Although it was a good year for a lot of things, many of us were pleased to get rid of 2018. The final month started off with as much, maybe even more, turmoil than usual. Following our adventure in Morocco, Cindy and I headed for the final conducting gig of the year, this one in Paris. But our arrival was anything but calm.

A bit later in the week, I wrote a short piece and thought it might be published in a major newspaper. I was told that the subject really wasn’t being covered in enough depth to warrant an editorial comment from me, so I will now share it with all of you.

Well, that didn’t take long.

After a lovely New Year’s Eve concert in St. Louis with music, fun and friends, Cindy and I got home around 10:30. I had written most of last month’s web piece and sent it off to post. It never dawned on me that there might just be something cringeworthy to start off 2019.

I have never been one to do much to celebrate the arrival of the next twelve months. It was sort of exciting the first time my parents let me stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square, but I was in Los Angeles, so I actually saw it at 9:00 in the evening. In 1968, I did venture down Broadway, but not to get into the crowd gathered to hoot and holler. Instead I went to the theater with the largest screen to view 2001: A Space Odyssey. Some years I led concerts in various parts of the world, but mostly I stayed in, once in a while tuning in to watch the last moments of the proceedings.

When is a lot of American music simply too much? Never!

The entire month of February was spent conducting creations from the States, some old and some new. Over the course of four weeks, I led pieces by 18 different American composers. Performing these wonderful works was nothing short of exhilarating.

It all started in Bern, Switzerland. They had asked for a program of American works, and I included the Barber Violin Concerto among them. This would be the only piece that I repeated during the whole month. Our soloist was Augustin Hadelich, a violinist I certainly knew about but had never worked with. His sweet tone and sense of rubato for this most romantic of concertos was always in good taste.

It is usual at the beginning of the month for me to write a lengthy piece about what I have been doing, along with a bit of travel news. Indeed, that will occur in a couple days, as I am traveling and have not had the chance to put keystrokes to computer in a meaningful way.The reason I am posting this is because of the extraordinary occurrences that took place over the past 24 hours. Some of it was expected, but most came as a shock and surprise to me.It all started as routine, with breakfast in the restaurant at my hotel in Shanghai. As usual, I perused the local English newspaper, the Shanghai Daily. There were two headlines that caught my attention, but I moved on to other, seemingly more important articles. The first read, “Local temple acts to comply with garbage management regulations,” and the other, “Robot has power to perform.”

On the other side of the world, musicians are doing what they are supposed to do: connecting to the past, present and future.

It was the longest single period I have ever spent in Asia, five weeks working with five different orchestras. Although it would have been easier if the itinerary had not sent me from west to north and then east, jumping back and forth between countries was not as difficult as I expected. Three of the ensembles were new to me, not only because I had never conducted them, but also because I had never heard them.

This April was a month like no other, similar to a rollercoaster ride of emotion, conflict and elation.

On Easter Sunday, Cindy’s mother passed away. At age 89, Jackie was a bundle of energy. Over the past few years, that vitality began to dwindle. Although she remained strong in mind, her body was giving way to infirmities. Ultimately, she decided to forgo her medications, preferring to let nature do its thing and spare her from the inability to be a physically functioning presence in her home.

Life with fewer responsibilities. It has been a long time coming, but I have a feeling that new challenges await. In the meantime, hitting the guest circuit has been a most refreshing change for me.

Not that there are not tasks to be accomplished as well as other goals to be achieved. After the heart procedure, I heard one thing loud and clear: lower stress. For this first season, after more than 40 years as the person in charge, I wound up working as hard as usual but felt freer to make music at a different level. No longer did I worry about making so many decisions that might impact others in either a positive or negative way. Just leading rehearsals and concerts seemed like plenty to do, and now I could do it in a more focused way.

“I actually think that the job of chief conductor is becoming obsolete. The famous names from the past, Willem Mengelberg and Eduard van Beinum, spent a lot of time in Amsterdam. These days chefs constantly travel from one orchestra to another.”

Those words come from the soon-to-retire Bernard Haitink. Boy, does he have it right. After a full season of simply being a guest conductor, I believe that the musical landscape has changed significantly, and one of those alterations has to do with the perceived necessity of having a music director. I will get to this topic a bit later in this piece, but first, there was one week of work left before the summer break.

“Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.” —Franz Schubert

Aside from my own, I had never attended a wedding of any kind during my entire lifetime. After all these years, on July 7^th, I found myself at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, watching, and crying a little, as my son married his fiancée and companion, Bridget Laifman. About one hundred people attended the ceremony, followed by a joyous celebration of the union during the reception and dinner.

Lurking around the corner is the monster simply known to me as 75. This is not to be confused with the film that will hit theaters soon, It: Chapter Two, but the comparisons are not too far off. There is this entity that tries to lure both young and adult human beings into another world. In the Stephen King story, it is simply to scare the bejesus out of those watching events unfold, and in my life story, it is a landmark both to be appreciated and a little frightened of. I do know that Pennywise wears more makeup than I do.

Prior to the first of September, for me AKA b-day, I only had one conducting assignment during the month of August. But it was an important one, as it marked a milestone in my podium history.

“Welcome to Busch Stadium. It is a beautiful day for a ball game with temperatures in the upper 70s and a few clouds helping to keep the crowd cool. The Cincinnati Reds come in for this first game of today’s double-header with the Cardinals sitting atop the National League Central division by two-and-a-half games …”

For the past two days, various cards, messages and gifts had been coming in, all in anticipation of my impending milestone marking three-quarters of a century on the planet. This was all leading up to the big day itself, but I found myself moved by the early heartfelt wishes of so many people.

I know, I know. You want to hear about my fake-news death and the Jimmy Kimmel show. That will come a bit later in this entry. To start, I need to get back to music.

After a five-week absence from the podium, very intentional, I returned for a set of single, one-off concerts during September. It seemed a bit strange, but I wound up opening the season for the Houston Symphony. Usually in the States, these programs are done by the music director, but as Maestro Orozco-Estrada has two positions, he had to give up one opening night, allowing me to return to the orchestra for the first time in several years.

Journeys unknown and paths less taken were part of last month’s itinerary. After a leisurely jaunt through most of Ireland, it was back to work in a very unusual setting. But there were also visits to the familiar and celebrations to be had.

Being on the freelance circuit has some built-in advantages. For me, it is an opportunity to drop into parts of the musical world I have never seen as well as traverse long-desired destinations. Ireland was certainly one of those, but it was also a chance for Cindy to connect with a large part of her family heritage.

There was a lot of meat, some stuffing and a bit of corn on the table. No, I am not talking about the Thanksgiving meal, but rather the musical buffet that made up the month of November.

One of the benefits of having more weeks available for guest conducting has been the opportunity to visit orchestras I have not conducted in quite a while. Buffalo, Rochester and Toronto filled that bill. Detroit was sandwiched in there, but now I return as the music director laureate, a job more like a guest conductor with a few additional administrative responsibilities.