David Bernard: The compelling thing about PACS is that its mission is multidimensional. In addition to it having a cultural mission, which is to provide exciting performances of classical music to the New York City artistic community, the mission also includes supporting and celebrating music education as well as to help support not-for-profit organizations of New York. We are able to have that multi-dimensional mission because our orchestra is made up of nonprofessional musicians who have a considerable level of accomplishment in the business world. We have not only studied music seriously, but we have achieved high levels of accomplishment in investment banking, law, medicine, and other areas in business. We achieve our mission by galvanizing support around not-for-profit causes.

MS: How many educational organizations have you helped?

DB: Our first benefit concert was for the Lucy Moses School, in October 2002.  We raised $25,000 for their scholarship fund, which introduces inner-city kids to a robust Suzuki training program at Lucy Moses. A beautiful thing about this program is that in Suzuki both the parents and their kids participate--a true bonding experience. The parents were truly grateful to us because this was an experience that they would not have been able to provide to their children. It had enormous impact on their family life as well as how the kids performed at school.

MS: That's great. Is there an estimate how much the orchestra has raised on educational projects overall?

DB: In total we've raised about $160,000 for educational causes.

MS: For how many organizations?

DB: Three.

MS: You were talking about people in the orchestra having other professions. What do you do outside the orchestra?

DB: I run a management consultancy that works with Fortune 100 companies to help them analyze customer behavior and leverage this knowledge to increase customer satisfaction and profitability. It's called "customer relationship management," CRM.

MS: Is it like market research?

DB: Market research is a component of CRM. We combine organizational consulting, analytic consulting, technical consulting, and marketing consulting together to help our clients develop a clear, measurable and justifiable approach toward improving customer behavior.

MS: So you do surveys?

DB: We analyze the results of surveys, we develop predictive models. We help our clients be more accountable in their marketing and sales approaches.

Marketing is becoming a lot more scientific, and it's important to be able to measure marketing performance. We help our clients build and implement the process and tools measure marketing performance and customer profitability.

MS: What's it called?

DB: DB Marketing Technologies. We have 10 employees.

MS: Throughout the rehearsals for Carnegie Hall you're very relaxed, and when you conduct you smile and lead so gracefully. Were you stressed out at any time during the preparation or concert night?

DB: In general, I approach orchestral conducting in a similar way to how I run my business. As a manager, you need to look at a situation, be able to see the top opportunities to improve, and then determine an approach to improve them. You also must be flexible and "real-time"--reassessing the situation frequently. On top of that, as a business manager, it's critical that you deal with people with the utmost respect making everything a positive, constructive and empowering experience.

This is especially important in an orchestra like the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony where you routinely encounter executives and business people. You have to be able to work with them in a way that they are accustomed to working during the day.

This was my first time conducting at Carnegie Hall. I had played there previously, as a member of the Curtis Orchestra when we performed there with Sergiu Celibidache, but I had never conducted there. It was my dream to conduct there. And based on conversations with PACS members, it was a dream I shared with most of the orchestra.

When I walked out on the stage for the first time for our dress rehearsal, I was overwhelmed.  I was in a daze, walking in slow motion, soaking it in.  Then I noticed that I wasn't the only one effected in this way, which made me smile.  We were all in this together, experiencing the same dream.

That this was such an incredible dream being realized in front of us made the performance even more challenging.  You want to do your best, which requires relentless focus.  Yet at the same time, you want to soak in the entire thing--to feel every nuance.  Very contradictory.

MS: Why is there such an awesome feeling about walking out on the Carnegie stage?

DB: Carnegie Hall is the capital of musical performance. It's the place where every orchestra excels and looks forward to play. The night before our concert, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach performed. The following week, the Cleveland Orchestra gave several spectacular performances. Carnegie Hall is where the giants of the orchestral world--Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Vienna, Berlin--play when they come to New York. Its history and tradition make it more than simply a concert hall. And so the fantastic thing about this evening, was that as we walked out on stage we became part of that tradition.

MS: How did you feel about the performance?

DB:  Our photographer, Steve J. Sherman, takes pictures of every major orchestra that comes through New York, many at Carnegie Hall.  He mentioned to me that when the orchestras play at Carnegie, something about the hall makes them play better. He loves watching the faces of the performers when they play Carnegie. I couldn't agree more.  I felt the orchestra never played better.

MS: I certainly felt that way. So part of your strategy was to make it enjoyable. Somebody else could be very stressed out and it could really destroy the preparation and affect the confidence of the players, but you were able to basically nurture us into a great performance.

DB: A conductor needs to know how to help people do their best by carefully inserting him or her-self into the process. This is a direct parallel to a business manager.  Business managers often micromanage, causing their people to be less effective. In conducting, as in business, you have to be just as concerned about how not to get in the way as in how to add value.  As a conductor you can have great ideas, you can know exactly how you'd like the orchestra to sound and how you want people to play. But unless you know how to manage and mentor the orchestra to do their best, none of it will happen. On top of this, it is important to constantly and relentlessly be sensitive to what is happening in each moment for the orchestra members, not just musically but also in terms of the stress level and the intensity.  This must be balanced against what you are trying to achieve. For our Carnegie Hall rehearsals and performance, I think we made the right decisions in terms of preparation and in terms of what to address and how to address it.

MS: And how many rehearsals were there?

DB: Six rehearsals and plus two performances at our regular concert venue--a church on the Upper East Side.

MS: So that isn't really a whole lot of time.

DB: No, it's not a whole lot of time.  Many critics of Amateur/Non-Professional Orchestras talk about how we do not have the restrictions of musician unions, giving us virtually unlimited rehearsal and performance time.  Quite frankly, our restrictions are just as rigorous as the unions, because everyone is volunteering.  Volunteers do not stand for unreasonable schedules or late rehearsals.  Plus, we have the added complication that people miss rehearsals because they sometimes have to stay late for their day job.  This is something we can do nothing about--something that NEVER happens in professional groups because they are paid.  But we have been doing this together for five years.  Over that time, the orchestra has come to know me and I have gotten to know them.  We become more and more effective each time we perform. Each concert cycle we progress further ahead sooner in the rehearsal cycle. This allows us to address more and more things and it also gets the orchestra to be much more comfortable.

MS: Right. It's a matter of focusing on a problem, looking at a problem. You know ahead of time where the problems are and you're able to focus on them.

DB: Absolutely! What goes through my head each time I'm about to pick up the baton is; What can I do to make this better, or to help this be better? That is a question that I have to ask myself, not just before each rehearsal or concert, but at every moment in each rehearsal and in each concert. In the concert, the conductor's job is even more important because you have the opportunity, and responsibility to guide the focus of the orchestra to where it is needed most. 

MS: It certainly showed.

DB: Thanks! I'm just so proud of the orchestra because every member invested considerable time to the rehearsal process and were witness to their own accomplishment at the concert.  They are extraordinary people--they all chose to dedicate a considerable amount to time and energy to this project.  That is an incredible sacrifice.  And in the face of classical music's challenges in the fabric of society, the story of this group of business people making this kind of investment to create this concert is phenomenal.

MS: Especially when they have other jobs.

DB: Yes-- and don't forget family time, and down time, all of which is truncated. These people go to rehearsals, and when they go home, they practice.  Being a musician, amateur or otherwise, requires time to practice, time to prepare, time to think.  That they do this in the context of their busy lives is extraordinary, and is something that should be celebrated.

MS: Well you certainly helped us celebrate.