Taking the Baton

Andrew Crust is the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s new music director

BY AMY LILLY • lilly@sevendaysvt.com

After a three-year search; seven finalists’ concerts; and extensive surveys of musicians, audiences and board members, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra finally has a new music director. Andrew Crust, 35, a native of Kansas City, Kan., will take the podium in September for the first concert of the 2023-24 season. He follows Jaime Laredo, whose tenure lasted 20 years.

Crust, who is also music director of the smaller Lima Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, was the final candidate of the seven to guest-conduct the VSO, on February 4. He led a diverse program of new music — a birdsong-inspired piece by Canadian Jocelyn Morlock and a percussionheavy work by Puerto Rican Roberto Sierra featuring electric violin soloist Tracy Silverman. The fi nal piece was a Romantic-era Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky symphony.

Crust maintains a busy schedule guestconducting around the U.S. Reached by phone in Vancouver, where he currently lives, he said he is “just overjoyed” to be joining the VSO, an orchestra with “an incredible 89-year legacy.”

During his guest-conducting visit, Crust said, he noticed a well-established sensibility among the musicians.

“Despite the fact that they come from all over the place, there’s really a feeling of family there,” he said. “They really wanted to work hard and are concerned with having a great artistic quality.”

He added, “When we performed Sierra’s piece” — a co-commission of the VSO — “it was the third performance in the world. I could tell that this orchestra has a healthy experience with new music. They grasped the style right away. They appreciate trying new repertoire that’s outside of the canon.”

For her part, VSO executive director Elise Brunelle said she is “smiling all the time” at the thought of the new director.

“All the things you need in a music director — an understanding of musicians’ needs, knowing repertoire, being able to talk to anybody [from] kids to donors — he just ticks every single box,” Brunelle said. “Plus, he loves and knows Vermont. He has an honest desire to be here and work specifically with our musicians.”

Concertmaster Katherine Winterstein, one of three VSO musicians on the search committee, which also included administrators and board members, praised Crust’s conducting skills.

“We [musicians] talk about stick technique; he’s clear and easy to follow. And he’s a beautiful musician. I want my conductor to have a good concept of the overarching e ect [of a piece] and good grasp of the details,” she said. “And [Crust] seems to know which details are important to manage and which are not, which is not the case with most conductors.” Winterstein also serves as the Boston Pops concertmaster and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra associate concertmaster, and she plays in Boston Ballet.

Principal oboist Nancy Dimock, also on the search committee, commented that Crust was “incredibly charming and very e cient. That’s one of the things we look for when we’re evaluating conductors, because we have such limited time.”

The orchestra has just four rehearsals per concert. “He told us what he wanted,” Dimock said, “but he was also generous and kind.”

“I think he’s going to be wonderful,” second flutist Anne Janson agreed. “He’s young. He’s ready to take it on. He’s really optimistic.”

Janson added, “It sounds like he wants to work with the community in every way he can, [including by] bringing in people with connections to Vermont and playing Vermont composers’ music.”

Crust has had an impressive amount of experience for a conductor of his age. After obtaining a master’s and doctorate in orchestral conducting from McGill University in Montréal and the University of Colorado Boulder, respectively, he held his first job, as assistant conductor of Maine’s Portland Symphony Orchestra, from 2016 to 2018.

He went on to hold the same position at the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (where he also conducted the Memphis Youth Symphony Program), then served as associate conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (“the other VSO,” Crust joked) until he landed the Lima Symphony’s top job in 2020. Music directors typically hold two or occasionally even three top positions simultaneously, and Crust will retain the Ohio directorship while leading the VSO.

Crust has also spent significant time conducting opera, ballet, pops and film music with organizations such as Opera McGill, Ballet Memphis and the Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band. He has conducted numerous concerts abroad and assisted venerated conductor Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.

Music education — something Crust studied as an undergraduate at Wichita State University — is a priority for him. In Lima, he initiated and runs a program for children called “Mornings With the Maestro,” and he has created and scripted numerous educational programs for full orchestra.

Also a visual artist, Crust said he enjoys the tactility and creativity of making art — elements missing in conducting — and even sells his work. His watercolors and ink drawings are inspired by Viennese fin de siècle artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. On his art website and his Instagram account, @stick.and.brush, he notes that studying those artists’ work helps him understand composers of the period, such as Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg. chamber music, films, video games — and I don’t put one form above any other,” he added.

The young conductor has even caught the attention of Hollywood. In the Oscarnominated Tár, Todd Field’s meticulously researched movie about the downfall of a famous conductor, Crust’s name is dropped along with those of Marin Alsop and “Lenny,” or Leonard Bernstein. That was a surprise for the conductor.

Crust grew up in a family that exposed him to “every kind of music,” including the Beatles, jazz, classic rock, funk, musical theater and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor. (He said his mother would play the last one so loud that it drowned out the vacuum cleaner.)

“It’s vital that we support contemporary music,” he said, noting that “people respond in visceral ways to new music” and that many orchestras, along with the Metropolitan Opera, are finding that new music sells more tickets.

“Luckily, the VSO already has a rich tradition of playing and commissioning new music,” he said. At the same time, Crust added, “I’m not going to stop doing Beethoven.” At the top of his list of favorite nonliving composers are “Brahms, Mahler, Stravinsky … and, lately, Lili Boulanger.” (She was the first female composer to win the Prix de Rome.)

Music

The Wailers to Kick Off Double E 2023 Summer Concert Series

BY KEN PICARD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

“A friend saw the premiere in LA and immediately texted me,” Crust said. “I have no clue how it happened.”

Crust already has ties to Burlington. While living in Montréal during the four years of his master’s program, he “came down a lot,” he said. “I love … the mountains, the lake, the fact that Burlington is a college town but also low-key and relaxed.” And several VSO musicians previously played under Crust with the Portland Symphony.

In describing his plans for the VSO, Crust stays general. He hopes to “collaborate with as many local groups as possible while also engaging world-class soloists.” He’s keen to create “more access to more people, trying to not only increase ticket sales but bring younger people in and expand the diversity of programming.

“Different people have different access points to orchestral music — through pops,

To attract younger audiences, Crust is considering ideas such as “after-work concerts at an earlier time than usual, new venues, late-night concerts.” He commended the VSO on its Jukebox series, which brings quartet performances to unusual venues, such as South Burlington’s Higher Ground nightclub. At the Portland Symphony, Crust curated a program for under-40-year-olds called “Symphony and Spirits”: Young people got discounted tickets, were seated together and could enjoy a music-themed cocktail.

“The trouble [with the younger crowd] is competition from not only other live music but Netflix and Hulu,” he noted.

The new music director said he’ll take his time launching new initiatives at the VSO.

“I still have a lot to learn,” Crust said.

“The good news is that things have been going well. You don’t want to immediately rearrange the furniture, because [the VSO has] a culture and history that’s built up over decades. They’ve been in good hands with Jaime … I have big shoes to fill.” ➆

Learn more at vso.org, andrewcrust.com and art.andrewcrust.com.

Calling it a “go-big-or-go-home year,” Double E Performance Center general manager Jesse Rivers unveiled the lineup for the 2023 Old Stage Summer Series at the Essex Experience last Friday, announcing the music venue’s largest list of live outdoor concerts to date. The partial list of shows included a dozen national touring acts whose genres range from classic rock and hip-hop to Southern blues and instrumental dub. Another six to eight acts are expected to be announced in the coming months.

The third annual outdoor concert series kicks off on April 20 with some classic reggae beats when the Double E welcomes the Wailers, Bob Marley’s legendary band. An after-party follows the family-friendly, all-ages show, featuring jazz-fusion band the Most Wanted, along with a 4/20 screening of the 1936 pot-paranoia classic Reefer Madness

Other national acts announced on Friday include Melvin Seals & JGB (July 7); Keller Williams (August 6); the North Mississippi Allstars (July 29); and classic rock tribute bands EagleMania (June 17), Back in Black (July 2) and Tusk (July 8). The last three bands perform the music of the Eagles, AC/DC and Fleetwood Mac, respectively.

“We’re hitting all types of genres ... At the end of the day, we’re trying to build community, and it takes all kinds of people to make community work,” Rivers added. “I truly think this is the year the Essex Experience acquires a national name.”

The concert series will complement other outdoor happenings at the Essex Experience, including 10 Trucks, Taps and Tunes events, held every Wednesday starting on June 14 and featuring six to eight local food trucks, beer and free live music.

Friday’s announcement, held at the Double E, is part of a larger effort by Essex Experience owner Peter Edelmann to transform the shopping mall into a town center and Vermont-centric tourist attraction.

The press event also featured other news about the Essex Experience, including the groundbreaking of a new event space at the nearby Essex Resort & Spa, which will involve enlarging its village green to host live concerts and other outdoor events.

Also in the works is a proposed expansion of Magic Mann, a cannabis dispensary at the Essex Experience. If approved by the Town of Essex Selectboard at its May 1 meeting, the expansion would involve converting two adjacent retail spaces into a cannabis grow, extraction and edible-processing facility, all outfitted for a publicly accessible factory tour.

Pointing to the enormous success of Ben & Jerry’s factory tour in Waterbury Village, which draws tens of thousands of tourists to Vermont each year, Edelmann said the Magic Mann tour would enable the public to see how cannabis is cultivated and processed into THC-infused edibles. Assuming the proposal is approved by the town and the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, the cannabis factory tour would be the first of its kind in Vermont.

“We’re trying to educate people on beer, on wine, on coffee, on art and on music here,” Edelmann said, referring to other retail outlets at the Essex Experience. “We want to educate people on cannabis, as well.

“We’re not sure if we’ll charge for that tour or give a [THC] gummy at the end. We might,” he added. ➆

Learn more at essexexperience.com.

The economy that worked just fine for their parents and grandparents is breaking down for factory workers Tracey and Cynthia. Their kids, in their twenties and just starting out, will have it worse. In 2000, management can win any battle with labor by moving jobs o shore. Lynn Nottage’s harrowing play Sweat focuses on nine residents of Reading, Pa., one of the poorest cities in America and about to get poorer.

The play won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and Northern Stage presents it with fine performances that capture Nottage’s ability to express big ideas through the small actions of complex characters. Sweat is a tragedy capable of shattering the viewer, but, like all tragedies, it’s also a light left on in the darkness to show us the way back out.

The play’s main setting is a favorite bar where everyone drinks too much and stays too late. Most of the story occurs in 2000, but the script sometimes flips forward to 2008 to present outcomes that we must reconcile with the lives we’ve seen the characters living before. Though the story is told with the characters at the forefront, it’s the economy that drives wedges between them, forcing them to pick sides when no side is right and nudging them toward hatred and mistrust.

Cynthia, who is Black, and her white best friend, Tracey, work on the floor at a steel tubing plant. The jobs are physically demanding, but both women expect to hold them all their lives. Tracey’s father and grandfather did, and her son Jason is just starting on the same path. Cynthia’s son Chris has been considering college, but he opts for the plant for now. College costs money.

Most days end with a drink at the watering hole where Stan presides as bartender, gossip and peacekeeper. Everyone ignores Oscar the dishwasher, an immigrant they see as beneath them. Jessie might pass out from too many gimlets; Cynthia’s ex, Brucie, might show up on payday hoping for a handout. The bar is where they’re all happy, celebrating birthdays with frosted cake and shots. Then Cynthia and Tracey apply for the same management job, and Cynthia gets it. The fuse is lit.

Nottage presents people we think we know and makes us stop to see them. The play starts with a fl ash-forward to 2008, in which we see Jason as a tightlipped smart-ass with his parole o cer. Jason’s jailhouse white power tats are ugly smudges on his pale, drawn face. The parole officer then checks in on Chris, who’s living in a church rectory and struggling to restart his life after prison. When we see the two men in the next scene, set eight years earlier, they’re robust buddies who root for the Sixers