires juggling an orchestra with a chorus, soloists and an offstage brass band that plays as a separate ensemble. “I didn’t realize it was so complicated,” he says. “I just knew I loved it.” He performed the piece publicly in 1982 with the American Symphony Orchestra and critics who sneaked in to the VIP event gave him rave reviews. He now performs the piece four or five times a year and has become a world-famous amateur conductor. That’s a big leap from virtual musicians.
