The Power of Music: An Interview with Jeremy Cuebas | Aurora Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1978 by local civic leader Alice Lee Main and founding conductor Gloria Olsen, the Aurora Symphony Orchestra embraces our community’s rich cultural diversity and appreciation for the arts by performing symphonic music that honors our heritage, celebrates our contemporary artistic environment and forges a cultural legacy for the future
You came to the Aurora Symphony in 2023, tell me about your journey - what led you here and why conducting?
Yep, I was so excited to get the call in June of 2023 that the Aurora Symphony wanted me to be their next Artistic Director and Conductor. I was actually at break during a rehearsal with Loveland Opera that I got the call, and I think the choir could tell that my mood went from good to great during the break!
Of course, my journey in music starts much earlier, but the big rocks are that I always loved music and played in rock bands and orchestras in high school, but I caught the conducting bug in college when I saw for the first time how a conductor could really be creative and inspiring. Erin Freeman was conducting us and she was so energetic. And in that orchestra I experienced breathtaking music-making first hand for the first time in my life. Like, when everything goes just perfectly and the result is more beautiful than you could ever imagine it? It was one of those experiences, and it was all about how she led us. And then I was hooked! I saw what a conductor could do, and I wanted to do it. So I signed up for all the classes, read all the books, and a few years later here we are.
I also realized early on that not only could I have a part in making these incredible moments of beauty in music, but I loved the leadership part of it as well. Conductors have a literal podium to inspire, advocate, and drive change. And in that position I can serve the musicians, the composers, the audience, and the city as a leader, as a role model, and as a creative artist and musician.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the modern symphony? How is the Aurora Symphony doing things differently? What sets you apart from other local symphonies and orchestras?
Believing that live classical music is inherently important and relevant to people is a huge problem for most orchestras. They are only offering music, but there’s plenty of music on YouTube and Spotify, and there are even video streaming services that have concerts from some of the best orchestras in the world. So why should the average person, not a hardcore classical music fan, go live? Why should they pay for tickets, get childcare, spend their time driving and parking, and sit in uncomfortable clothes to see the music live? That’s the question that successful symphonies are able to answer, and that’s what we’re doing very intentionally.
What people need these days is not “live classical music.” What they need is all the things that live classical music can offer.
Somebody described one of our concerts last year as a “pause” in a busy, stressful world. For her, it was a pause that she desperately needed that week as she dealt with chronic health issues. Somebody else said that our concert was a fun excuse to get together with their family and neighbors for an afternoon concert and dinner afterward.
So what these concerts can do is make that space for you to come as you are and get what you need. No matter how profound or simple the experience is for you, these moments are important. Couldn’t we all use more moments in our lives where we find ourselves totally enraptured in a way that we didn’t realize was possible, take a much-needed pause, or just spend a Sunday afternoon sharing an experience and making memories with our family and friends?
It was really important to me coming into the ASO that we created an atmosphere where people wanted to be, whether they were life-long classical music fans or seeing a live symphony for the first time. That’s why the ASO is focused on creating fun and exciting concerts where we don’t ask you to change who you are and hide your emotions (by not clapping or cheering) when you come to a concert. We are just people playing music by people for people. After the concert, the orchestra doesn’t disappear backstage and the audience just leaves. We actually encourage people to come to the stage and meet the musicians and ask any questions and talk about the concert.
We are part of the Aurora Community, and what sets us apart is that we care about the people in our community, not just the music we play.
In addition to your work with the symphony you also have a podcast for music directors/conductors and you founded a rock orchestra. Tell me more about those projects.
The Podium Time Podcast started as my way to learn from the people I wanted to learn from. It was a great excuse to talk to world-class conductors for an hour and then share those conversations over the internet. After realizing that we were getting hundreds of downloads per month, I realized that people were actually listening and learning along with me! I also realized that the changes I wanted to see in the world of classical music are not best done by me but by me and all the other conductors around the world. So along with my own desire to improve, it became a mission-driven project to help improve the world by helping other conductors improve. Since conductors serve the musicians, the composers, the audience, and their community, I realized that helping those conductors perform better was a way to amplify my impact.
The Denver Rock Orchestra was the brain-child of its current Executive Director Madeline Winkler, and I was just along for the ride! I was forwarded a survey one day asking if there was interest in a group like this, and of course it sounded amazing so I said yes. Fast forward and we started gathering musicians and playing music together and having an amazing time. This was in 2021, so we were all really missing playing music with other people since we’d been away from it for, like, 18 months at that point. Fast forward more and the DRO performed a few AMAZING concerts and got registered as an official nonprofit and just kept growing. It’s the same welcoming, fun vibe that we have at the Aurora Symphony, just with a bit more literal dancing and cheering during the concerts. They started with a new conductor this season and I’m so excited to see where they continue to go and grow!
What do you want your legacy to be? What’s the mark you hope to leave on this world with the work you do?
The change that I want to leave on the world is to create more joyful, loving, and fun spaces for us to live in. Physical spaces, like the concert hall, but also spaces within ourselves. I know we’re doing a great job when audience members tell me how important that evening was to them, or how that concert changed their life in some way. When I heard last year from an audience member who went to our concerts as part of her journey to heal from a chronic illness, I realized again how important what we do can be when we do it right. It’s not so much about the music as it is about the space and the transformation that that space allows for.
We provide the same for our orchestra members too. The ASO is an all-volunteer community orchestra. We have members who come from stressful jobs and need a fun break in the week. We have retired members who love this music and finally have a chance now to engage with it. We have members who are dealing with all the other things in their lives and just need a few hours each week to be with friends and be a part of creating something that they are proud of. We help our orchestra members show up more fully for the rest of their lives.
So that that is the legacy that I want to leave: that I provided that space, and that I helped other conductors and orchestras do the same for their communities.
What’s on the horizon for the Aurora Symphony?
We are getting the word out! The most common thing we hear at networking events is “I didn’t know Aurora had a Symphony.” It’s become a bit of a joke, but we’re working to change that. The more people attend our concerts, the more lives we can touch, the more stories we can amplify, and the more people we can connect.
So we’re doing more of the same: five concerts per year for our community, and we’re striving every day, week, and season to do it better and better.
