In 2021, when George Jackson explored interviewing to become the music director and conductor of the Amarillo Symphony, one of the first things he learned about was the orchestra’s majestic home, the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts. Now in his fourth season with the orchestra, Jackson helped plan the Symphony’s official celebration of the concert hall’s 20th anniversary, held in January. Jackson took time during a trip to his home country of England to reflect on the anniversary concert and what the Globe-News Center means to the city on a local and international level. (This interview has been edited and condensed.)
Chip Chandler: When did you first learn about the Globe-News Center, and what were your initial impressions when you first saw it?
George Jackson: I first learned about the Globe-News Center when I was actually researching the Amarillo Symphony … back in 2021 when the music director search started. And as part of my research, I looked into Amarillo and the demographics, and of course saw this amazing concert hall. And then my first trip to Amarillo, which was January 2022, when I first came and conducted the Symphony as part of the music director search. I remember waking up on a Sunday morning in Amarillo, and telling myself that I would walk to the concert hall. And I remember very clearly just sort of turning the corner off Polk Street and walking down Sixth Avenue toward the center and realizing just how incredible it looks seeing it in the skyline. And then, of course, the second impression, which I think is also the most poignant, is the idea of actually being in this place. There’s something quite magical about … seeing an empty concert hall because there’s much potential and you wonder what’s going to be the next performance.
CC: Tell me about your first concert experience in the hall.
GJ: For me, I think the important thing about the hall is the clarity of what you hear, first of all, from the podium.The thing that amazes me is how well balanced the orchestra sounds from the stage when you’re actually standing on the podium. You get a very nice balance of sound. That was one of the first things I experienced as a conductor. I think one of my favorite things about the Globe-News Center is actually a little bit like Amarillo as a town. It has the feeling of a big city, or a big concert hall, but it also has the intimacy and community of a smaller space or a smaller town.
CC: That’s a really great way to think about that.
GJ: I mean, actually, it’s the perfect concert hall for Amarillo, because it’s not too big and it’s not too small. One of the things that I love about the Globe-News Center is that even if you’re performing big symphonic music with hundreds of people on that stage, you always feel connected to everyone on stage and every single person in the audience. You feel close to them. And I know that a lot of musicians in the orchestra have commented in the same way. You never feel disconnected because of the space or feel you’re very far from the audience. It feels quite intimate.
CC: How does it compare with other venues in which you’ve worked?
GJ: I’ve been lucky enough to work in many different countries, all across Europe and also the United States. To me, the Globe-News Center feels like a happy region between all the different extremes. For example, I used to work as an assistant conductor at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and that’s a very dynamic acoustic. In fact, they have to put a curtain in the concert hall to dampen the sounds. I’ve also experienced in London, we do a lot of concerts in churches. And, it’s interesting because churches are designed for a very different space than necessarily for a concert. As a musician in the orchestra, you can really hide within the sound of the orchestra if the acoustic is resonant. What I love with the symphony is there’s a clarity of sound in the building that you don’t get in concert halls all over the world. That actually asks the musicians to play at a higher level because they know that they will be heard on that stage because of the clarity of sound.
CC: How do you think the GNC has impacted Amarillo’s reputation on the international scene?
GJ: Well, it’s definitely one of the things that I love to talk about when I travel, talking about Amarillo to other musicians and to other people across the world. One of the things I love to do with our guest artists is show them our concert hall before we start rehearsing, and there’s always a real sense of awe when they see that hall for the first time. I’m very proud to see that. Musicians and artists across the world, they talk, and one of the great conversations that I know a lot of people have is that Amarillo has one of the most incredible concert halls. That’s a positive message that goes out into the world, because actually, I think what lies behind the Globe-News Center is quite simply the fact that our community is very unique because they take music and arts, more widely, very, very seriously. It’s very clear that people absolutely love the arts and are willing to be part of it and to actually make something fit for the future. That’s a blessing.
CC: Talk about the 20th-anniversary concert. What was that weekend like?
GJ: JIJI, the guitarist, it was her first time and she absolutely loved it. I wanted to see something not necessarily too classical, because I wanted to remind everybody that the Globe-News Center is not just a classical music concert hall. It’s a community space. Then also we performed Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, which was the first time the symphony played a Bruckner symphony. People often say that his music is actually very architectural in style. It’s almost built with big blocks of harmony, big blocks of sound. So, in that sense, it was a celebration of the hall and this important event in our orchestral history. We also commissioned Gavin Higgins’ “Fanfare Americana,” specifically written to celebrate our hall. What’s exciting about that is shortly after our commission, an orchestra in London got in touch with us at the Amarillo Symphony to ask permission to take on the British premiere of that fanfare. It helps put the Globe-News Center on the map.
