Music as Clay
Jesse Schmitt
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As If Orchestra Music Weren't Deep Enough, I Get Even Deeper with a Musical Director Who Speaks in Song
MUSIC AS CLAY:A chat with the conductor of the Arlington Players production of Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Thomas Jefferson Theatre
Leah Rebecca Stein Kocsis has got a secret. As a teacher, conductor, and musical director around this countries capital though, it's a secret she guards well. The Arlington Players is a group Ms. Kocsis has been associated with just one previous time to which she again takes the helm of the orches
Leah Rebeca Stein Kocsis
Date of Interview: 4/13/07First of all, I'm sure Ms. Kocsis would want me to clarify, she's NOT just some baton waving freak on a podium! In fact, when asked about her role with the Arlington Players, she said not only "(Am I) the conductor/music director...I am responsible for contracting the orchestra, rehearsing with them, and then conducting all the performances of the show." If you know orchestra musicians at all, it's not enough just to get them to show up to the right theatre before curtain! But Ms. Kocsis had nothing but raves for the orchestra from The Arlington Players. Last season she helmed the orchestra for TAP's "Fiddler on the Roof."
"I love conducting," Ms. Kocsis says, "because it lets me indulge my creative side and shape all the music that's in a show." Ms. Kocsis has a long history of musical shape shifting as well as an enthusiasm for her view of the stage that borders on zealotry. I've always been immediately struck by her absolute professionalism. Some could even think of the job of 'conductor' as something of an after thought; a life-sized metronome that guides the already talented musicians from start to finish, but really has no control over the finished product. Ms. Kocsis would disagree, respectfully but heartily.
"Every gesture, every move you make has a musical reason for doing it," she enthused to me.