It was a huge pleasure to come back to Yale in January, 2013, to conduct a concert performance of the classic musical Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter (class of 1913). It was the tryout of the new Critical Edition of the show my partner and I have been editing. It will be only the second-ever critical edition of a Broadway show when it is published later this year.
Several Yale Symphony members and alumni played in the orchestra for the performances, which were marred only by playwright Christopher Durang’s injury. Playing one of the gangsters, he tripped and fell coming onstage for the second encore of ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare.’ He was in Yale-New Haven hospital for over a week and was still limping when he accepted his Tony award a few months later!
Since then, I’ve been conducting Sondheim in France, Copland in the UK, Gershwin in Hong Kong and Christmas Pops in Philadelphia. I’m currently supervising Bernstein’s Candide here in London, where I’ve lived for seventeen years.