While it's more than you can count on one hand or two, the fraternity of individuals who have conducted at Carnegie Hall is relatively small. As one of the most famous musical venues in the world, only the best get to perform there. Fewer still get step to the podium and command those arrayed before them.
While Matt Muller studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and plays drums, he built his career on the other side of the curtain. Starting off in North London, he learned the ropes backstage, eventually becoming a Stage Manager. His skills have taken him to numerous theatres and studios, including BBC dramas with such notables as Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Ralph Feinnes. He also has traveled the world managing various theatrical tours, and has worked business conferences where he helped shepherd CEO's and rock stars around the stage.
Still, all of that is decidedly out of public view. He did have one brush with fame, but it was due not to his talents but his daughter's. Mae Muller is a singer songwriter on the pop music scene, racking up top 40 hits as well as being selected as the UK entry in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. Earlier this year, she was playing Kentish Town Forum in North London. As she told the crowd, her dad was her biggest supporter and fan, and she wanted to pay him back just a little for his belief in her. So she invited him on stage to play drums with the band, a one song gig for him in front of an adoring crowd.
Still, that was a supporting roll, and while that venue is well known, it hardly carries the gravitas of Carnegie Hall. That's not to say that Matt isn't familiar with world class venues. For the last 7 years he has served as stage manager for the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras. This set of ensembles is made up of top-flight musicians specializing in historically inspired projects across a variety of repertoires, including sacred music, semi-staged operas and chamber works.
This year they had performances at top opera houses and halls in La Cote St Andre, Salzburg, Versailles, Berlin and London, after which they embarked on a North American tour. That excursion took them to Chicago, Ottawa, Princeton and New York City, with a performance at Carnegie. As always, Matt was charged with getting the ensemble's orchestra and singers set up and staged for rehearsals, then managing their performance from backstage.
The New York leg of the tour corresponded with his wife Caroline's birthday, but she was home in England. On that day Associate Conductor Dinis Sousa was putting the group through its paces, rehearsing them for the evening. The UK-based Portuguese conductor has the kind of pedigree you expect of someone on a stage of this magnitude. In addition to the Monteverdi ensembles, he has worked with other esteemed orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Being a valued and well-known member of the team, Matt thought he might call in a small favor. He went to Maestro Sousa, pointed out the significance of the date, and asked if perhaps the ensemble might sing "Happy Birthday" to his wife as a surprise while he recorded it to play for her when he got home. The maestro went one better: he asked if Matt wanted to conduct it. As Matt put it, "Er, conduct the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists at Carnegie Hall in New York? Hold my beer."
Matt took the baton and stepped to the podium. With a flourish befitting Bernstein or Toscanini, he led the orchestra and choir in a spirited performance of the classic. In pics of his debut that a friend took you can't help but see the twinkle in his eye as he waves his arms for all he is worth, performing perhaps the finest rendition of the classic ever heard on the Carnegie Hall stage.
There's an old joke about the guy at the circus who sweeps up after the elephants. A spectator notes what a horrible job it is, and asks why doesn't he quit. "What?" he says. "And give up show business?" Matt's job backstage is far from pachyderm cleanup. But now he can add a new title beyond the supporting ones of stage and production manager to his show business resume: Maestro.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford loves being backstage. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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