On Nov. 28, as much of the United States was sitting down for Thanksgiving feasts, 24-year-old Na’Zir McFadden was wandering solo through the streets of Boston and studying the score to Edvard Grieg’s “Holberg Suite.” He’d considered driving down to see his family in his native Philadelphia, he said, but he decided he’d needed to take the day to relax and focus. After all, he wouldn’t have much time to drive back to Boston before the next day’s 1:30 p.m. concert at Symphony Hall, during which he made his conducting debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Asked afterward how he thought the performances went, he said he couldn’t put it into words. “It was just an out-of-body experience. I kind of blacked out a little bit, and just let the music come naturally,” said McFadden, one of the Tanglewood Music Center’s two 2024 conducting fellows. Both shared the podium with BSO music director Andris Nelsons for subscription programs on Nov. 29 and 30. “I was so ready to make music, and be in front of the orchestra, and the audience.”
Tanglewood included “one of the most intense but musically rewarding schedules in my career this far,” said McFadden, currently assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Detroit Youth Symphony Orchestra. He estimated he was conducting “eight or nine” hours a day, with multiple ensembles; “The point of Tanglewood is to immerse yourself in as much music as possible.”
Having worked with and gotten to know the BSO players at Tanglewood, said McFadden, rehearsing the full ensemble “didn’t feel like I was in front of a new orchestra. In a way, it felt like I was in front of musical family, people that I’ve known for some time.”
In Philadelphia, McFadden’s opportunities were not so abundant. He sent emails to every professional ensemble within reasonable distance to ask if he could observe a rehearsal or conduct, and was largely told no, he said. In that light, conducting the BSO felt like both “a reflection of the work that I’ve put in, and also the great mentors and teachers that I’ve had to guide me,” he said.
Now, McFadden assuredly counts Nelsons in that group of advisers. “He’s not afraid to be vulnerable on the podium, and that just uplifts the music,” McFadden said of Nelsons.
During their first conversations at Tanglewood, Nelsons told the fellows “not to be afraid of being ourselves,” and after watching McFadden conduct the “Holberg Suite” in rehearsal, Nelsons pointed out that McFadden had been smiling more.
“‘You’re always smiling off the podium,’” McFadden recounted the music director saying. “I think when the musicians see that a conductor is authentically being themselves, it makes them want to give everything to the music, because they see that you are doing the same.”
Na'Zir McFadden's interpretation was consistently songful, dancing, and attuned to the music’s expressive nuances. For exuberance and extroversion, the Praeludium and Rigaudon snapped—concertmaster Nathan Cole’s solos in the latter were spot-on—while the Musette’s hemiolas were shapely and urgent. Meantime, the Sarabande and Air unfolded as models of restraint. Throughout, conductor and string orchestra paid close heed to the suite’s dynamic range. As a result, the Air, particularly, came across with real poignancy, its central maggiore episode shining like a ray of light between the affectingly dissonant turns of its outer thirds.
Founded in 1940, the TMC is known worldwide for its intensive summer training fellowships. The 2024 conducting fellows said they spent their summer immersed in master classes and rehearsals with the TMC Orchestra. “It not only taught me how to become a better musician and a better conductor, but also how to be more efficient as a professional,” McFadden said. “How to manage your schedule, to manage your sleep, manage the social time and still perform at the highest level possible to exceed what you thought were your own capabilities.”
The fellows perfected their craft alongside well-seasoned professionals — namely, conductor Andris Nelsons. Entering his 11th season as Music Director of the BSO, Nelsons has not only mastered the art of conducting but also the teaching of his craft to up-and-coming professionals like 23-year-old Collins and 24-year-old McFadden.
“One of the most informing and maybe transformative things that I've learned and have changed in my conducting is how to let the music be free, and how to be vulnerable on the podium through your gestures,” McFadden said in regards to his mentorship from Nelsons, who he called a “superstar.” “You have to be the conduit between the composer, the core, the musician and the audience. You have to connect everything.”
“I don't typically get nervous for the music, because I trust myself, I trust the musicians and I trust the music,” McFadden said. “If anything, I'm more excited, and I am grateful to have this opportunity to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I think it's one of the greatest orchestras in the world, maybe one of the greatest art institutions in the world. … I am just proud, and once again, feel grateful that they felt something in me, and want to have me there.”
“Many of my family played in the church ensemble, so I remember going to rehearsals from a very early age, and I used to sit in the back of the church, and throughout the rehearsal, I would sneak pew to pew just to get closer to the music,” McFadden said. “I remember being just infatuated with the conductor and the way that the person was able to embody the music.”
McFadden said he also played the clarinet, but knew from his early days in the church that conducting was his ultimate goal. Now, that boy in the pews holds a position as the Assistant Conductor and Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
“I hate this phrase that classical music is ‘dying’ because it is so untrue; … it's not dying, it's evolving,” McFadden said. Noting his background as “an inner city kid” from Philadelphia, McFadden emphasized the importance of such advocacy and representation of classical music. “It's not just for the elite, it's for everyone,” he said. “And if you don't believe it, come in our doors and let us show you and tell you differently.”
