After Kevin Sütterlin suddenly resigned from conducting the Concordia Orchestra last semester, the school needed to find a temporary replacement while they review new applicants. Foster Beyers, who taught at the school until 2016, was an obvious choice and says he was more than happy to come back.
A quiet conductor
Attendees at the Concordia homecoming concert this past weekend may have noticed an unusually reserved orchestra conductor.
In fact, interim Orchestra Director Foster Beyers didn’t say a single word during the performance. He had his students do the talking instead.
“The audience is there for the students, certainly not to hear me talk,” said Beyers, who previously conducted the Concordia Orchestra from 2011-2016.
In place of Beyers, Gray Gustafson, a double bass player, addressed the crowd.
Gustafson introduced Shastakovich’s Symphony No. 5, a piece written in response to scrutiny from the Soviet Union.
“In my senior year of high school, my orchestra experience was defined by an arrangement with Shostakovich String Quartet eight, which is still my favorite thing that I’ve ever played, and here I am now playing Shostakovich again as a senior. ” said Gustafson at the concert.
Beyers’ practice of letting students introduce music began after leaving Concordia in 2016 to conduct and teach at James Madison University in Virginia.
He argues it gives a greater opportunity for the audience to connect with the music through the students and keeps the spotlight on his musicians.
Now, Beyers works at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, living in Missouri with his wife, Yi Ping-Chen, who is also a conductor and works nearby at Missouri State University.
A Homecoming
When Beyers got the call asking if he could come back to Concordia for the year, he said yes, with one exception, he would need to be able to keep his conducting job in Missouri.
To accommodate Beyers, the orchestra’s rehearsal schedule was tweaked a bit so he can split his time between Minnesota and Missouri, flying back and forth every week.
“I’m becoming a very experienced traveler,” he said.
However, Beyers insists that the constant traveling is a small price to pay for getting to work at Concordia again.
In fact, he says his wife, Yi Ping-Chen is actually taking on the bigger burden.
“But I think my wife knew this was going to make me very happy, which it has. So, you know, I’m grateful that she’s making it work,” said Beyers.
Beyers said he finds himself drawn to the musical culture of Concordia, and sometimes wonders why he left in the first place.
“I feel like there are not many places quite like Concordia and I didn’t know that until I left,” he said. “I think everybody, regardless of whether you’re involved or not, is aware of music here, and it’s not like that in most other universities.”
