Conductor learns the ropes for career high as Flying Maestro
Music man in harness to conduct from trapeze rig, writes Pearl Boshomane
AS if being an awardwinning musical director who has worked on major productions was not enough, Bryan Schimmel will now conduct a six-piece orchestra while suspended in midair.
On Friday he will debut the Flying Maestro act, conducting an orchestra while he performs aerial stunts, as part of a performance called The Aerialist Showcase.
“I’m trying to take what I know already literally to another level,” he says.
The idea came about when Schimmel was preparing for a show in 2015 and the event producer said he wanted to give the orchestrator a “hell of an entrance”.
“I said, ‘Well, why don’t you fly me in?’ ” Schimmel says, adding: “I’d never flown before — and I have a fear of heights.”
He tried to find out whether anyone had ever conducted an orchestra while flying.
“There are flying musicians and there are flying singers — like [US pop singer] Pink — but no flying conductors.”
Soon after, Schimmel, 51, began training with Marco Vargas, Natalie Roberts and aerialist Orlando Vargas from circus and dance theatre production company SircuSynergy.
“Six months ago I would be up there freaking out, but last week I was like, ‘Why can’t we go higher?’ ” says Schimmel.
To prepare for the show, he had to change his workout routine in order to “lean down”, because aerialists are meant to be lean and long. Schimmel spent the first few weeks of training doing acrobatics “to become aware of my body”, before he began working in a harness.
For the first classes he was suspended about 3m in the air, half the height he will be at during his Flying Maestro performance.
Because of the space constraints
Even with a fear of heights, I’m always willing to push boundaries
of the venue (the show will take place at SircuSynergy’s studios in Kyalami, Midrand), Schimmel will only have a handful of musicians joining him on stage. “I’m excited because if it does work, it’s something that’s so unbelievably unique and there is probably no other conductor in the country who would be mad enough to do this.”
Working with him isn’t always a walk in the park. “I’m passionate, I’m stubborn, I have a temper . . . I think people who are creative and know what they want are expressive and explosive.”
Schimmel is also straightforward about his private self.
“I’m openly HIV-positive. I have been for 18 years. I am somebody who is very passionate about what I do, passionate about life, and being so open about being HIV-positive is part of my own way of being available to people who can’t be open about it.”
Did the Flying Maestro come about because, after 30 years in theatre, Schimmel felt the need to explore something new?
Not necessarily, he says. “I’m always reinventing myself. There was a period where I was known as a theatre guy because all I did was musicals, and I wanted to break away from that.”
He did that by moving into writing, arranging, orchestration and recording, and he continues to explore new territory.
“Even with a fear of heights, I’m always willing to push boundaries. It doesn’t get more boundary-pushing than having had no dance training and no gymnast training and then suddenly doing this. In a lot of areas of my life I’ve always lived out of the comfort zone. You have to — because you don’t live otherwise.
“There are artists and musicians who tend to reach a certain level and then they coast. I’m not that guy. My personal ethos is that every time I do something, it’s got to be at the level it was or higher, which is a huge pressure to have on oneself — but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
‘The Aerialist Showcase’ takes place on June 24 and 25. Visit artofsynergy.co.za