JoAnn Falletta. Photo by Steve J. Sherman.
In Monday’s (10/7) BBC Music Magazine (U.K.), Clive Paget writes, “JoAnn Falletta is no stranger to milestones, but even she accepts that 25 years as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is a big one. Such landmark anniversaries are rare, and see her welcomed into an elite pantheon of quarter-centenarians that includes Zubin Mehta at the Israel Philharmonic and Iván Fischer at the Budapest Festival Orchestra. But Falletta is many things besides. She’s a double Grammy Award winner, a prolific recording artist with an omnivorously eclectic repertoire, and a tireless evangelist for community engagement…. ‘It’s all gone very fast,’ JoAnn Falletta admits of her time in Buffalo, New York State’s second largest city … ‘We’ve been through difficult times, like the pandemic, but the relationship has grown stronger. For me, it has created an orchestra with a personality, but one that has become more independent and more exuberant.’… Falletta is … thoughtful, generous with her time and quietly modest about her achievements…. ‘I feel I’ve learned a lot but there’s a lot more to learn,’ she says with typical humility. ‘Musicians are your teachers. Being in the middle of a great orchestra you learn a lot, very fast, every single day.’ ”
