Writers have pens. Artists have brushes. Conductors have batons – and something more. They also have a lofty title:
When you’re the musical director and conductor of a major symphony – which is JoAnn Falletta’s position with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra – the honorific comes with the job.
Maestro. The word itself sounds musical, the syllables rolling smooth and rhythmically, like a couple bars of notes played pitch-perfectly by her orchestra.
But please, if you see her out somewhere, like a grocery store or theater or movie, just call her JoAnn.
“I love the way that people always call me by my first name,” Falletta said on a recent afternoon. “They’ll say, ‘JoAnn, is that you?’ ”
They know it is. Falletta’s form on a conductor’s podium – back arced, arms outstretched – has been photographed and designed onto posters and billboards for a quarter-century. She’s well-known far beyond Buffalo: Falletta and the BPO have won Grammy awards for their classical music recordings, and she travels the country and world as a guest conductor for other orchestras.
But for 25 years, Buffalo and its own philharmonic have been home for Falletta, who grew up in Queens, and her husband, Robert Alemany, a systems analyst who is also a clarinetist.
On the occasion of Falletta’s silver anniversary, we met with Falletta at the BPO’s downtown offices for an hourlong interview. The excerpts included here are edited for space and clarity:
What has kept you here 25 years?
I always felt, and I still feel, that there are more adventures we could have here: Recording, which we started 25 years ago. Going to Carnegie Hall. Going on tour to Florida, which we do quite often. We’ve commissioned (pieces). We love collaboration. We’ve collaborated with almost every organization in Buffalo, from the science museum to the opera company in Fredonia. We’ve done a lot of things with the Irish Classical (Theatre Company).
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