Winston-Salem Symphony Says Goodbye To Conductor Robert Moody

Ed. Note: This story was originally published on September 15, 2017. 

It was back in 2004 that then 38-year-old conducting candidate Bob Moody joined the pool of five finalists to replace Maestro Peter Perret. Moody's exciting public audition, and megawatt personality electrified the Stevens Center audience. A year later, he became the third full-time music director of the Winston-Salem Symphony.

Principal percussionist John R. Beck says that week's performance, and the rehearsals leading up to it, left a lasting impression on many of the musicians in the orchestra as well.

“Bob brought an energy to the whole week that was really infectious. Regardless of what he was doing—classical, or the pops that he did—it was just really fun to play with him”, says Beck. “He brought an enjoyment that the other conductors didn't necessarily.”

Corine Brouwer is the longtime concertmaster of the orchestra. She recalls the conductor's personal touch.

“What really stood out was his willingness to interact with the orchestra, not just on the podium, but also off the podium,” she says. “He really wanted to get to know all of us as individuals as well as musicians, and that's held true throughout his tenure with the orchestra.”

Over the course of his 13 years in Winston-Salem, he expanded audiences through new educational programs, concert series and community outreach.

In January, Moody announced that he will be stepping down in 2018 to focus on his work with the Memphis Symphony.

On Wednesday, Moody led the first rehearsal of his farewell season. WFDD's David Ford spoke with the conductor and has this look back.

Interview Highlights

On what he has learned about himself over the past 13 years.

When you are a young conductor, it's very difficult to not let the primary focus be you. ‘What do I look like? How is my beat pattern? What are they thinking of me?' You know, if the player in the orchestra rolled their eyes in my general direction twenty years ago, that would put me in the corner of my room in a fetal position the rest of the night—completely stressed out, worried about, ‘They think I'm a charlatan, hate my tempos, hate my approach to this piece.' Now, I think to myself, number one, ‘They probably weren't thinking about me at all when I happened to catch that expression', and number two, ‘I believe in what I'm doing, so play my temp!' [laughs]

How have you evolved as a conductor since you began as Music Director of the Winston-Salem Symphony? 

I used to be a much more rhythmically based conductor. Everything for me was sort of, ‘Play with me here, right when I drop the downbeat. Don't be a millisecond late.' In a rhythmic, mathematical way, that's the way to hold together the ensemble.

Now I think much more about the shape of phrase and much less about my own body and hands showing the typical textbook pattern. And in the past eight months, I've given up the baton. I feel there's a lot more I can do to assist the instrumentalist in making their best creation without it in my hands.

What's one experience that stands out from your thirteen years here?

When we brought Yo-Yo Ma to town a few years ago. For an encore, he grabbed my hand, and made me walk out with him. And because this was the celebration of my tenth anniversary here as Music Director, he said to the audience, ‘This is your Music Director. It's your tenth anniversary. He's a cellist, so, Bob you tell me what to play'.

I thought, ‘I should think of some great piece, you know, difficult, technical cello piece'. But really what I wanted to hear Yo-Yo play, with me standing three feet from him, was the Bach G Major Prelude [from Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suites], the most maybe perfect of all cello works. And so I said, ‘Please play the Bach G Major,' and he played the entire thing looking straight at me.

I will never in my life—I could quit now. I mean I will never forget that experience.