Aspiring conductors have to go overseas to pursue their careers, says Dr Holly Mathieson.
''First of all, your work can only benefit from an international life and as much contact with as many different people and influences as possible, and teaching over here is unrivalled,'' she said in a phone interview from the UK, where she lives and works as a freelance conductor.
''Also, there's so much more going on here, and that's not to put New Zealand's artistic scene down, because there's great stuff going on, but New Zealand audiences and New Zealand managers want foreign conductors, and you'd need to do every concert in the year to have a full-time career, so you'd saturate the audience,'' she said with a laugh.
It is the same for young opera singers. It is a step back for them to base themselves here because they would not get overseas work, she said.
Dr Mathieson (33) did her undergraduate degree and doctorate at the University of Otago and her master's at the Melbourne conservatory.
While studying in Dunedin she conducted several choirs, including the Southern Consort of Voices, and worked with Opera Otago and university opera productions.
She left Dunedin for London in 2010 and got a job as librarian with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
''It turned out to be a fantastic job for a conductor. You are dealing with parts every day and working with some great conductors and getting to know them very well, being the confidante backstage for them. They are one of the top five orchestras in the world, so I'm really lucky to have the back door into that,'' she said.
Since she left to go freelance she has been assistant to Christoph von Dohnanyi at the Philharmonia and also to Marin Alsop, the first female conductor to do the Last Night of the Proms in London.
She has also started Horizont Musik-Kollektiv in Berlin, a small group of players, mostly New Zealanders, to play new New Zealand music; has spent three months as assistant conductor with Garsington Opera; and in September she will take up a Leverhulme Fellowship at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
''It's like a first professional post but within the safety of a conservatoire, so I'll be working with ensembles and also assisting at the BBC Scottish Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Opera. They network for you and get you into as many places as they can,'' she said.
She loves living in Europe, being surrounded by so many languages and cultures that adore high art.
''They adore classical music, opera, chamber music, theatre, philosophy, literature, and on prime-time TV they have a documentary on Chaucer that everyone sits and watches after dinner. It's so mainstream here to be involved in intellectual and artistic pursuits whereas in New Zealand, although it's a vibrant scene, it's still on the margins in a lot of ways.''
However, it is important to get home often and this month she is back in Dunedin to conduct the Sinfonia, attend her brother's wedding and adjudicate the piano section of the Dunedin Competitions.
She has not set foot in a music competition since she was a competitor so is looking forward to that, she said.
In the Sinfonia's concerts she will be conducting Beethoven's Symphony No 6 Pastorale and works by C.P.E. Bach and Richard Strauss, both of whom are having anniversaries this year: it is 300 years since Bach's birth and 150 since Strauss'.
Bach was an adventurous composer, different from his father, J.S. Bach, she said.
''He's very much a classical composer, not a baroque composer, and far more expressive, playing with new ways of thinking about composition, so it's less about affectation and more about genuine emotion, prolonging emotions over whole phrases rather than little fleeting glimpses in each bar.''
His Double concerto for harpsichord and fortepiano explores the sounds of the two keyboard instruments, the old harpsichord and the new fortepiano that was replacing it.
In today's terms, it would be like doing a concerto for violin and electric violin or grand piano and electronic keyboard, she said.
''We are so lucky in Dunedin to have David Burchell and John van Buskirk, who are real specialists on these ancient instruments, and also brilliant practitioners of music of this period. I've heard both of them play and, stylistically, they understand this music and it's such a treat for the audience to hear such an unusual concerto.''
Beethoven's sixth symphony is more like a tone poem than a symphony at times, she said.
''Again, he was really pushing the boundaries of what it was to write in symphonic form. It's quite different for a conductor because the phrases are incredibly long. He prolongs tension over very long stretches of time. For me, it's the first of his Romantic works. You can hear him nudging into the next phase of where composition is going. It's very dramatic and theatrical and although a lot of his writing is asymmetrical, this is a strong example of that.''
The first work in the concert is Richard Strauss' Suite Op 4 for wind and brass ensemble.
''It's such a rare opportunity for the winds and horns to play on their own in a concert and spend time playing as a chamber ensemble. When you have all the strings up the front, the winds and brass can often feel quite disconnected from the conductor and what's going on. They are the punctuation very often to what the strings are saying.''
The suite is in the tradition of Mozart's Gran Partita and Dvorak's Serenade for Wind, works that wind players live to play but do not often get the opportunity to, she said.
''I'm really looking forward to the rehearsal. I think there will be a lot of excitement in the room.''
Achieving rapport with the orchestra is important, she says.
She has attended many international masterclasses with conductors and noticed how some find rapport with the orchestra and some do not.
''Orchestras are incredibly intuitive organisms. Once players are sitting in an orchestra they become a different animal, somehow, and most players will say they made a decision about whether to play with this conductor or not before the first downbeat's even gone down in rehearsal.''
It can be what the conductor has chosen to wear, the way they ask questions or phrase things when they speak to the orchestra, or even the way they stand.
An orchestra can ''smell'' immediately if a conductor is inauthentic or displaying ego where it is not warranted, she said.
''You can see that moment when [the orchestra] just turns away from the conductor and looks at the leader instead. It's very subtle, and the conductor will keep waving their arms and act as if they are doing it but actually they are not. The players have just taken matters into their own hands because they want it to be a brilliant concert and if they don't trust the conductor, they will take charge.''
Authenticity and having respect for the orchestra are the most important factors, she says.
''With some conductors, it's down to the authority they have because of the brilliant work they have done in the past; with some conductors, it's because their ear is so well-respected; with some conductors, it's simply because they are kind and good-hearted and the music flows out through them that way, even if they don't have good technique.''
It's the same with opera singers, she says.
The kindest, gentlest, most humble people in the room are the brilliant ones, and the people who are throwing their weight around and the big egos are often the worst in the chorus, and the people who are pushing attitudes around are often the ones who are insecure, and that is what the players will react against.
As a young conductor, she acknowledges that everyone in a major orchestra will be a greater master at their instrument than she is at conducting, and it is important to be excited about their ideas and mix them with hers.
''If you just be yourself and be true to yourself, whether that be wise and humble or confident and perky, whatever it is, as long as it's real.''
She is looking forward to working with the Southern Sinfonia again.
''It's an incredibly friendly and happy orchestra. They are known in New Zealand for being the orchestra that really wants to be there and play with heart and soul every time. I've met conductors in England who have worked with them and just love going down to Dunedin.''
See it, hear it
The Southern Sinfonia's concerts, ''Holly Mathieson conducts Beethoven and a Birthday Bash for Richard Strauss and C.P.E. Bach'' are on August 16 at 5pm and August 17 at 3pm at Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre in Bay View Rd, Dunedin.
