GREAT FALLS — For someone retired, Gordon Johnson remains incredibly busy. He serves as the chair of the Great Falls School Board, but it's his passion for music that is as strong as ever.
He recently led the Montana Youth Symphony, serves as a judge at music festivals, and has been a guest conductor for other orchestras. Now he’s helping the organization he spent more than three decades building.
Tim McGonigal reports - watch:
It’s a year of transition for the symphony. Not only is the search on for a new conductor and music director, they’re also recruiting some new musicians. However, the orchestra isn’t skipping a beat. They’ve brought Johnson to help, and he is no stranger to the organization.
“I was music director for the Great Falls Symphony for 35 years,” said Johnson.
He led the orchestra from the early 80’s to 2017. When Grant Harville moved on after 8 years at the helm, drawing on Gordon’s expertise was almost a no-brainer.
“I've leaned on him a lot over the years,” said Hillary Shepherd, executive director for the Great Falls Symphony. “Just on the side for assistance with different administrative functions. He's just been so helpful that it just seemed like a just a clear choice to ask him to come back to help with that search.”
Johnson has been brought on to serve as the artistic advisor while the symphony searches for a new leader.
“When you think of a conductor of a symphony orchestra, you think of a person standing in a box with the baton,” said Johnson. “That’s about five to ten percent of what they do. Basically, the rest of the time is auditioning new playing personnel, choosing repertoire, planning schedules, and the list goes on and on. So there's a lot of administrative work that takes place.”
“What you see on the podium is only just the tip of the iceberg,” said Shepherd. “There's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that are our candidates are just simply not going to do this year, for, for obvious reasons.”
For the upcoming season, the symphony has selected six candidates from a pool of more than 200 to spend a week with the community and the orchestra and conduct a show. Johnson will be instrumental in the hiring process.
“He fully intends on not just being a part of the whole search process, but actually sitting down with each candidate and explaining what the job is off the podium and what those sorts of intangible expectations are,” said Shepherd.
Johnson says even though he has a new title with the symphony, the job seems almost tailor made for him.
“Coming back as artistic director is quite natural,” said Johnson. “This is in my blood doing all these tasks and working with the wonderful people here that have been either supporters of the symphony staff or just from friends along the way.”
Johnson is proud of the more than three decades he spent leading the orchestra. He feels he left the position in good shape after retiring the baton eight years ago. He admits somethings are familiar, but he’s learning to navigate some changes.
“So I spent the first four weeks just listening and watching what had changed,” said Johnson. “Then I felt comfortable that I could come in and interact with, the way they do hire personnel, which is different than when I did it years ago, or how we, organize our season in terms of calendar and take into consideration other community events so that we don't step on, other events that are happening in the community.”
The symphony will have a new conductor and new musicians and will perform in a newly-renovated arena at the Mansfield Theater.
They’re counting on the experience of a trusted maestro for a successful transition.
“Conductors don't retire. They just go on to other projects is what I've done.” said Johnson.
