Baltimore County, MD smARTS, 31 Jan 2017

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From YouTube: Herb Dimmock

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What inspires Bach in Baltimore?

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( ♪♪♪ ).

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He has conducted nearly all of handel's, oratorios and anthems,.

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The 140 bach cantatas, and performed organ recitals at westminster, abbey,, winchester cathedral, and the cathedral of saint john. The devine in new york.

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with me on smarts, is maestro t. herbert dimmock.

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Good to see you!.

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It's nice to see you again.

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All right. so,, you are our bach specialist.

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You are baltimore's, bach man.

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can I say: that? sure.

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It's an honor to be called that.

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So,, how does bach in baltimore, do you think foster this appreciation.

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For the arts,- and I guess particularly baroque music?.

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Well, so I studied with the first person in the world.

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To record the complete works of bach,, which was a huge achievement.

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And that person... is helmuth rilling.

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okay, yes. from stuttgart, germany.

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And he had this approach.

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That was fascinatingly analytical of the music.

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To dive into the musical language to find what it made it tick.

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So you have these beautiful, gorgeous melodies,.

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These fascinating architecture of fugues and so on and so forth.

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Great color and lovely texts.

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and then there's these other dimensions of kind of like --.

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In literature, it would be like similes and metaphors --.

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That is underneath the music that really brings life to it.

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And I became deeply interested in that.

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And try to show that to the audience in concerts., yeah. now, bach in baltimore's, been around how long?.

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We started in 1988. really?

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yeah. we're going to be 30 next year. oh,, my gosh! looking great for 30, herb.

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oh, thank you. okay. along the way,. You've done a lot of different and interesting programs.. One that is currently going on is the student voice exchange program.

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Tell us about that.

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We reach out to area --, mostly high schools, --.

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And a lot of arts groups bring kids in to their concerts,.

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And that's a lovely,, wonderful, thing.

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But I go to the school and have a program with the kids in advance.

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They attend our concerts,, which has a very big educational component in it,.

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Because I talk about this musical language as we open the cantata concerts. and then we--.

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Right., so you provide context for the students.

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And then we also -- lastly,. We give a chance to perform with us.

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oh. wow., and so it's a very --. We hope that it makes a strong impression on the kids.

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And we have as many as-- some of the choirs are as big as 100.

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Let's talk a little bit about your seasons., so how many performances do you typically do in a year??

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We do a concert on the first sunday of every month.

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From october, through june., we do about a half a dozen to eight concerts in area retirement communities.. We sing at arts fest.

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and we occasionally do other, you know, special events.

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So we do about 15. oh, wow. okay,. So now I mentioned in the opening.

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That you're, a music director, you're a choir, director, you're, an organist.!

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So when you are performing a piece,.

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Do you approach it differently if you're the choir director.

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Or if you're, the organist, or...?.

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Well, there's a different task in as much as if you're, the organist,, you have the technical aspect of making the music come to life.

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But in all cases, you need a unified vision that has fidelity to the composer's original vision,.

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Which, hopefully, you understand through a lifelong study of that music.?.

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And when you're conducting a choir,, your job is not just only to understand that,, but also to transmit that love and to be a maestro.

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To teach what the music makes it tick, to--.

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Which helps the performers perform better.

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yeah.. How large is the choir with whom you work?.

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The choir is 55. okay.

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When we do the cantata concerts,, we usually perform with more like 40.

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every year. We do at least one big piece,, a b minor mass or a saint john passion., and that we walk out with more like 55 for that.

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Right, and this year, you're doing what? you're doing--?.

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The b minor., the b minor, okay.

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And that will be where?.

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The b minor will be in baltimore county just at the line at woodbrook presbyterian church.

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terrific.. Well, we look forward to that as well.

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And I know that it's-- I've been to many of your performances.

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they're wonderful.. You have a group of professional instrumentalists and soloists.

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I'm so proud of them.. They are so talented. yeah., well,, terrific.

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Well, thank you so much, herb.

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It's my pleasure.

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And actually herb and I both invite everyone to enjoy fabulous baroque music all year, long from bach in baltimore.

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Thank you very much.. You bet.