BACK OF THE BOOK
PASHions
PASHions will highlight what ASH Clinical News readers
do creatively outside of practice. If you have a creative
skill in the arts you’d like to share with ACN, we invite
you to submit your work. Whether it’s photography,
essays, poetry, or paintings, we want to provide an
outlet for creative pursuits. Please send your submission
to [email protected].
If you’ve attended the the general session room at the
ASH annual meeting in the past eight years or so, you’ve
likely heard the musical interludes as the audience takes
their seats or as speakers take the stage – setting just the
right mood for the science being discussed. Ever wonder who
selects that music? In this edition of PASHions, ACN speaks
with the man behind the music: Armand Keating, MD.
Dr. Keating at
the controls.
Behind the Music:
Armand Keating
The 2014 Annual
Meeting Partial
Playlist
Ham-Wasserman Lecture
before: Adagio from Grieg Piano
Concerto in A minor; Leif Ove
Andsnes/Berlin Phil.
after: Divertimento by Rolf
Lovland; Secret Garden
ASH/EHA Symposium
before: Rondo from Beethoven
Triple Concerto in C major;
Collegium Areum
after: Overture#4 William
Boyce; Cantilena/Adrian Shepherd
E. Donnall Thomas Lecture
before: Larghetto from Mozart
Piano Concerto #24; Ivan
Moravec/Neville Marriner
after: Torelli Trumpet Concerto
in D; Alison Balsom
Ernest Beutler Lecture
before: Bach Keyboard Concerto
#7 in G; Angela Hewitt/South
Australian Chamber Orchestra
after: Code Name Vivaldi;
Piano Guys
ASHClinicalNews.org
How did you first get involved with choosing the music
for the ASH annual meeting?
This started when I was secretary of ASH in 2008. One
of the responsibilities of the secretary is to oversee a
number of aspects of the annual meeting – the abstracts,
meeting rooms and those sorts of issues. I thought that
it could include the music, because there was a little bit of
a gap there.
I started doing it and found that it was a lot of fun,
and so I just kept doing it! It has been an enjoyable
interlude.
Have you always been interested in music?
Absolutely, music has always been very important to
me – although I do not play an instrument. I remember as a kid, when I was probably about six years old, I
would put a record on the player or turn on the radio,
stand up on a chair, and conduct the music. So, getting
to relive that by working on the annual meeting music
has been great.
How has the process changed since you started?
Well, in the old days, I would bring a whole stack of
CDs with me, identifying which track should be used
at which point, and so on. Now, of course, everything
happens at the touch of a button. I can simply send
an email with the track listing, and everything is
available online.
What is your process for selecting the music? Do you
have “themes” in mind when you make your decisions?
Over the years, I have learned some general principles about
“scoring” the sessions. When I’m planning the music, the
idea is for the music to not be intrusive. People will be walking in and chatting, so – with that in mind – I exclude vocal
music because it can be distracting. I focus on instrumental
pieces, but there are caveats there, as well. For instance,
violin music does not work well in a big hall, whereas horn,
trumpet, piano, and orchestral music can carry very nicely.
On the other hand, the music has to capture people’s
interest – particularly the interest of those who are just
sitting in the audience waiting for the session to start!
So, what I don’t want is background music.
The approach I’ve taken for exit music is a little different. As people are leaving the hall, I don’t think the
requirements need to be quite so stringent; it can be
more celebratory.
I choose exclusively classical music, but I do try to
tailor the music to the particular event. For the awards
presentation, for instance, I’ll choose pieces with trumpets or horns to try to keep it reasonably forward-looking
– no elegies. It is a delicate balance, because while there
is beautiful music that is kind of sad, I don’t think the
audience – or the presenters, for that matter – want to
hear that. I think you want something that’s reasonably
upbeat. For that reason, I’ve focused on music from the
Baroque and Classical era, but not always. ●
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