Matthew Heck
Hometown: Salisbury, CT
Year joined the BPO: 2009–10 season
Hobbies other than music: Most of my hobbies involve music in one way or another, for instance I have been DJing for about 12 years with my friend Ben Alschuler. We play house and classics at the Enormous Room in Central Square in Cambridge on the last Wednesday of every month for a party called Recreation. I also play drums in a few bands, and I headline a Prince cover band called The Game Blouses, that’s a fun side project. We sold–out Arlene’s Grocery in New York City a few months back. When I’m not playing or listening to music, however, I’m usually drinking a few beers with friends and/or cursing at the television while the Bruins are playing.
Earliest musical memory: I’d say my earliest musical memory is listening to The Cars on my brother’s Walkman when I was on the swing set as a toddler. I used to also listen to my family’s Dueling Banjos record as a kid. It was a 33 and at age 5 I thought speeding up the record to 45 RPM was the most hilarious thing in the world. I also wore out the grooves on my brother’s 1999 record by Prince. The first major classical music memory that I had was at Tanglewood. A friend of the family purchased tickets to bring me inside the shed for the first time (I usually ran around on the lawn with my family), and Seiji Ozawa was conducting Beethoven 5. I remember looking at the first violins and thinking to myself “that’s what I want to do.” So it’s kind of fitting that I work in the marketing office for the Boston Symphony now. That experience definitely changed my life. I’d have to credit Max Baillie, the son of Alexander one of our exciting soloists next year, for making me truly fall in love with the violin. Listening to Max practice in the dorm we shared in high school was a big inspiration. I remember vividly when Max asked to play the Bach Chaconne for me in one of the common rooms on the second floor, just to get some feedback. He played it from memory, as a 16-year-old, and it was stunningly beautiful. I was hooked.
What’s on your iPod: I have a lot of different stuff on there. Everything from Shostakovich quartets, Cage pieces for prepared piano, and old recitals by classic fiddle players like David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Joseph Szigeti, and Arthur Grumiaux, to early dance music and soul by folks like Walter Gibbons, Larry Levan, Nicky Siano, and ESG, and bands like The Pixies, The Replacements, and Talking Heads. I have a lot of chamber music. That’s always been some of the music that’s closest to my heart. Right now I can’t get enough of the Brahms chamber music, especially recordings by the Juilliard and Beaux Arts with Bernard Greenhouse and Walter Trampler.
Other than performing music, I’ve always thought it would be fun to be a: Wow, that’s a tough question! I think there are tons of interesting things to do out there. I mean, if I had any athletic talent I’d want to be a ballplayer or maybe play pro hockey, but I also love to teach or study sea turtles or be an astronaut or be a farmer. My dad was a pilot and my mom is a nature center instructor, so I think I have those tendencies, both to be an adventurer and a teacher.
Who is the one person from musical history (living or deceased) you’d like to have dinner with, and why? Another tough one. If I spoke Russian I would love to meet Shostakovich. Even if my questions about the relationship between his life and his music were skirted it would be fun to just watch him talk and make elaborate jokes. I bet I could get them talking about soccer.
Funniest concert experience: Well, I didn’t mention it before, but my experience playing in Ben’s Youth Philharmonic at NEC was extremely formative as well. Playing Shostakovich 5 on tour in Cuba and Mexico was the experience of a lifetime. One time we were playing a Pops concert in Mexico City, and we were about to launch into the last movement of Beethoven’s fifth Symphony. Ben decided at the last second to conduct… With no hands! After a bar or two when everyone stumbled into the piece, we settled down and played just fine. I don’t think I ever found out what possessed him to lead the orchestra with frantic head gestures that afternoon. Some things are best left a mystery. How fascinating!