An internationally acclaimed Grammy and Tony Award-winning conductor, John DeMain has been a fixture of Madison, Wisconsin, for more than three decades, serving as music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Madison Opera. In Working with My Heroes, written with the late Greg Hettmansberger, DeMain recounts incredible experiences-from his days studying piano in Youngstown, Ohio, to his years as an undergraduate and graduate student at Julliard, to his early jobs in summer stock productions, to his internationally acclaimed productions-without ever losing sight of the wonder and awe he felt as a young musician first learning his way in the world. With warmth and humor, he provides valuable insight into the business of music making, while also sharing behind-the-scenes stories of entertaining situations he found himself in throughout the years-from playing piano at a gangster's wedding to conducting an opera with circus elephants. DeMain has had many career-defining moments behind the podium, conducting world premieres of Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place, John Adams's Nixon in China, and Jeanine Tesori's Blue, as well as the U.S. premiere of Philip Glass's Akhnaten, among others. He has guest-conducted symphonies and operas in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, and cemented his reputation with the 1976 Houston Grand Opera performances of George and Ira Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, establishing its stature as a quintessentially American opera. The singers, musicians, and composers DeMain has worked with over the past six decades are a veritable Who's Who of American classical music. This memoir places readers by his side, allowing them to experience all the wonders and joy of a life spent making music.
John DeMain, an internationally acclaimed Grammy and Tony Award-winning conductor, has served as music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of Madison Opera. A graduate of Julliard, he spent seventeen seasons at the Houston Grand Opera. He also led the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Opera Omaha, Opera Pacific, and more. Greg Hettmansberger was a Madison-based writer and journalist who specialized in classical music concert reviews.
List of Illustrations Editor's Note by Gayle Worland Introduction 1. A Most Unusual Forge 2. Surviving Juilliard, Loving New York-and a Summer Job Just Right 3. Summertime . . . and the Livin' Is Busy 4. Metamorphosis 5. A Conductor Begins to Emerge 6. Epiphany 7. The Game Changer 8. Porgy Pays Off 9. Conducting for Lenny 10. Floyd, McGlinn-and Bernstein 11. A Wayward Elephant and an Operatic Success 12. "A Musical or an Opera?" 13. Intermezzo: "Sinfonia Domestica" 14. Concert for Planet Earth 15. From Houston to Madison 16. Opera Pacific 17. A New Home for the MSO and Madison Opera 18. New Leaders for Madison Opera, and Life as an American Conductor's Daughter 19. Blue and Moving Forward Afterword: Some Notes for Conductors and Thoughts on the Future Index
"Enlivened by anecdotes and sparkling with remembered conversations with DeMain's heroes (among them Bernstein, Domingo, and Floyd), this book is an amazing description of how operas are and have been created in contemporary America. DeMain engages, illuminates, and always entertains. Bravo, Maestro!"--Kate Emery Pogue, librettist and stage director "John DeMain is a natural storyteller. From an elephant going rogue in Omaha to 'gale-force winds' threatening a half-built stage in Rio to flu-ridden tour buses in Texas, DeMain's epic career is full of fantastic tales. Go behind the music with the maestro of a boundary-pushing Porgy and Bess and chart the Madison Symphony Orchestra's growth into a world-class ensemble in this detailed, big-hearted memoir."--Lindsay Christians, Capital Times food and culture editor
