My family sees The Nutcracker most years, my wife and I loved the collaboration they did with The Last Waltz a few years back, and we usually take in a couple shows a year. My son even has one of those little conductor bears.
The man who made the DPO what it is today is retiring this month. So he sat down with our reporter Meredith Moss for a retrospective of his decades at the podium. You can read Meredith’s full Q&A covering a variety of topics here.
Here are seven key takeaways from our reporting
1. Retirement: Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor Neal Gittleman celebrates his 70th birthday this month and officially retires June 30. Keitaro Harada will take up the baton next.
2. But first: Gittleman isn’t slowing down. He’ll conduct a Stained Glass concert at New Season Ministry in Huber Heights on Monday, June 8, lead a Masterwork series concert at the Schuster Center on Friday and Saturday, June 13-14, and an outdoor Father’s Day concert at Carillon Park on June 15.
3. Proudest work: Meredith asked Gittleman what work he’s most proud of. He said: “I think the things I’m proudest of are 19 years of the Stained Glass Series performances in area churches and all the streaming and hybrid performances we did during the COVID shutdown and aftermath.”
4. ‘The perfect baton’: Gittleman has a baton-maker named Harman Hermele. “I sent him a baton I used and said, ‘I’d love something like this, but different…,’ and over several weeks Harman sent me several prototypes until one was perfect. That’s what I’ve used ever since.”
5. Biggest challenge: “The biggest challenge in the arts is always the same: funding and budgets. Everything we do is expensive and all three DPAA Artistic Directors are always trying to squeeze the maximum beauty and excitement we can out of the budgets we have to work with. We always have to make compromises and sometimes those compromise entail painful decisions.”
6. Perspective: Meredith invited a few of Gittleman’s friends and colleagues to share reflections about this important milestone in his life. You can read their perspectives here.
7. Not goodbye: You might yet see Gittleman around town. “Lisa and I are staying,” he said. “We’ve lived in many places over the years, but now we think of Dayton as home.”
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