香蕉秀

John Finney, 香蕉秀鈥檚 wildly popular leader of all things music, retired in May after thirty years as the director of the University Chorale of Boston College and more than two decades as conductor of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra. Finney, who鈥檇 been 香蕉秀鈥檚 distinguished artist-in-residence since 1999, gave more than five hundred concerts both nationally and abroad, and directed the Chorale in every Pops on the Heights performance, 香蕉秀鈥檚 biggest annual fundraiser, since its 1993 launch.

Master all aspects of your craft. I am the youngest of five children, and all of my brothers and sisters took piano lessons before me in our tiny Ohio farming town. So I grew up hearing the piano being played in the house. My piano teacher, Esther Scudder, was also an organ teacher and a professional singer. Over the years, she saw my talent and encouraged me to start learning the organ and music theory, solf猫ge, and dictation. She was the main reason I became the musician that I am.聽

Emphasize the positive. I was very introverted all through high school and most of college, too, but I knew that I wanted to be a professional musician. After college, my first jobs playing the organ in churches and watching other conductors helped me. My mentor and teacher, Janet McGhee, was the essence of positive reinforcement. No matter what was going on in rehearsal, she鈥檇 find one little thing that was good and build on that. That鈥檚 really where I learned how to be a conductor.聽聽

Singers are inherently happy people. That might sound a little superficial, but it鈥檚 true, and it helped me become more of an extrovert. When you鈥檙e a singer, your voice is your instrument. And to get the best out of your instrument, you have to be in a good state聽of mind鈥攖hat usually means being pleasant. Being in front of a group of happy people and making beautiful music helped me to get better and better at it.聽

Be the pilot. When I was conducting at Symphony Hall, there were two thousand people in the audience and one hundred people on stage. I liken the experience to being the pilot of a 747 airliner. I was responsible for getting everyone there safely鈥攊n the sense of getting everyone on stage to do their job, and giving everyone in the audience a beautiful music experience. I had to keep track of everything: the playing of every instrument, the singing of every voice, and the audience response. But that was the invigorating part of it.聽

Success requires time and a plan. When聽preparing music, you have to know every aspect of what everyone is going to do. Almost everything in life that鈥檚 worth doing involves a process of starting from the beginning, laying the foundation, learning every aspect of it, and then growing with it. So many things are like that鈥攖hey don鈥檛 happen fully formed.聽聽

Focus on the job at hand. Working with large ensembles, I don鈥檛 look out and see a faceless mass. I see a hundred individuals and each has their own background, their own voice, their own instrumental ability. One of my jobs is to focus everybody on the actual performance for those hours we have together. I say to everybody, 鈥淵ou may be focused on an exam, or worried about some other aspect of your life right now. You can come back to it after the concert, but God will keep it for you while we鈥檙e focused on making beautiful music together.鈥澛�

Sometimes you get the best performances by not conducting at all. If you鈥檝e done your job well in rehearsals, the conductor doesn鈥檛 need to do anything. When we wave our arms around, it鈥檚 basically to help people stay together. I can鈥檛 show them which fingers to put on the clarinet to play the note, or what exactly to do with their bow on the violin. I鈥檓 helping them get started together, stop together, and know where the phrases should be loud or soft. In my farewell concert鈥攖here鈥檚 one really complicated part in Beethoven鈥檚 ninth symphony鈥擨 just stopped conducting and smiled at everybody. It was magnificent, because they knew it so well.聽