When I was a kid, I never really liked playing the game "musical chairs". One small misstep and you were out for the rest of the game awkwardly watching the other kids play. Unfortunately, this seems to be a game I can't escape if I ever want to play in an established symphony orchestra. The process of winning an orchestral job is so similar to the slightly sadistic game that one of the main sites for job postings is actually titled "musicalchairs.info". We have all heard that orchestras are changing their approaches to drawing in audiences, but the one thing that seems not to change is the audition process.

Celebrating her first season with the Chicago Sinfonietta as the new music director Mei-Ann Chen sat down with Chicago Classical Music to chat about her first season, goals with the organization and favorite things in Chicago.

Your conducting style is so intensely energetic and vibrant as compared to other conductors I’ve seen. Where does all that energy come from? How did you develop such a unique style?
It’s a combination of all my experiences. I worked with the oldest youth orchestra in the country, the Portland Youth Orchestra.  The most precious thing that I took away from that experience was that those children make music from the heart. They don’t know hardship yet and make music in the purest form: they simply make music because they love it.  The energy that they had has remained with me and their love for music reminds me why I wanted to be a musician to start.

Every once in a while, my friends and I gather with our instruments, a few choice drinks, and the parts to several different readable works to have a "chamber music party". We read and have fun in the music without any concern of critique from an audience. Chamber music is sometimes called "music for friends" and originally (pre 1800s) was intended for a private household gathering with friends and family - a lot like the parties many young musicians have today (though perhaps slightly more dignified... we don't wear powdered wigs or petticoats). It seems with the passing of a few centuries and the categorization of chamber music as "serious" performance music, a lot of visual musician to musician interaction has been lost. Instead of watching what looks like friends in intimate conversation, most times I feel like I'm watching a group of acquaintances who may not even like each other. If the music that comes out is good, does it matter? I think so.

Every time I go to the airport, I see people staring, pointing and muttering to each other about me. Though I would like to attribute this to the remarkable sense of poise and beauty I exude everywhere I go, I'm pretty sure that's not it (one look in the mirror after going through security could quickly confirm that). They are looking at the big blue friend that I carry around like a turtle does its shell. As I board the plane, people become even more interested. Yes, I buy a seat for my cello. Mr. Cello Montanari gets his own seat, beverage, and even frequent flyer miles. Everyone knows musicians travel, but here is a look at what goes on behind the scenes.

This year’s viral holiday video seems to be the Fed-Ex delivery guy tosses a computer monitor over a fence.  Well, no offense to Fed-Ex, I think I have a better one.

It’s not often that classical music is overly popular on You Tube (leave that to Gaga and Bieber), let alone a holiday classical music video.  A few years ago there was the flash mob in the cafeteria singing the Halleluiah chorus from Handel's Messiah, and the Copenhagen Philharmonic at the train station but that was about as close to classical viral video as I remember.