A classical music conductor stands on a podium, directing an orchestra to change tempo or volume, giving shape, texture and dynamic to the performance. He or she is the center of the musical universe during the performance, using exacting knowledge of the composition to inspire emotions and images in the minds of audience members.
An electronic music DJ in a club does the same thing. But instead of a baton, they use technology to take pieces of music and layer them on top of each other to create huge soundscapes and irresistible rhythms that command the audience to dance.
Even though Bangor Symphony Orchestra music director Lucas Richman and his son, budding DJ and 16-year-old Bangor High School junior Max Richman, make music that on the surface couldn’t possibly sound more different, there are as many similarities as there are differences in the way the two approach their craft.
“In a sense, it’s all about trying to move the people in the audience,” said Lucas Richman, who this Sunday, Oct. 12, will conduct the season-opening concert for the BSO’s 119th season, featuring a Latin-themed slate of music. “Those big swells and those dynamics — those are all present in classical music. Though certainly [electronic dance music] is considerably louder.”
Starting at an early age, father taught son about all sorts of music — classical, of course, along with jazz and folk. By the time he was in his pre-teen years, however, Max Richman already moved on to heavy metal and began exploring electronic music a few years after that.
“Growing up in a house filled with music, I definitely now have an appreciation of a very wide variety of genres. I remember ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ affecting me in a really big way when I was little,” the younger Richman said. “So when I make music, I want it to have a big impact on people. I want it to be really strong and loud and heavy. I like music that moves people.”
Lucas Richman accompanied his son to a concert in Portland this past summer, featuring Skrillex, a hugely popular artist in electronic dance music, or EDM. While Max Richman was moving with the ecstatic, undulating crowd of mostly teenage and young adult EDM fans, Lucas Richman was processing the intense, bass-heavy music and the reaction it had on its fans.
“I was struck by how he was able to get this crowd to move, en masse, as one ensemble. It was really incredible,” the elder Richman said. “It makes me wonder how we can bring EDM to the concert hall. I don’t see why an orchestra can’t try to play it.”
Max Richman has been composing electronic music under the moniker Zomi for the past few years — first in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Lucas, his wife, Debbie, and Max lived until this summer, when they moved full time to Bangor. He has a small studio set up in his basement bedroom, where he’ll spend hours working on songs. Some of his music can be heard on his Soundcloud page, soundcloud.com/zomiofficial. He cites artists like the aforementioned Skrillex and dubstep producer Excision as influences, though his trip to China this summer also had an impact on the music he makes.
“I’m not just influenced by other musicians. Sometimes it’s just things and places and ideas that inspire me,” Max said. “Some of my music is meant to make you dance, but not all of it.”
Lucas Richman is understandably proud of his son. Despite the fact Max’s father lives and breathes classical music as a conductor and a composer, he’s a voracious consumer of music of all sorts and regularly brings elements of all sort of genres into the music he writes.
“I think both EDM and classical music can be very cinematic. They can make you see things when you listen to it,” Richman said. “There’s a chemical reaction in the body. There’s an adrenaline rush. There’s something going on, whether it’s classical music, film music, jazz or the music Max loves. There’s no question that these vibrations are impacting us in a very powerful way.”
This weekend’s BSO concert illustrates perfectly the ways in which genres blend and barriers break down. Titled “Espana,” the concert features Spanish-inspired works and showcases renowned classical guitarist Ana Vidovic as soloist in Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez,” a world-famous piece that has been re-imagined by artists with as differing styles as Miles Davis and Paco de Lucia. Pieces by Bizet, Rimsky-Korsakov, de Falla and Chabrier also will be featured in the slate of performances.
The concert is set for 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12, at the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine. It kicks off the BSO’s 119th season. Tickets are available by calling 581-1755.
