PORTRAIT - CONCERTI MAGAZINE
Lighting a Beacon of Creativity and Ideas
Conductor and ensemble founder Garrett Keast carries the torch of American music across the Atlantic.
By Helge Birkelbach , June 3, 2023 - CONCERTI MAGAZINE
When Garrett Keast made his first appearance at the Opéra National de Paris, he was still relatively unknown internationally. But the orchestra was curious about the American born in Houston, Texas in 1971 and bombarded him with questions - until that memorable moment when a first violinist answered: "Maestro! You look like Joey from Friends!” That broke the ice immediately, Keast recalls enthusiastically. "They were really interested in me. At that moment I had the feeling that a dream career could come true.”
Garrett Keast: From New York via Paris to Berlin
In his hometown he was initially mentored by Christoph Eschenbach , who conducted the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In 2000, Keast moved to New York and became Associate Conductor of the New York City Opera and Permanent Conductor of the Queens Symphony Orchestra. Then came the big leap across the Atlantic to Paris.
In 2011, Keast finally moved to the Deutsche Oper Berlin . In 2021 he founded the Berlin Academy of American Music, a chamber orchestra dedicated to works with North American references. "It is important for European audiences to recognize that great American music exists and that even in these difficult political times, the USA is still a beacon of creativity and ideas," explains the dedicated conductor and ensemble founder.
—
AUF DEUTSCH (Original Sprache)
Ein Leuchtfeuer der Kreativität und der Ideen entzünden
Dirigent und Ensemblegründer Garrett Keast trägt die Fackel der amerikanischen Musik über den Atlantik.
Von Helge Birkelbach, 3. Juni 2023
Als Garrett Keast seinen ersten Auftritt an der Opéra National de Paris absolvierte, galt er international noch als relativ unbekannt. Aber das Orchester war neugierig auf den 1971 in Houston, Texas geborenen Amerikaner und bestürmte ihn mit Fragen – bis zu jenem denkwürdigen Augenblick, als sich ein erster Geiger meldete: „Maestro! Sie sehen aus wie Joey aus Friends!“ Das habe sofort das Eis gebrochen, erinnert sich Keast begeistert. „Sie waren wirklich an mir interessiert. In dem Moment hatte ich das Gefühl, dass eine Traumkarriere wahr werden könnte.“
Garrett Keast: Von New York über Paris nach Berlin
In seiner Heimatstadt stand ihm zunächst Christoph Eschenbach, der das Houston Symphony Orchestra leitete, als Mentor zur Seite. Im Jahr 2000 zog Keast nach New York und wurde stellvertretender Dirigent der New York City Opera sowie ständiger Dirigent des Queens Symphony Orchestra. Dann erfolgte der große Sprung über den Atlantik, nach Paris.
2011 wechselte Keast schließlich zur Deutschen Oper Berlin. 2021 gründete er die Berlin Academy of American Music, ein Kammerorchester, das sich Werken mit nordamerikanischen Bezügen widmet. „Für das europäische Publikum ist es wichtig zu erkennen, dass es großartige amerikanische Musik gibt und dass die USA selbst in diesen schwierigen politischen Zeiten immer noch ein Leuchtfeuer für Kreativität und Ideen sind“, erklärt der engagierte Dirigent und Ensemblegründer.
TRANSLATION
(see German below)
When Garrett Keast made his first appearance at the Opéra National de Paris, he was still relatively unknown internationally. But the orchestra was curious about the American born in Houston, Texas in 1971 and bombarded him with questions - until that memorable moment when a first violinist answered: "Maestro! You look like Joey from Friends!” That broke the ice immediately, Keast recalls enthusiastically. "They were really interested in me. At that moment I had the feeling that a dream career could come true.”
Garrett Keast: From New York via Paris to Berlin
In his hometown he was initially mentored by Christoph Eschenbach , who conducted the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In 2000, Keast moved to New York and became Associate Conductor of the New York City Opera and Permanent Conductor of the Queens Symphony Orchestra. Then came the big leap across the Atlantic to Paris.
In 2011, Keast finally moved to the Deutsche Oper Berlin . In 2021 he founded the Berlin Academy of American Music, a chamber orchestra dedicated to works with North American references. "It is important for European audiences to recognize that great American music exists and that even in these difficult political times, the USA is still a beacon of creativity and ideas," explains the dedicated conductor and ensemble founder.
—
AUF DEUTSCH
Ein Leuchtfeuer der Kreativität und der Ideen entzünden
Dirigent und Ensemblegründer Garrett Keast trägt die Fackel der amerikanischen Musik über den Atlantik.
Von Helge Birkelbach, 3. Juni 2023
Als Garrett Keast seinen ersten Auftritt an der Opéra National de Paris absolvierte, galt er international noch als relativ unbekannt. Aber das Orchester war neugierig auf den 1971 in Houston, Texas geborenen Amerikaner und bestürmte ihn mit Fragen – bis zu jenem denkwürdigen Augenblick, als sich ein erster Geiger meldete: „Maestro! Sie sehen aus wie Joey aus Friends!“ Das habe sofort das Eis gebrochen, erinnert sich Keast begeistert. „Sie waren wirklich an mir interessiert. In dem Moment hatte ich das Gefühl, dass eine Traumkarriere wahr werden könnte.“
Garrett Keast: Von New York über Paris nach Berlin
In seiner Heimatstadt stand ihm zunächst Christoph Eschenbach, der das Houston Symphony Orchestra leitete, als Mentor zur Seite. Im Jahr 2000 zog Keast nach New York und wurde stellvertretender Dirigent der New York City Opera sowie ständiger Dirigent des Queens Symphony Orchestra. Dann erfolgte der große Sprung über den Atlantik, nach Paris.
2011 wechselte Keast schließlich zur Deutschen Oper Berlin. 2021 gründete er die Berlin Academy of American Music, ein Kammerorchester, das sich Werken mit nordamerikanischen Bezügen widmet. „Für das europäische Publikum ist es wichtig zu erkennen, dass es großartige amerikanische Musik gibt und dass die USA selbst in diesen schwierigen politischen Zeiten immer noch ein Leuchtfeuer für Kreativität und Ideen sind“, erklärt der engagierte Dirigent und Ensemblegründer.
During the height of the Pandemic, American conductor Garrett Keast formed the Berlin Academy for American Music, a new chamber orchestra based in Berlin. BAAM's debut CD, titled: Transatlantic, brings together a group of diverse professional orchestral musicians that share his passion – uncover and explore the vast soundscape of American Music in Berlin's classical music scene – and beyond. Keast takes a post-pandemic moment to reflect on his life as a musician that bridges both continents' traditions and expands on the inclusive character of social justice with music that does not stop at national borders.
By Ilona Oltuski, Get Classical - January 7, 2023
Praised for "leaving audiences hungry for more" (Basler Zeitung), the Berlin-based conductor is recognized for his broad repertoire. From Houston, Texas, he began his career in New York as an Associate Conductor of the New York City Opera before launching his career in Europe with engagements at the Paris Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Bonn, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.
A student of Christoph Eschenbach at the Houston Symphony, he later became his assistant on international tours and opera productions at the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, NDR, and many others. Keast also studied at Aspen and Tanglewood and has received the Bruno Walter Career Development Grant. He regularly appears at venues including Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Brussel's BOZAR, the Staatsoper Hamburg, Aspen Music Festival, Theater an der Wien, and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden."
"As an American conductor, I am often asked to perform American repertoire. Here I often look to immigrant American composers or those who wrote music based on American ideals or stories. This makes for a fascinating repertoire and expands on the genre people expect to hear when they think of American Music. In Germany, many American composers' works – considered as American classics, take Copland, for example – are known but rarely performed. Or Stravinsky, for example, who became an American citizen in 1945. While his earlier works, especially his Ballet Russes in Paris, were connected to Russia and France rather than to American culture, his late works, written and inspired in America, must be seen as part of the American musical landscape. Going beyond the nationality of our borders, I seek to validate the inclusivity of all voices, regardless of race or gender, and open the stage to so many contemporary composers and those of previous decades, who still need to be explored in-depth, which I am very passionate about," he says.
Building on that passion and with time to spare to play for sheer joy during the pandemic lockdown of 2020, Keast brought together a group of musicians for some impromptu and distanced orchestral readings at a studio in Berlin's Kreuzberg district. The unique experience connected the diverse group of musicians, including some of Berlin's top orchestral professionals, with Keast, admired for the enthusiasm and synergy he builds with musicians and audiences, leading them through Copland and Stravinsky. What better way for the Texan to link both worlds than through music he loved here in Berlin, an epicenter of European music tradition with a large population of international artists? Beyond geographic borders, the Pandemic made it clear that we are but one world.
That same summer, Lamentation, a piece by the American composer Craig Urquhart for piano and flute, was written and premiered at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival by flutist Stathis Karapanos with Christopher Eschenbach. When Urquhart, and Karapanos, who had been recently honored with the Leonard Bernstein Award, started a conversation with Keast about an orchestrated version for a recording, things immediately came together.
Urquhart had been an assistant to Leonard Bernstein for many years. During Bernstein's time at the Schleswig-Holstein Summer Festival, the Von Reventlow family had hosted both the maestro and Urquhart during many summers at the historic Wulfshagen manor. As a result, a close friendship with the hostess, Jutta Gräfin von Reventlow, developed, lasting until her recent passing in January 2020. In her honor, Lamentation for flute and piano was written and performed during the festival, and its orchestrated version for string orchestra is now featured on the recording.
It was realizing the project's great potential and his knack for the historic kernels of the stories that often make programs work together that Keast, moved by Urquhart's music, looked to integrate the work into a broader context. With Transatlantic, that context was established through the newly founded ensemble's mission. In pairing Urquhart's premiere of Lamentation for flute and string orchestra with music by Copland, Stravinsky, Dorman, and Takemitsu, Urquhart's work became part of the bigger goal and common focus of the musicians of the newly founded Berlin Academy of American Music.
From its spontaneous beginnings to the strategic forming of the ensemble around the goal of recording the CD, defining the CD's artistic direction to integrate the work, in turn, enabled Keast to articulate the ensemble's goal better: To perform works and promote the careers of American and American immigrant composers. BAAM's artists seek to inspire a thought-provoking dialogue about social justice, as its mission statement underlines: "We acknowledge that the works of composers from all races and genders have a place on every stage. We believe new works hold just as much value as well-loved standard repertoire from the past." Conducted by Keast and recorded at the height of the Pandemic, the album was released on the ONYX Classical label in October 2021.
Transatlantic establishes the ensemble's first official joint venture as the newly formed Berlin Academy of American Music and features next to the Greek flutist Stathis Karapanos, Israeli soprano Chen Reiss, Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Berlin Philharmonic harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet. In November 2021, BAAM performed its first concert in Berlin's Siemens Villa. In 2022 they performed at Villa Elisabeth, and this year's venue will be the Werner Otto Saal at Berlin's Konzerthaus. At Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, where Keast previously conducted the TONALi Orchestra, he performed a program of Bernstein, Caroline Shaw, Copland, Gershwin, Milhaud, and Stravinsky with BAAM.
GET CLASSICAL: "TRANSATLANTIC MUSIC MAN"
Transatlantic, the title of this CD, can be described as apt because the composers represented on the album from very different generations - as far as they were not born in the USA like Aaron Copland (1900 1990) and Craig Urquhart (born 1953) - came to America across the Atlantic like the Russian Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and the Israeli Avner Dorman (year born 1975) or across the Pacific like the Japanese Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996).
It is more or less coincidental that the title of the CD corresponds to the opera Transatlantic composed by George Antheil in 1928, which incidentally was set up as a chamber version in Ulm in 1986/87. A few minutes of music from this work would have fit on the CD as well. Nevertheless, it is remarkable thanks to the colorful and varied compositions in excellent interpretations by the Berlin Academy of American Music under the direction of conductor Garrett Keast.
With the opening Dumbarton Oaks (1937/38), a quarter-hour piece in three movements from his classicist phase, Stravinsky wanted to tie in with Bach's Brandenburg concertos: the angular, jagged rhythms in metrical changes offer music that belongs to the more popular works of his American years counts. Not by chance the piece has a special charm, as it was commissioned for the 30th wedding anniversary of Robert and Mildred Bliss, who lived on the estate of the same name.
The CD ends with Copland's ballet music composed for the dancer Martha Graham, here composed as a 25-minute, richly shaped Appalachian Spring suite for 13 instruments. The composition begins with a resting point of sustained tones from strings and wind instruments. The Allegro that follows has a vivacity reminiscent of Stravinsky's play. The suite concludes with a moderately increasing moderato with the interpretative instruction “Like a prayer”.
In Urquhart's calm Lamentation, the flutist Stathis Karapanos can be heard in a luminous tone over a dynamically varied carpet of strings. In Dorman's Nofim, the soprano Chen Reiss appears in four songs on Hebrew texts with an expressive gesture, before - for example in "Demon Dance" - the piano by Chelsey Padilla and the percussion by Lukas Böhm develop enormous drama, which at the end in “Levaya” is initially taken out, only to culminate in a percussion explosion.
Before Chen Reiss is heard in a lengthy excerpt from Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress, Takemitsu's Toward the Sea 11 exudes a dense, moving atmosphere. In the second movement "Moby Dick", the monstrous whale seems to repeatedly appear and disappear from the calm sea. "Cape Cod" is the last of those auratic sea scenes that can coexist with Benjamin Britten's Sea Interludes.
Review originally published in das Orchester, May 2022 in German.
—
DEUTSCH (Original Sprache):
Transatlantic, der Titel dieser CD, kann als treffend bezeichnet werden. Denn die auf dem Album vertretenen Komponisten sehr verschiedener Generationen sind – soweit sie nicht in den USA zur Welt kamen wie Aaron Copland (1900–1990) und Craig Urquhart (Jahrgang 1953) – über den Atlantik nach Amerika gelangt wie der Russe Igor Stravinksy (1882–1971) und der Israeli Avner Dorman (Jahrgang 1975) oder aber über den Pazifik wie der Japaner Toru Takemitsu (1930–1996).
Wohl eher zufällig entspricht der Titel der CD der 1928 von George Antheil komponierten Oper Transatlantic, die übrigens 1986/87 in Ulm als Kammerversion eingerichtet wurde. Ein paar Minuten Musik von diesem Werk hätten durchaus ebenfalls auf die CD gepasst. Dennoch ist sie bemerkenswert dank den farbigen und abwechslungsreichen Kompositionen in trefflichen Interpretationen durch die Berlin Academy of American Music unter Leitung des Dirigenten Garrett Keast.
Stravinsky wollte bei dem am Anfang stehenden Dumbarton Oaks (1937/38), einem viertelstündigen Stück in drei Sätzen aus seiner klassizistischen Phase, an Bachs Brandenburgische Konzerte anknüpfen: Die kantig gezackten Rhythmen bieten in metrischen Wechseln eine Musik, die zu den populäreren Werken seiner amerikanischen Jahre zählt. Nicht von ungefähr besitzt das Stück einen besonderen Charme, war es doch ein Auftragswerk zum 30. Hochzeitstag des auf dem Gut gleichen Namens lebenden Ehepaares Robert und Miltred Bliss.
Am Ende der CD steht Coplands für die Tänzerin Martha Graham komponierte Ballettmusik, hier gefasst als rund 25-minütige, gestaltreiche Suite Appalachian Spring für 13 Instrumente. Die Komposition beginnt mit einem Ruhepunkt aus liegenden Tönen von Streichern und Bläsern. Das darauffolgende Allegro besitzt eine an Strawinskys Stück erinnernde Lebhaftigkeit. Den Abschluss der Suite bildet ein sich maßvoll steigerndes Moderato mit der Interpretations-anweisung „Like a prayer“.
Auf Urquharts ruhevoller Lamentation ist der Flötist Stathis Karapanos mit leuchtendem Ton über einem dynamisch variierten Streicher-Teppich zu hören. Bei Dormans Nofim tritt in vier Liedern auf hebräische Texte die Sopranistin Chen Reiss mit expressivem Gestus dazu, bevor – etwa im „Demon Dance“ – das Klavier von Chelsey Padilla und die Percussion von Lukas Böhm enorme Dramatik entwickeln, die am Ende in „Levaya“ zunächst herausgenommen wird, um dann doch in einer Schlagwerk-Explosion zu gipfeln.
Bevor Chen Reiss in einem langen Ausschnitt aus Stravinskys Oper The Rake’s Progress zu hören ist, wird in Takemitsus Toward the Sea II dichte, bewegende Atmosphäre verströmt. Im zweiten Satz „Moby Dick“ scheint der monströse Wal aus der ruhigen See wiederholt aufzutauchen und immer wieder zu verschwinden. „Cape Cod“ ist die letzte dieser auratischen See-Szenen, die neben Benjamin Brittens Sea-Interludes bestehen können.
DAS ORCHESTER MAGAZINE REVIEW
IN THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Written by Blane Bachelor, Freelance writer
Published in the Houston Chronicle, April 9, 2021
What classical music conductor Garrett Keast remembers most from his first major international appearance isn't the prestige of the organization (Opéra National de Paris), the size of the crowd (some 3,000 audience members) or the fact that he was a relatively unknown 39-year-old American directing a French opera on a stage that draws the world’s top talent.
Instead, it was the rapid-fire questions orchestra members began peppering him with as soon as the curtain dropped for a set change.
“Maestro, maestro,” one musician asked, “how do you like the orchestra?”
“Maestro, maestro,” another chimed in, “we heard you live in New York City?”
But a first violinist piped up with a remark that still makes Keast chuckle a decade later: “Maestro! You look like Joey from ‘Friends!’”
“That really broke the ice with that orchestra,” Keast says. “They were really interested in me, this American conducting this big famous French opera. It’s moments like that working internationally where you realize that there are good-natured people everywhere. Ever since then, it’s felt like this dream career could come true.”
In many ways, it has.
Keast, who’s originally from Houston and is now based in Berlin, has since become a sought-out guest conductor for major orchestras and operas around Europe and the United States: the Tonkünstler Orchester Vienna, the Finnish National
Opera & Ballet, the Atlanta Symphony and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, just to name a few.
The pandemic hasn’t slowed him down much, either. When most of his 2020 performances were cancelled, Keast decided to immerse himself into a longtime passion: music from his homeland.
With the help of Rosie Salvucci, another Berlin-based classical musician originally from Texas, Keast founded the Berlin Academy of American Music, a chamber orchestra focused on American repertoire. The initiative features some well-
known talent in Europe’s classical music circles and has already recorded its first CD, which is scheduled to be released in October.
“I’m always trying to be a cultural bridge between the U.S. and Europe in a more thoughtful way,” Keast says. “It’s important for European audiences to recognize that there is great American music, and that the U.S. is still a beacon for creativity and thought, even through these difficult political times.”
Keast’s next appearance brings him back to the familiar turf of his home state. On Friday and Saturday, he will guest conduct with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. Watch a livestream of
Saturday's performance here with access starting at $21.
Keast, who doesn’t own a car in Berlin, has to get used to Texas’s notoriously aggressive drivers every time he comes back.
“I’m going 80 in the left lane and this guy is literally inches from my bumper,” he reports while heading west on I-10. Even so, Keast cherishes every trip to Texas — tailgating motorists and all. “This is where it all started,” he says. “Texas is home.”
Growing up in Spring Branch, Keast remembers being “fascinated” by music from a young age. In elementary school, he sang in several musicals and choirs, but his interest soon shifted to instrumental music — and, more specifically, the person on the podium holding the baton.
Keast met two of his most influential mentors in Houston: Stephen Stein, then the Houston Symphony’s conductor in residence, and Christoph Eschenbach, its music director from 1988-1999.
“I was around this very high level of music making day in and day out,” he says. “Being around these world-class musicians became normal for me.”
Keast then moved to New York in 2000, eventually becoming associate conductor of the New York City Opera and resident conductor of the Queens Symphony Orchestra.
“The connections I made in Houston made things like that happen,” he says.
Things were happening in his personal life, too. He met his wife, Meghan, while they were both working at an upscale Midtown restaurant: she as a sommelier; he, secretly waiting tables until he could support himself full-time as a conductor.
“Meghan recognized early on in our relationship this was going to be a big undertaking with a long time frame, to build a major career,” Keast says. “I could not be more fortunate or thankful to have Meghan supporting me. I don’t think I would have made it this far at all without her.”
Keast’s Houston connections continued to elevate his career on a global stage. With Eschenbach’s help, Keast secured an assistant conductor position in Paris and then Hamburg. Then, Keast won a full-time conducting position at the
Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 2011, he and Meghan, newly married, moved to the German capital.
In a normal year, Keast conducts dozens of performances. But when the pandemic hit, Keast used the unexpected free time as an opportunity to dig deeper into his love of American composers.
Over the summer, as the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum in the United States, Keast took a closer look at Songfest, by legendary American composer Leonard Bernstein. Originally commissioned for the 1976 American
Bicentennial Year, the work features poems from prominent American writers and poets conveying themes of racial injustice and inequality, which deeply resonated with Keast.
“As a white, middle-aged American man, I feel it’s important for me to step up to the plate and shine a light on these things as well,” he says. “It’s not just about Brahms and Beethoven — it's about highlighting the cultural moments we’re living.”
The performance of Songfest in the fall, when Germany’s lockdown restrictions were temporarily lifted, offered a natural segue to Keast’s next move. Inspired by its success, he and Salvucci started approaching top musicians around Berlin about the opportunity to play and record together as the Berlin Academy of American Music.
Fortunately, flutist Stathis Karapanos already had a sponsor interested, which meant they could pay musicians and cover studio costs. They also had to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic: spacing musicians out and securing Covid-19 tests before rehearsals and recordings.
“We just went for it, and in two and a half months, we’d organized an orchestra and recorded a CD,” Keast says. “Usually that takes six months’ preparation or more.”
Salvucci says beyond the thrill of playing in a group again, the project struck a deeply personal chord. “For me, it was a very emotional thing,” she says. “There had been such a negative vibe about all things American for the past four years. This was a way to say hey, this can be a new beginning.”
Keast, too, is hopeful for what’s to come. “We’re just starting to make a name for ourselves,” he says. “It’s just the beginning, but it’s a great way to start.”