Widely recognized as a humorous and easygoing entertainer and the go-to conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s SuperPOPS! series, there is more to the life of the seemingly happy-go-lucky conductor Michael Krajewski than meets the ears. In fact, Michael’s serious side is far more profound than his fans might expect, especially when discussing music.
Growing up in Dearborn, Mich., Michael spent his summers listening to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s free outdoor concert series, “Symphony Under the Stars.” He enjoyed the familiar, lighter pops repertoire and set his sights on outdoor pops concerts as his conducing career took off.
“I enjoyed putting together entertaining programs and talking to the audience, and I also discovered that I seemed to have a knack for conducting pops concerts,” he recalled. “People responded well to my programs and the way I put them across.”
Michael relishes his new responsibilities. “I feel very honored that the Atlanta Symphony would choose to create a position around me, and I can’t wait to be ‘wicked,’” he joked, referring to his first concert, “Wicked Divas,” a vocal toast to the Broadway hit musical Wicked, which opens the SuperPOPS! season, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 8-9.
The popular conductor leads five pops programs and the annual New Year’s Eve concert during the 2010-11 season. He is excited to collaborate with long-time friend Tony Kishman, who starred in Beatlemania and reprises his role as Paul McCartney in the SuperPOPS! valentine to the former Beatle, All You Need Is Love, Feb. 11-12. Michael also looks forward to performing with the Chieftains — the six-time Grammy-winning Irish musical group — March 11-12.
The effusive music-man “can’t imagine a day without music.” His exuberance for music is so contagious that it adds a distinct radiance to an already glimmering Orchestra. On stage, he “channels Tony Bennett, who has had the greatest influence on me as an entertainer. He makes the audience feel like there’s nowhere else he would rather be, which is exactly the way I feel.”
Classical music is also a passion of Michael’s. “The Orchestra is part of an extraordinary competitive environment,” he conceded, “and now more than ever, we must remind our audience that a concert performance is a peak experience you can’t find anywhere else.
“No matter how good your stereo equipment may be, you just can’t top being in an audience and hearing a big symphony orchestra playing live. We provide a uniquely satisfying environment.”
Michael is equally committed to bringing musical joy to younger people, despite a laughing admission that “when I think about young people in a symphony audience, I’m thinking under 60, not 30- and 20-somethings, teen and kids!”
As a strong supporter of the Orchestra’s many programs in schools and at Symphony Hall, he is troubled by the current climate of budget-based priorities in schools. Sadly, music education is no longer a priority. Much to the dismay of music education advocates, it is unclear whether years from now, elementary-aged students will grow up appreciating Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and the rest of the classical icons many of us were introduced to at an early age.
“We have really dropped the ball in this country in music and arts education in general,” he said. “I don’t think it should be considered extracurricular, but rather part of a student’s basic education.”
“Proper music education in school holds the key to attracting a younger audience to the concert hall,” he explained. “If children hold some familiarity with music, they are more likely to want to attend a show. It’s human nature. If people don’t know anything about classical music and have never had any exposure, they simply won’t go.”
And if he could only conduct only one piece for the rest of his life? “It would be Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, the Resurrection. “There’s so much depth to it,” Michael said. “I don’t think it will ever get stale.”
And neither will Michael.
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Sophie Cox is a junior at the University of Georgia. She interviewed new Concertmaster David Coucheron for Atlanta Intown while a summer intern at the Orchestra.
