Indiana University Bloomington

The Concertmaster, Alexander Kerr

Transcript

  "Alex Kerr: Interview with a Master" Produced by Chris Meyer    (Music Professor Alexander Kerr performs with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.)  Alex Kerr, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, IU Jacobs School of Music professor:  I first became a concertmaster when I was 23 years old,  and it was with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina.  First and foremost, the concertmaster is leader of the first violin section.  [Orchestra performs.]  I could be playing in front of my class and get just as nervous as I'm playing at Carnegie Hall.  There's no rhyme or reason to it sometimes.  So, I'd say that when I'm playing as a concertmaster, it does take a lot of nerves  to be up there in front of a group of people who are really good musicians  and basically tell them, "I'm your leader. Please trust me."  That takes guts.  Teaching at the Jacobs School of Music has been a joy.  I love the environment. I love my class. I love my colleagues.  These are the kinds of classes that you need to get a job.  And, in fact, when I teach the Orchestral Repertoire course at IU,  I call it "Getting A Job 101."  It's that simple, how to navigate the audition system,  how to really learn what it takes to be accepted into a major orchestra in the United States.  Sometimes I feel weird. The reason I feel sometimes weird is that  this violin is a Guarneri del Gesu, dated 1743.  It's one of... it's very rare, actually, and it's on loan to me  from an incredibly generous family in Indiana, the Miller family,  and I am incredibly lucky to play this violin.  And when you have a violin like this, you feel almost like a guest.  It's huge: the history behind it -- who's owned it, who's played on it --  is so fantastic to learn, that you really feel like it's timeless  and you're just there just to hang along for the ride.  For me, the biggest challenge is the personal aspect of it.  You have on stage a hundred people, all who are great musicians,  and all having egos, and to be able to galvanize them  into one sort of function, one role as an orchestra, as to do  a sort of togetherness, that's the biggest challenge.  I think it's too often in orchestras,  after you've been playing in orchestras for quite a long time,  you sometimes lose the fun.  And, I think that, if there's one thing I can do with an orchestra,  is show them how much fun I have.  And, if I can impart on them that, I've done my job.  [Orchestra performs.]