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As I’ve mentioned countless times before, I have long enjoyed being a part of the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Family Adventures concerts in my role as NACOtron operator. Hmm. My spellcheque indicates that I’ve not typed the (non)word “NACOtron” into my computer before now. I find that curious, as “NACOtron” is the nifty-ized name given to the big screen on the stage that delivers up-close images of the musicians to the young, fidgety audience, exactly the screen that I’ve been programming and live-operating for the last two decades and a role that I’ve written about countless times before.
Well, it’s in there now. “Learn Spelling” is one of my favourite buttons. It feels good to teach a hyper-intelligent machine a thing or two; every time I invent a new word (which happens surprisingly often) I feel like I’m expanding its little pixelized horizons, giving it new bytes to chew on.
(There I go again: “pixelized” is now part of my computer’s ever-expanding vocabulary. I ride a cautious imbalance between holding steadfast to certain archaic spellings whilst striving to constantly add to our evolving language, to which I can only say: “You’re welcome” and “You’re welcome”.)
So anyway, after years of utilizing the NACOtron exclusively for the Family Adventures Concerts the NAC decided to employ it for another, brand-new series they were calling Casual Fridays. Joining a movement shared by like-minded cultural centres around the world, the Casual Fridays series was aimed at drawing a newer, younger crowd, one that might not otherwise think of an orchestral concert as a fun night out. Kind of like the very popular and licensed DJ nights at the Canadian Museum of Nature, or bourbon tasting at the Diefenbunker (surprised I haven’t made it to one of those yet).
Casual Fridays succeeded in their goal by offering drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and a live band in the lobby before the show, more of the same after the show, and as for the concert itself, they were programmed to be short enough to keep people interested (at ninety minutes with no intermission), and came with a well-known host and of course the NACOtron flashing close-up images of the musicians playing in real time.
This is quite a lot of preamble to explain that I was given a ticket to this concert so that I could experience the NACOtron from the audience’s perspective; a bit of career development if you will. The concert was a family affair, with the wonderfully talented ‘cellist Amanda Forsyth playing the music of her father (Malcolm Forsyth) under the baton of her husband, conductor Pinchas Zukerman.
It was a great show and it was really good to experience the NACOtron as an audience member, though the screen incorporated a lot of abstract images and dark themes among the musician shots, which was significantly different than the type of show I present on the screen for the Family Adventures concerts. That said, I still got a lot out of seeing it from the soft seats rather than the control desk backstage, and I was really glad to have been there to enjoy the show (as I generally am).
It was also great to see a near-full house of young, casually dressed people who also seemed glad to have made it out for a night of serious music.
I ended up running the NACOtron for a couple of Casual Fridays concerts and I hope to get the call again. Until (and including) then, I urge you all to go check out one of these shows if you can. Or some other similar fun-focused cultural event; every similar type of thing I’ve attended has been lots of fun, though I still can’t believe I haven’t done that Diefenbunker bourbon-drinking one yet.
Todd Man Out 