The Verde Valley recently won the equivalent of the music lottery when David Cripps was appointed director of the Verde Valley Sinfonietta.
He will begin rehearsals Thursday, Oct. 23, followed by six concerts in Sedona and Cottonwood, where it is unlikely that local symphony-goers will ever feel the same about music.
Cripps was born in Gloucester, one of England’s cathedral cities, where, as a child, he heard the great orchestras of the world playing.
By Susan Johnson
Larson Newspapers
The Verde Valley recently won the equivalent of the music lottery when David Cripps was appointed director of the Verde Valley Sinfonietta.
He will begin rehearsals Thursday, Oct. 23, followed by six concerts in Sedona and Cottonwood, where it is unlikely that local symphony-goers will ever feel the same about music.
Cripps was born in Gloucester, one of England’s cathedral cities, where, as a child, he heard the great orchestras of the world playing.
Although he was not born to a musical family, he was constantly exposed to music at school and in church where he sang in the choir for the Church of England.
A musical savant, his earliest memories are of being able to read music and to hear it playing in his mind; to hear snippets lasting only five or six seconds and knowing immediately the composition and who wrote it.
At 11 years old, he had to choose which high school he wanted to attend. He opted for the one with the best orchestra, and took on the violin.
The strings were not a stunning success, according to Cripps.
However, three years later, the school’s music director said there was a French horn available, asking for volunteers while warning it was considered the most difficult to master.
Cripps’ hand went up.
When asked why he volunteered, he told the director, “I’ll do anything to stop playing the violin.”
While the school had the tangible asset of the horn, it did not have an accompanying instructor nor anything else of use to a student except a textbook and an LP record by Dennis Brain, considered by many to have been the definitive French horn player of all time.
After listening to one concerto, Cripps said he fell instantly in love.
“From that moment, my life began,” Cripps said.
Left to learn on his own, three years later he made his debut, playing a solo from Mozart’s Horn Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall in London in front of the Queen Mother.
“Overnight, there appeared reviews in all the national newspapers,” Cripps said. “My family and the city were incredibly proud.”
After that performance, he was given a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where his formal education in the art would finally begin, leading ultimately to the consummation of his desire to play principal horn for the London Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for 10 years.
Although he categorizes as myth the statement that the French horn is the most difficult to master, he will admit that it is the most difficult brass.
“In addition, all the major composers love the sound of it and include it as much as they can,” Cripps said. “The horn has far more exposure than other instruments and if you make a mistake, everyone knows it.”
The rest of his resume takes one into rarefied realms, describing his performances playing under the batons of Andre Previn, Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Karl Bohm, and Rafael Kubelick.
Cripps also shared his skills with others as professor of horn at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, senior horn tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music, visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music, and horn instructor and director of orchestras at Northern Arizona University.
Operating at the other end of the baton is not new to him either, having performed as guest conductor for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in England, for the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada, and as resident conductor for the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra.
The Verde Valley seems a world away from the life he’s lived so far, but Cripps is not worried about being homesick for London or its musical milieu.
“I have a wonderful recall; hearing one song can bring back 100 memories,” Cripps said.
Most of the time, when he’s listening to a classical CD, it turns out that he’s listening to himself — recorded during performances of the London Symphony, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Halle Orchestra.
In his new position, he is setting high goals for himself and his musicians.
“We have, potentially, a very good symphony,” Cripps said. “My goal is to raise the standard.”
One of the things he particularly enjoys is providing audiences with a sense of the history of a composition, what to listen for and how to listen so that they understand a little more of what’s going on.
While big romantic pieces by Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler are among the first that he’d choose from his own CD rack, he also likes popular pieces by John Williams.
“Williams is a very good conductor and also very likeable,” Cripps said.
Although his principal duties will be as conductor, he has no intention of giving up the horn and will play Horn Concerto No.1 by Richard Strauss during the February performance.
“I have a huge enthusiasm for music and if I can communicate even 10 percent of what I’m feeling, then the audience is getting a lot,” Cripps said. “And if people walk out of a concert feeling better, that’s what does it for me.”
Three concerts will be given in Sedona at the Rock of Ages Lutheran Church and three in Cottonwood at Mt. View Methodist Church, during the months of November, February and April, with specific dates to be announced soon.
The Verde Valley Sinfonietta can be reached at 282-3066.
Susan Johnson can be reached at 282-7795, Ext. 129 or e-mail sjohnson@larsonnewspapers.com
