KW: Even though you’re technically retired after 46 years in higher education, you seem to be busier than ever. What are some of the fun things that you’re doing now that you have more time available?
GP: I’m still practicing, and I’m still performing, more chamber music than anything else. One thing I’ve started doing more is conducting, and I’ve worked with Erie Waters (the performing flute choir of the Greater Cleveland Flute Society). I just conducted a performance of Appalachian Spring with the original instrumentation, which was very exciting. I’m open to take gigs as they come up. Last fall, for some reason, I had more gigs than I had in the last five years. I’m also available to do some teaching here and there. I taught at Oberlin last fall and I’ve been invited to a couple of other places to just come in for a week or for a master class. Those are always things that I tried to do before when I was teaching 23 students a week and it was hard to get away. It was also hard to get caught up if I missed a week.
I’ve been doing a little bit of traveling, not as much as I would like to. I’m slowly, too slowly, working on getting my house ready to downsize. So I’m doing things around the house. I love to cook, so I’m always experimenting with different recipes. I just made Coq au Vin earlier, which turned out delicious. I volunteer—I’m very involved with Tuesday Musical here in Akron. I was chair of the scholarship committee, and then I went through the presidential cycle, and now I’m back on the scholarship committee. I volunteer with NFA and I’m involved with the Kujala tribute, which we’ve been working on since before Christmas. I’m still very musically involved, and I honestly have a very hard time imagining my life without that. I still having fun playing. As long as I’m having fun and I’m not making people’s ears bleed, then we’re good.
KW: You’ve been playing the flute since you were 10 years old. Have you ever had a performance based playing injury?
GP: I came close once to developing a carpal tunnel issue. It came out of a recording session for two pieces with flute and piano which took 12 hours, all in one day. By the end of that day, my wrists were inflamed. After that, fortunately, I had a week break, but I was really feeling it. I am very lucky in that I’ve always had teachers that were very conscious of understanding balance. Also my dance training has helped develop body awareness. I’ve been very lucky that I haven’t had any injuries.
KW: That’s fantastic. I’m so glad to hear that, because the injury rate is just crazy, depending on what study you look at. We talk about this in my body mapping class, and on average, there is something like a 70% injury rate for professional orchestral musicians; 82-97% have a thing once a year! And so it’s not really a question of, “Are you going to get hurt?” It’s a question of, “What are you going to do about it when you end up hurt?” So many students that I work with have limited awareness and understanding of their bodies. Dancers are taught that they are movers from the very beginning and are taught body awareness. I wish the same were true for musicians.
Over your 46 years, you must have listened to hundreds of auditions. When prospective music majors played for you, what were the most important things that you were looking for, in terms of the things that they need to be able to do to be successful as a humans, to be able to feed themselves, and contribute to society? Not everybody is going to be a principal flute player in an orchestra. There are not that many orchestras, and there are too many excellent flute players running around.
GP: When we’re auditioning kids for programs, we’re not just listening to them play. We are talking with them. We’re asking them what their interests are, what have you done, and where do you see yourself in the future? You’re trying to get an idea of how self aware they are. It’s good to have dreams, but are they attainable or just unrealistic fantasies that you have when you’re 18? From the first day I started teaching at Akron and auditioning students there, I had “The Talk” with them, every single one, undergraduate and graduate. What do you want to do? Where do you see yourself? 9 out of 10 were set on the idea that “I want to play in a major symphony orchestra.” I say, “Okay, so how many jobs are open this year?” They don’t know. The answer is “Not very many.” The orchestral players that have the jobs are going to stay. So you have to have other interests, and you have to have other ways of expressing yourself musically, other than just that one thing. I want them to be self aware. I want them to be polite and know how to conduct themselves in that setting.
When it comes to their playing abilities, I’m looking for a good concept of tone, a good concept of how to hold the instrument, how to stand, a good concept of what technique is and how hands work and what they need to be able to do. I’m hoping that they’ve studied their scales and their tone studies. More and more, serious students have all done that. Kids are starting lessons earlier and they’re learning those things better. I also try to work with them, either in a lesson or even just in the audition by saying, “Try this or do this.” I want to see if they are listening and how quickly they can change. Can they do it? Are they willing to try? Because if they’re not willing to do that, then I know that there is going to be a battle for the next four years.
I feel like I was very open to students proving me wrong, and try to approach everybody in the same way. Although if somebody has a real deficit, then we’re really going to focus on that.
KW: They have to be willing to do the work.
GP: Right. Some will do it, and some won’t. And so hopefully you can weed out the ones that won’t before they even get there. Some students were of the mindset that, “I’m the best musician in my high school,” yet they seem unwilling to learn how to do the things I was asking. I’m willing to work with anybody, to a degree, but not forever.
KW: Everybody can get better, no matter where they are starting from.
GP: Yes. If they apply themselves, if they practice, if they just do the exercises that we’ve asked them, it’s magic! It takes patience and concentration, which so many kids struggle with.
KW: Do you find that attention, patience and concentration issues are more of a problem with your most recent students compared to the ones that you had at the beginning of your teaching career?
GP: It did become more and more of a challenge. After the pandemic, kids were just struggling. I’m sure it’s getting better now that they’ve been back in school.
KW: Let’s change gears again. What is your thought process when you are teaching a masterclass? How do you decide what direction to go with a particular student with a short period of time? I struggle with this, but I’m getting better the more I do it. I guess this would be the same idea when you come in to teach somebody else’s students. How do you make those decisions?
GP: You listen to them play and you make a list in your head. We could work on this or that. Let’s just say there are three big ticket items. I would always pick the most important thing to me that I felt that they really obviously didn’t get. “It seems to me that you do not understand this concept,” I might say. So I would always start with the first important thing and see if I could get a reaction. With somebody you’ve never met, are they willing to try anything? Are they willing to experiment? I always say, in every situation, “practicing is nothing but experimentation.” Here’s a problem, and now I have to figure out how to solve that problem. So I’m going to try 10 different things to see what happens. “Here’s a fact, and I’m going to share this fact with you,” and put it in context and see what happens. And then if I discover that it’s not getting through, I’m going to usually try two or three different angles into the same problem. “What have you tried? What else have you tried? What if you thought about this?” If I’m not getting any results from it or they seem really resistant, then I say, “Well, okay, let’s work on something else.” I’ll just pivot to item number two. Most of the time, students in these situations are interested in learning, and they’re interested in trying something new and thinking about something differently. When I was at Oberlin for those two weeks, I spent more time teaching Mozart G Major Concerto than almost anything else. I’m passionate about that piece and I have a very clear agenda. I’d listen to them play and say, “I just want to talk to you about how I feel about this music, why it’s important to me, and why it’s always on auditions.” I tell them, “this is what they’re looking for in an audition,” to try to get that thought process planted. Form, structure, clarity, personality.
KW: How do you approach choosing repertoire with students?
GP: There is a certain set repertoire that you have to experience and you need to know. I’d have them do two pieces, a piece that they wanted to play, and then a piece that I wanted them to play. And as they get older, I would always have them have three pieces that they were working on. Sometimes you get bored working on the same piece, So if you’re hitting a wall, leave that piece temporarily and work on the others. I wanted them to have an awareness of the different styles, awareness of who the major composers are, but also who are the women composers, who are the black composers, who are the obscure composers? Generally, there was a concerto, a sonata or unaccompanied work and a showpiece, and I would usually give students a list that would incorporate all of those styles. I would say, “Go listen to this or get the music out of the library and play through it. See what you feel. Come back in next week and we’ll decide.” I did usually try to have them be very involved in that process of choosing the music, because they’re the ones who are going to be working on it for a long time.
KW: How do you go about finding new stuff, besides the usual ideas of just listening, going to concerts, and going to NFA?
GP: I ask around. I want kids to bring me new things. If you hear something, share it with me. Let’s listen to it and see if it’s going to be good for you at the moment. Use the NFA repertoire guide; it seems like a smart idea to me.
KW: Here’s a piece that might be new to you, speaking of obscure pieces. Do you know Corsica for Alto Flute and Piano by Earl Louis Stewart? He’s a Black composer and he’s still alive!
If you had one piece of advice to give to students who want to have a career in music, what would that be?
GP: Find a good teacher immediately, work hard, and put yourself out there. The one thing that I didn’t do enough of when I was younger, was participate in competitions and summer festivals. I think it’s super important that you have those early connections and make those contacts. Jeanne Baxtresser played a concerto with the Akron Symphony. I’d been in Akron for about 10 years, and I was thinking about doing auditions and moving on to another orchestra. I said, “I would really appreciate it if you would listen to me on the second half of the concert and just give me feedback. I go take these auditions, and I don’t get anywhere, so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” And so after the concert, we talked, and she said, “You sound beautiful. You sound like you belong there. You’re doing everything that you’re supposed to be doing.” But it’s not just about how well you play. It’s not just about how prepared you are. So much of it is by chance, being in the right place at the right time with the right mindset. Practice, get out there, meet people, do the things that help you grow.
KW: Here’s my last question, what is the name of a really interesting book that you just read?
GP: I’m reading all the time, but mostly biography and fantasy/science fiction. Now, I read for entertainment purely. I’m almost finished reading the beginning of a new Sci Fi series by James S. A. Corey. He wrote the book “Expanse” which they made into a television show.
I was just talking to my massage therapist about it, and he said that the author is actually two writers who write together under one name.
[KW…. regular self care practices like massage can help with injury prevention! Body awareness and regular self care and luck = killer combo]
KW: Have you read The Fourth Wing series by Rebecca Yarros?
GP: I know that name, but I have not read it. I read a lot of fantasy. Do you know Mercedes Lackey, she wrote the Valdemar series. There is a NEW prequel to the whole Valdemar series. N. K. Jemisin is another writer I want to recommend, she is an African American gay writer and her work is just brilliant.
KW: Thank you for spending time with me for the interview. Enjoy the rest of your day.
GP: I have to start erasing the markings in the parts for Appalachian Spring, it WAS a rental. As you know, it has to be done!
KW: Enjoy!
Bio:
George Pope is the Emeritus Professor of Flute at The University of Akron (1978-2013) and was Instructor of Flute at The Baldwin Wallace Conservatory for 21 years. Principal Flute of the Akron Symphony from 1978-2002, he has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Blossom Festival Orchestra, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra and at the Monteux and Spoleto Festivals. He is a founding member of the Solaris Wind Quintet and the Chamber Music Society of Ohio and was named “Arts Educator of 2009” by the Akron Area Arts Alliance. His solo CD “…some measures for living” was released in 2016 by Crystal Records. Laurence Vittes in Gramophone writes, “The wonder of Pope’s playing is how engagingly, articulately, flowingly and objectively he pours himself into the music….” (Sept. 2016) In 2018 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Flute Association.