#sparkchamber 040918 — Laurie Rogers
Old friend Lao Tzu is said to have said that music in the soul can be heard by the universe. With this beautiful insight, we welcome Laurie Rogers to the #sparkchamber today. Laurie is a conductor and pianist from New England, freelancing around the country and some international. She is the director of Young Artist Programs and the Head of Music Staff for Opera Saratoga in upstate New York. She served as associate conductor to Maestro James Conlon at the LA Opera for Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, as well as assistant conductor at the Dallas Opera for five seasons. She has recently also worked at the San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Atlanta Opera, and prepared the Studio Showcase Concert for the Houston Grand Opera.As a conductor, she has led productions for Opera Saratoga, Land of Enchantment Opera, and Poor Richard’s Opera in Philadelphia, and conducted Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites at Texas State University.
This week, Wednesday through Saturday, she will be conducting Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti at Carnegie Mellon University. If you're in town, get a ticket and feel her joy and passion fill the room. On May 13, she will be conducting Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at the University of Delaware — another chance to be swept away in the magic of it all.
Also a mother of two and a breast-cancer survivor, you can follow her on twitter at https://twitter.com/maestrarogers?lang=en
1.] Where do ideas come from?
Absolutely everywhere. Colleagues. Keeping an observant mind. New riffs on whatever already exists. Thinking outside the box, if that isn’t clichéd by now. The depths of your soul. Intuition.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
I’ve wanted to make the switch from pianist to conductor for years. Over the past several seasons, it is coming to fruition, and now it is the bulk of my work this year. And I am finding I am extraordinarily good at it. Now I need other people to realize that as well.
3.] Early bird or night owl, tortoise or hare?
Best to knock things off in the morning right after breakfast, or late at night when I am in bed. I don’t do well with unstructured time.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
I don’t think I am ever really done.