#ROAD TRIPPER PANTS PROFESSIONAL#

SAGAL: Yes, said Maestro Bernstein to his student.

SALIE: How does one become a protege of a conductor? Like, I'm thinking of 'Karate Kid.' You know, like, is there a lot of work with the swish of the arm?ĪLSOP: There's a lot of that. One of his proteges.ĪLSOP: And that was the highlight of my life, really. And I should say somewhat famously, you became, I guess - what's - student isn't good enough a word. SAGAL: Why - so you saw Leonard Bernstein. In fact, he's doing the yelling.ĪLSOP: And he was sweating and spitting. And I thought, oh, nobody's yelling at this guy. And, you know, he was really excited, and then he started jumping around and conducting. He came out, and he started talking to me - talking to the audience - talking to me, I thought. And then, luckily, my dad took me to a concert, and I saw the conductor. SAGAL: How do you try to conduct the orchestra from the second violin?ĪLSOP: You know, I was just moving, and everybody else was, you know, already like Stonehenge, and I was busy. So they actually brought you in to, like, literally complain about you? But I played in the orchestra, which I loved, and they got some complaints that somebody was trying to lead the whole orchestra from the back of the second violins. So I got into Juilliard right after that. SAGAL: And is it true - we read that you decided at some point you wanted to be a conductor?ĪLSOP: Well, what happened was that after practicing for five hours for eight weeks, I was pretty good. SAGAL: What were the other activities? Like, weeping?ĪLSOP: The only sport we were allowed to do was pingpong.

SALIE: But she was on top of a horse while she was practicing. And they made you practice your violin five hours a day. SAGAL: And when you got there, they just put you in your little cell and handed you a violin?ĪLSOP: Yeah, the teacher said, so you're going to practice from 8 until 1 every day, five hours. It's fondly called the concentration camp for violinists. Somehow, horses got in there.ĪLSOP: And they said, oh, before we go, we forgot to tell you you might have to play the violin. SAGAL: I've left some candy inside this odd wooden object.ĪLSOP: It was very close because they said, you want to go to summer camp? You know, and so I already had an archetypal image of summer camp, you know, with sailing and swimming.ĪLSOP. And then I - you know, for every kid, there is a right instrument. SAGAL: Now, was that because you didn't like the piano or because you just resented your parents' - like, this is why you are here?ĪLSOP: Well, how much time do we have now?ĪLSOP: No, they tricked me into playing violin.

#ROAD TRIPPER PANTS PROFESSIONAL#

My parents were professional musicians.ĪLSOP: My dad was a violinist and my mom a cellist. SAGAL: So I always ask sort of musical geniuses like yourself, were you, like, a musical prodigy? Did you have to be forced to practice the piano? Or did you love it? KURTIS: For example, in July 2017, we were honored to host Maestra Marin Alsop, then music director of the Baltimore Symphony and one of the foremost conductors in America. SAGAL: So in order to get ourselves psyched up to talk to real people again, we are listening this week to some of our favorite visits with actual humans.

KURTIS: We're not sure about the backstage crew, though. Now, as much fun as it is to have a summer break, we are even more excited to get back to work because now we have live people in the audience and live people on the stage. And here's your host, who just realized summer's almost over so he's last-minute power tanning in a pottery kiln, Peter Sagal. We're playing spike-Bill with me, Bill Kurtis. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: The following program was taped in front of an audience of real, live people.īILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT.

Road tripper pants