From five-year-old violinist to conductor for the Pope: Meet Cape Symphony's Australian guest

This weekend, the Cape Symphony visits the 'land down under' with the next in its "Passport" series.

The concert at Barnstable Performing Arts Center features Australian composers Percy Grainger and Peter Sculthorpe, a medley of Australian film music (including "The Symphonic Suite from The Fellowship of The Ring") and original music written by Barton for the didgeridoo, an Aboriginal Australian wind instrument made from hollow wood.

The trip to Australia includes Aboriginal art, performance, and culture. Guests are didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton and lauded Australian conductor Carolyn Watson.

Concerts are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1 and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 2 at Barnstable Performing Arts Center in Barnstable High School, 744 West Main St., Hyannis. Tickets, $30-$71, are available at https://capesymphony.org/passport-down-under.

In anticipation of Watson's taking the baton on Cape, she shared a bit about herself and her music in an email interview, which is excerpted here.

Watson grew up in a place called Wollongong, near Sydney, and started playing the violin at 5 years old.

I grew up in a place called Wollongong, about 1.5 hours south of Sydney in Australia. I started playing violin at age 5, and my younger brother - now a violinist with the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester - also started around that time when he was two or so. Music was very much a part of our lives growing up - weekly lessons and orchestra rehearsals, summer music camps and later, international tours with the Australian Youth Orchestra.

After high school, I went to study at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney where I gained a Bachelor of Music Education (Honours) degree, majoring in music education and violin performance. At that time, I also began working as a professional violinist where I played in the orchestra for the original Sydney productions of "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Miss Saigon." Following that, I went to Hungary where I spent two years studying at the Kodály Institute, after which time I moved to Dresden (Germany) where I studied and played violin, learned German and taught English.

She worked at Sydney Grammar School for nine years.

On moving back to Australia, I got a 'temporary' position teaching at Sydney Grammar School where I stayed for nine years, lol! That was a truly wonderful musical environment and as a result of that position, I found myself working with young instrumental and orchestral ensembles, an aspect which sparked my interest in learning more about conducting.

(She earned a master's degree in conducting at the Conservatorium in Sydney and a PhD — hence the doctor title — all the while thinking of herself as a violinist with a conducting hobby.)

Watson left Australia to study in Europe and work in opera houses.

I made what then felt like a very difficult decision to shift my energies from violin to conducting, and to leave my position at Sydney Grammar. I headed to Europe with far too much luggage and not much more than a dream to become a conductor. I spent a wonderful couple of years studying languages, doing master classes, observing rehearsals, interning and assisting in opera houses etc. before I came back to Australia. Thereafter was a couple of years spent between the two continents — working and earning a living in Australia, and returning to Europe for frequent and interesting projects as I was able.

She won young and emerging conductor prizes, but had trouble establishing her career.

I was fortunate to receive a number of professional development grants and awards from organizations including the Australian Music Foundation in London, Opera Foundation Australia, The Brian Stacey Trust, and a Churchill Fellowship, which resulted in a wonderful five or so month trip encompassing study in Germany and London, the Emmerich Kálmán International Operetta Conducting Competition in Hungary, and a month at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Following that, I returned to Australia and was very much like, OK well...what now?! I had by then won I think every prize available to young and/or emerging Australian conductors, but felt I was struggling with respect to establishing a conducting career in Australia. As I have learned along the way, to establish a career as a conductor is indeed quite challenging anywhere, arguably more so in Australia given the relatively limited number of opportunities.

Then she took a job as a conductor at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.

And so there I was, sitting at home feeling very down when I saw an online advertisement for a conductor of the Academy Orchestra at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. I knew from my time in the U.S. about Interlochen and when I read the position description, it seemed as though they wanted a hybrid of Lorin Maazel and a high school teacher and I thought to myself, hey - I think I could be that person! At the time I applied I was the Conductor in Residence at the Conservatorium High School in Sydney, and obviously had a number of years' teaching experience before pursuing conducting, and I had by then had some success as a professional conductor as well. Interlochen interviewed me twice, in the middle of the night Australian time before flying me over for an in-person interview and audition. I received a call a few weeks later saying I won the position and we worked through the visa paperwork and I think six or so weeks after that I moved to the U.S.

That was August 2013 and I wasn't sure how it would be, whether I would like it or if I would stay. Well, here we are some nine or so years later and I'm still here! I maintain a nice relationship with Interlochen where I return to conduct in summers, and have also been fortunate to enjoy opportunities leading Amarillo Opera, Austin Symphony, Catskill Symphony, Des Moines Metro Opera, Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Dallas Opera, Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, St. Joseph Symphony and the Traverse Symphony Orchestra. I am also currently in my second season as Music Director of the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra in Indiana and my first year as Director of Orchestras at the University of Illinois.

Differences in conducting in Australia vs. the U.S.

When I compare the two countries I think the thing that stands out is the sheer number and variety of conducting opportunities in the U.S. compared to Australia. Australia's population is much smaller and music/cultural life is centered largely around the capital cities in each state, something which is vastly different in the U.S. whereby small cities and communities throughout the country will often have high quality regional professional orchestras and/or opera companies.

The things of which Watson is most proud:

• Conducting for the Pope in 2008 on the occasion of his arrival in Sydney for World Youth Day

• Winning the position at Interlochen and establishing myself as a conductor in the United States

• Being a finalist for the Advance Awards in September 2021. These are Australian government awards recognizing expat Australians making a global impact. https://advance.org/profile/dr-carolyn-watson/

• The work I do with young and pre-professional musicians in Australia and throughout the U.S.

Guest conducting on Cape

The invitation came directly from Music Director of the Cape Symphony, Jung-Ho Pak who I know through our mutual association with Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, when I first worked when I came to the U.S.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Australian conductor has worldwide experience, including Interlochen