Conductor JoAnn Falletta typically connects with audiences through the expressive wave of a baton. But music isn’t the only language spoken by the musical pioneer who led the Virginia Symphony from 1991 until 2020.
Her pencil is also a magic wand of sorts, and her precision with words distinguishes her most recent work, “Love Letters to Music.” The slim book contains 100 poems that chronicle her trailblazing career as the first female to lead a major American orchestra.
“Under the calloused fingers and the sinewy bows
and the steely embouchures beats the
heart of a poet
the imagination of the child
the dreamer in disguise.”
The 2025 edition adds 45 poems to the original published in 2004. That one was produced by the Virginia Symphony, which gave Falletta the title of Music Director Laureate. The updated book continues to explore the power and passion of music through Falletta’s perspective. She was appointed music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999, though she returns to Norfolk frequently to perform with the Virginia Symphony.
“I continued to write because I wasn’t really thinking of them, even in the beginning, as poems,” Falletta said. “I’ve always thought of them as a diary.”
Falletta wrote regularly as a youngster and realized early to savor the details of her experiences. She penciled the poems in a tiny notebook on lined paper as they came to her, attempting to “describe something of the indescribable.”
Falletta considers her poems love letters to the musicians who have been her compass and writes in the foreword, “Without words they have taught me everything that is worth knowing.”
At the urging of Rob Cross, executive director of the Virginia Arts Festival, she pursued publishing her poetry.
“Rob is the one who told me people would read these poems because they often wonder what a conductor is thinking,” Falletta said. “They would help them come closer to the music."
The poems offer insight into questions rarely asked: What does it feel like to be a conductor? Is a musician ever thinking about lunch while performing?
“We want to share what we do,” she said. “Our only reason for existing is wanting to share it." If people read the book and "make their way into a concert, I would be very happy.”
Her musings include a witty poem, “Where is Rob?” about the chronic multitasker whom Falletta often watched out of the corner of her eye during her time with the Virginia Symphony.
Cross, the Symphony’s principal percussionist, often laid down his cymbals during practice to tend to one of the 100 details that consumed his day.
“Where is Rob?
If his colleagues know, they are declining comment.
Inscrutable, they stare at their parts
ignoring my frantic glances.”
Under Falletta’s direction, the Symphony evolved into a nationally recognized ensemble that performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The poem “Saying Goodbye” is her farewell to the Symphony:
“And I remember mostly this:
that through them I stood
in the middle of miracles.”
In Buffalo, Falletta expanded the orchestra’s footprint and continues to champion female conductors, composers and musicians. Her poem “Kleinhans Music Hall, 4:30 PM” reflects the time after the musicians from the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra had left the venue following a rehearsal. Only one stage light burned, and Falletta sat alone inside observing:
“The fragrance of music has pervaded every inch
soaked through the wooden boards
permeated the tapestries
the very varnish crafted of ancient layers of music.”
Many of the poems draw attention to specific instruments or particular symphonies and concertos, with several focusing on the arts' significant value during a time when budget cuts threaten their future.
“We’re seeing people who have not had any exposure to the arts and art education, less in Virginia because I think they’ve always been determined to keep that,” Falletta said. “But in many places, young people have never had a chance to listen, to hear an orchestra, so they’re not coming to concerts.”
A feature-length documentary titled “Love Letters to Music” is in post-production and slated to be released this year.
The film, “is not a biography but a portrait,” said director and producer Brenda Feldstein. It includes a segment with Cross and traces Falletta leading the Buffalo orchestra through its 90th season.
Visit bpo.org for information about “Love Letters to Music.”