Nathaniel has not spoken to me directly about his experience in Bucharest, but on the basis of what I have heard through Laura, my view is quite different. Writing down one’s experiences is always good, and transforming them to literature would be valuable, but it is my opinion that under no circumstances should Nathaniel engage in correspondence with Mr Axelrod or with anyone else about these events. The only consequence will be public humiliation and further emotional injury. I have to say that I consider entirely implausible the idea that correspondence might convert  Mr Axelrod to a supporter of Nathaniel’s ambitions. Conducting as a profession is a socially sanctioned exercise in narcissism. Conducting competitions are inherently abusive, and with the possible exception of the few individuals whom chance favors, choosing conducting as a career is a plan for continued frustration and unhappiness. Mr. Axelrod’s life, as he recounts  it in Wikipedia, would probably be the best Nathaniel could expect. Axelrod’s career, not Barenboim’s or Simon Rattle’s, and not to speak of Furtwaengler’s or von Karajan’s. 

Nathaniel has been trying to promote himself as a conductor for 8 years. His failure with the DuBois Orchestra was notable. It is a mistake to accept his interpretation that he was sabotaged: although musically successful, he was not able to lead the group. During the pandemic, when other young conductors found ways to use the Internet to promote themselves, he hid. It is my reluctant conclusion that his organizational and social shortcomings preclude success as a conductor. It doesn’t matter that Nathaniel is musically very talented: if he persists in trying to define himself as a conductor, he will be forced to accept failure and obscurity. As a trumpet player, he might well achieve substantial success, but his anxiety blocks him, and he is always making excuses to avoid trumpet playing opportunities. Many of his contemporaries have established themselves as performers, and a few as conductors. He would do the world the most good as a music teacher, whether at the elementary, secondary or university level. With luck, he might find a conducting opportunity like what Alfred Mann found in Bethlehem, although I can’t imagine that someone of his musical sophistication found it easy to conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the Lehigh. 

I will not tell Nathaniel what I think directly, because he can understand it only as an attack, and I ask that you not forward this message. I want to support him emotionally, but I cannot encourage him to pursue his conducting fantasies. 

Nathaniel and Sabine will not move anywhere until Sabine finishes law school.

On Mon, Jul 17, 2023 at 2:59 PM Ernst J Meyer <ernstmeyer@earthlink.net> wrote:

    Nathaniel came and we talked for about 20 minutes.  He described to me
    his experience with the conducting competition in Bucharest organized
    and directed by John Axelrod. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Axelrod
    I told Nathaniel that I interpreted the social violence with which he
    was rebuffed and humiliated by John Axelrod as conclusive evidence that
    he, Nathaniel, was a conductor much superior to Axelrod himself and that
    he, Nathaniel, had in fact won the competition. The issue is now, not
    who has won, but how Nathaniel should react to the trauma of his
    experience.  Certainly not by submitting to and validating Axelrod's
    spiritual brutality.  Axelrod himself seems very vulnerable to me. At
    age 57, he appears to have had appointments with diverse orchestras,
    engagements which were only transient, and none of which he was able to
    solemnize.  His stint at Bucharest is less than one year old.

    My advice to Nathaniel is

    a) that he begin by drafting with or without my assistance detailed and
    extensive memoranda describing and analysing his experiences in
    Bucharest. Nathaniel might then use these memoranda:

    b) as basis for further correspondence with John Axelrod who, one must
    assume is trapped in a spiritual predicament of his own, a predicament
    from which Axelrod might hypothetically try to escape by promoting
    Nathaniel's career. Remember that Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “A
    foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little
    statesmen and philosophers and divines." Thus Nathaniel might give John
    Axelrod the opportunity to demonstrate the quality of his, Axelrod's
    mind, by providing Nathaniel with pertinent and appropriate recommendations.

    c) If John Axelrod failed to provide Nathaniel with the requested
    recommendations, then Nathaniel has the option of adopting the style of
    Albert Einstein whose motto was: Es lebe die Unverfrorenheit!  (Long
    live impertinence!) by forwarding copies of his correspondence with
    Axelrod to any or all of the musical institutions with which Axelrod had
    been associated and from which he had separated.  One of them might then
    avail itself of Nathaniel's help in recovering from the Post Traumatic
    Distress Syndrome that ensued from its association with Axelrod.

    d) Nathaniel might make the memoranda cited in a) the basis of
    d1) further literary composition, such as essay, elegy, ballad, story,
    novel, play, comedy, farce, tragedy
    d2) musical composition, such as sonata, symphony,
    d3) operetta or opera. I would suggest considering as prototype
    Hofmannsthal-Strauß Ariadne of Naxos where a lengthy prologue tells the
    back-stage shenanigans which occur before the curtain rises.

    My concern about b) and c) is that, if sucessful, Nathaniel and Sabine
    might move to a city far away from Boston where we could not give them
    the same support as if they had continued to live in Belmont.

-- 
Klemens Meyer KlemensBMeyer@gmail.com Mobile 617-549-5539