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Music is about life. How can you interpret moments of emotion if you've never experienced them yourself?” |
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NAME
Carolyn Kuan ’99
SMITH MAJOR
Music, with a minor in economics
FURTHER EDUCATION
Master’s in music, University of Illinois; graduate performance diploma, Peabody Conservatory. (Kuan received full scholarships to both schools.)
CURRENT JOB
Freelance professional music conductor
WHAT SHE DOES
Travels around the world leading major orchestras as a guest conductor
CAREER PATH
Kuan says most conductors’ careers follow a similar trajectory, from assistant/associate conductor of a small orchestra to assistant/associate conductor of a major orchestra to guest conductor of various major orchestras to music director of a small orchestra, and ultimately to music director of a major orchestra. Kuan is currently at stage three. She got her start as an artist-in-residence at the New York City Ballet, then served as assistant conductor of the North Carolina Symphony before being scooped up by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, where she was promoted from assistant to associate conductor after one year. She recently left the Seattle Symphony to pursue guest-conducting opportunities with orchestras based in New York, Chicago, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and other major cities. “I’m still young,” she says, “so it’s really important for me to be around the best possible music-making.”
MILESTONE ALERT
If Kuan achieves her dream of becoming music director of a major orchestra—and bets are that she will—she will become just the second woman to lead a major American orchestra. Her mentor Marin Alsop was the first to crack that glass ceiling, having been named music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2005. Of her goals, Kuan says, “I want to be in a place where I can really take the orchestra to the next level—and of course, if it’s the New York Philharmonic, that would be great.”
WANT HER JOB?
Kuan says conductors should have “tremendous skills but also great interpretation.” To that end, be the best musician you can be—know your music history and your harmony, train your ears, and study and practice as much as possible—but don’t forget to engage with the world. “Music is about life,” Kuan says. “How can you interpret moments of emotion if you’ve never experienced them yourself? Go to museums. See great art. Really live life in order to bring out these things in the music.”
—Christina Barber-Just
For more visit: http://www.aormanagementuk.com/FrameCarolynKuan.htm |
