Adventures of a Modern Maestro (Orchestra Conductor)

A phone call, a private jet, and a destination so secret no one would say it out loud—then a palatial compound, an accidental insult to a billionaire, forced vodka shots, a stage sinking into a swimming pool, and Andrea Bocelli arriving by helicopter. That’s only one chapter in conductor Robert Emery’s wildly unconventional career, and somehow it’s not even the most meaningful part.

We start by demystifying what a conductor really does. Robert frames the role like a film director: shaping pace, colour, tension, and emotion so a hundred musicians move as one story. From Beethoven to Star Wars, he shows how interpretation turns notes on a page into something you feel in your bones. Then we trace his audacious origin story—from playing Top of the Pops by ear at seven to phoning a major orchestra as a teenager and producing a week of concerts to fund his degree. The takeaway is equal parts craft and courage: talent matters, but so do relationships, logistics, and the will to ask for the gig.

The tone shifts from comic to cathartic when Robert recounts conducting in Japan after Fukushima. As a tribute began, the entire audience stood and wept—sobs echoing through the hall. Holding the music steady while hundreds grieved clarified what he believes: music isn’t just entertainment; it is medicine for the nervous system and a language for collective emotion. That belief now fuels his orchestral meditation work, blending lush strings and gentle harmonies with carefully chosen frequencies to support calm, focus, and release. Whether you love classical music or think it isn’t “for you,” Robert’s mission is to make the door wider—sometimes with a tux, sometimes with a lightsaber.

Listen for a rare mix of backstage chaos, practical career advice, and a fresh case for why orchestral music still matters. If the story moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—your support helps us bring more extraordinary guests to your queue.

Official Website: 

https://robertemery.com/ 

https://orchestralmeditations.com/

The Emery Foundation 

https://teds-list.com/

Robert’s Socials: 

https://www.instagram.com/robertemeryofficial/ 

https://web.facebook.com/robertemeryofficial/?_rdc=1&_rdr#

https://www.youtube.com/robertemeryofficial

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertemeryofficial

More Info: 

https://noordinarymonday.com/

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Transcript

Cold Open: Secret Jet Invite

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So picture this. I'm sitting at my desk one day and my phone rings and she says, Are you free next week to go away for 72 hours? She said, I can't tell you where you're going to go for security reasons. So all I knew is I had to go to a private airport to get a private jet somewhere, and I didn't know where to, or who with what for.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

This isn't the opening of a spy thriller. Yeah. Believe it or not, it's the life of an orchestra conductor. Well, at least it is for this orchestra conductor.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Then I walk into the compound and in walks this billionaire. And we have a special guest which will be um uh Andrea Bacelli. He will just arrive by helicopter in in a few hours' time.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

And yet somehow this story gets even stranger.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

This is just the most bizarre story of my life.

Host Thanks And Housekeeping

Meet Conductor Robert Emery

SPEAKER_00 1:15

We're going to explore how they got there, what it's really like behind the scenes, and then I'll ask them to relive the single most unforgettable story of their career. Now, before we dive in, just a very quick announcement, I just wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you for all of the amazing feedback which you've been sending to Hello at Noordinarymonday.com and also on our socials. I've had some lovely, lovely messages about last week's episode in particular with Brad Bieler and his career as a Secret Service agent. People really loved his insights into how we can be better communicators. So I hope you had a chance to check that one out. Um but as always, stick around at the end of this episode so you can get a teaser for what's going to come up in next week's episode. Right. Today I'm speaking with Robert Emery, an orchestra conductor, former child prodigy on the piano, and a man on a crusade to shake classical music loose from its stiff reputation, making it vibrant, welcoming, and genuinely entertaining for everyone. He's someone who can shift effortlessly from performing classics like Beethoven to then walking on stage as Darth Vader to conduct some John Williams. And yet, for all of the artistry and discipline that his career demands, it has also delivered some of the most surreal moments you could imagine, including the vodka-fueled secret location story you heard in the cold open, complete with sinking stages, questionable local delicacies, and a world-famous tenor that arrived by helicopter. But beyond the madness and the mishaps, Robert has an extraordinary insight into the raw emotional power of music, how it can lift audiences to their feet, or reduce entire concert halls to tears. You're listening to No Ordinary Monday? Let's get into the show. Robert, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today, man?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Very good, thanks, Chris. Uh, thanks for having me on.

What A Conductor Actually Does

SPEAKER_00 3:13

No worries, an absolute pleasure to to speak to someone who I think kind of has a job in the similar band as mine, where you people don't go, oh, I can do that job. It's one of those jobs that you've got I know I know people do that, but when you're at school, it's kind of hard to imagine. You know, I was, you know, documentary filmmaking was never on the radar for me. But it's really interesting to and that's exactly the reason I love this podcast, is I get to speak to folks that have these incredible jobs. And uh and yeah, it's just uh I mean, do you feel the same? It's one of those pinch me moments when you're getting up on stage.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Yeah, well, I I guess so, but uh the the strange thing about me is it's all I've ever done, it's all I've ever known. So, you know, I started playing music when I was seven years old, and by about the age of ten, I knew that's what I wanted to do as a job. And so at the age of twelve, I started earning money from from playing music and and touring and performing. Um it's all I've ever done, it's all I've ever known. So for me, it's not an unusual thing, it's not strange. Uh the the only thing I as I get older, uh I realise I'm really lucky to be able to make money out of essentially my hobby um and the love of my life. Um excluding my dear darling wife and my wonderfully, wonderfully uh calm children, of course. Um but but also it comes with crazy stories and crazy things happen to me uh and stuff that people would go, really? Did that actually happen? Um and that is it that is part of uh leading a really quite an odd life uh as to what what I what I lead. So um but it does make it a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

We're gonna we're gonna be jumping into all those stories, and uh I really can't wait. I mean I wanted to start just on somewhere I mean looking into before like preparing for this interview and stuff, like your social media is packed. It's amazing. Like you've got so much stuff on Instagram and YouTube, and as someone I'm kind of like moving into this podcasting space, I haven't to be a little bit more like out there and stuff. And I know it's it's one of those things that um it's like hard work sometimes, but you seem to do it so effortlessly. Um and I wondered, like, is it is it hard work for you or is it like a joy? And is it I guess the reason for it? Is it more just to share what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Do you want the honest answer?

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Okay, go for it.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

The honest answer is I hate social media. I I really I really detest it. Um I I I it's people have no idea how much effort and time uh it's not complicated to do, but how much effort and time you have to put into um to to to do all these social media posts and uh these influencers, uh you know, you you see them and you think, oh god, they've got the easiest job in the world. And to some extent they do, it's not a complicated job in the slightest, but it does take a huge amount of effort and a huge amount of time. And if I could get away with not doing it, uh I would absolutely love uh to to do that. Um I I don't use social media at all on a personal level. I I never go onto it and think, oh, I wonder what my friends are making for their dinner tonight. I'm gonna go and look on Facebook. Um yeah, I I think it's a horrible, horrible invention. And if it disappeared overnight, I think the world would be a better place for it, but it won't, and therefore I have to be on it. So I have to make the best of what I I can do, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Um I'm right with it with you. It's one of those, it's the tool that that helps you break through the noise sadly these days, but I I do have to say that you do it with an effortless sort of demeanour, and you look like it's not hard at all. So congrats on that.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Thank you. I I guess that's the worst compliment you're gonna give me as well. But I but I'll take it. I'm a I'm an artiste, I'm a sucker for compliments, so bring it on.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Well, I I wanted I want to start um just at the very top level, you know. I guess um it's even a question I probably don't know the full answer to, and maybe a lot of people listening to this might not know the full answer to, but kind of just walk us through like what a conductor is, what how does it work, why are you there? Um I guess in some ways I uh in preparing for this, I'm thinking like, is a conductor maybe like uh you know, in a in a way like a movie director would be like they'd have a script, and all the actors have a script and they know the lines, but the director is the one that helps them to fill in the gaps or interpret it. Like just walk us through walk us through the job a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

That's a that's a really great analogy, actually, and and nobody's ever said that to me before. Um and that is that's that's that's superb. It's it really is as simple as that. Um you know, you you can have a hundred actors on set and they all have the same script. They all know supposedly what they're supposed to be doing, but unless there's one person who is fundamentally responsible for how it looks, how it sounds, how it feels, um uh is it manic, is it calm, is it rushed, is it passionate, is it quiet, is it loud, is it scary, um, is it romantic? And and all those things apply to film, but they also apply to music because uh you can play uh a piece of music in uh an infinite number of different ways. Um and essentially that music on the on the page is just a set of instructions of what note to play, when, and roughly how, um, but ultimately it's left down to the down to the players themselves to to c create that performance. And and for stuff that is uber famous, the musicians fundamentally know how to do it already. Um and you as a conductor y you know you you don't have the hardest job in the world to do. So I don't know, if you're playing something like um the theme from Star Wars by John Williams, everybody knows how that's supposed to sound. Uh any decent musician uh will have played it you know hundreds of times and will also know how it's supposed to sound, and so predominantly you're there as a as a person just to tie everybody together, um, because the musicians tend to do 99% of the work, and you're there just to direct them to make sure that the whole orchestra are moving as one. Um when you're rehearsing uh a new piece or or a piece that the musicians don't know, um that's where the conductor really starts to become something more than just somebody who is keeping time for the players. Because that's where uh the conductor can really carve how that music sounds. So John Williams, the composer, he himself conducted the sessions at the um at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra for Star Wars. And it was him on that day in 1976, I think it was, where he chose how the theme from Star Wars should sound. And and he crafted that. He would say, you know, the trombones, you're not playing that tune loud enough, it needs to be louder, and it needs to be more epic, or it needs to be harder sounding, um, or or violins, you're trying to take the center stage here, and you're not important, back off. We don't need to hear you yet. Whatever it might be, he was the person as the conductor and also the composer um to to carve that sound, and then that sound is now imprinted in our minds forevermore. Um, and so as a conductor, when it's a new piece of music, your job becomes infinitely harder and and and more interesting because you get to to carve that sound world. Um but fundamentally it's like uh I wave a stick around for a living. It's a bit of a strange thing to do waving a piece of wood, but the that's just a bit of a tool. Some conductors don't use a baton, some do, I do. Um there is no right or wrong, it's just whatever is personal preference. And fundamentally, we're there to keep time for everybody, to tell everybody when to start playing, when to stop playing, how fast to play. But that is just the fundamental foundation. On top of that, then is you directing the the sound to create um the emotion of what you want and what you think the audience is going to respond to, and that's really the fundamental job of a conductor. Interesting.

Making Classical Music Accessible

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, um, and what I love is speaking about batons, um, what I love on your social media is that you know you expect uh conductors to be, you know, in the penguin suit or well dressed and and whatnot, and you are for a lot of the time. But that baton might sometimes be swapped out for a lightsaber, or it might be swapped out you might walk out in a Darth Vader costume, you might walk out as a pirate. Um I mean just tell me a little bit about where did that come from and and why did you sort of start start this sort of performative side of things?

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah, so look, f fundamentally at heart, I I'm a classical musician. I went to the Royal College of Music to study classical piano, actually. And I uh when I was younger, I wanted to be a concert pianist. I wanted to tour the world playing Beethoven or Rachmaninoff or Bach and actually not so much Bach because I still don't understand it, but that's by the by. Um and I I I trained as that classical musician, and we all know that classical music is scary, and we know that it's elitist, and we know that it's very formal, and we know that it's complicated. Well, this is the thing it's not scary, it doesn't have to be elitist, it definitely doesn't have to be formal, and it and it it doesn't necessarily need to be complicated, and I'm a passionate believer in trying to in my own way tell the world that classical music has been around for hundreds of years, it is wonderful, all the popular commercial music that you know and love today is rooted in classical music without any exception. And without the Bach's, the Beethoven, the Mozart, the the Rachmaninoff, all of those people, without their music, you would not have the Beatles or Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift or Foo Fighters. Um it just is a fact, it's it's an undeniable fact that uh that is the case. And I'm really um frustrated uh with the industry, with the classical music industry, that they don't do more to try and make uh classical music and orchestral music more accessible and more understandable and less scary. And so one of the things that uh I said I would do since since I was really, I don't know, 10, 11 years old, is try and find my own way to make it more accessible and more interesting. So when I was, I don't know, 12 or 13, I was doing a concert, and I like speaking to an audience. Um I'm not one of these conductors who will walk on stage, conduct the piece of music and disappear off. I like talking to an audience, I like trying to break down the barrier that is between the stage and the audience, and I like talking to them about the music, about the composer, about interesting reasons why they compose the music. And so at that point, I decided uh I would do unusual things on stage to try and make uh classical music and music in general with an orchestra more accessible. And so if that means when I'm presenting a concert of uh John Williams uh and Hanna Zimmer music, if that means I go on stage dressed as Darth Vader or or Jack Sparrow uh or or I conduct with a lightsaber, uh if that means that one person in the audience is enjoying that music a little bit more and will buy another ticket in the future to go to a concert, it's worth it.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Yeah, I mean I I c I couldn't agree more. I mean, the thing that's interesting with with all this, I love to get in into people's origin stories, you know. And you mentioned a little bit at the top there about you know you started when you're a child and you kind of knew this was my trajectory, but you know just take us through that sort of that inception point. Like you uh were you pushed, you know, encouraged in music by your parents from a young age, as a lot of kids are. Did you just take to it? I mean, it sounds like you took to it and then it just snowballed into this incredible thing. But just walk us through sort of your your origin story to where you are now.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

It started with a uh a show, a a BBC television show called Top of the Pops. Oh yeah. Do you remember Top of the Pops?

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, I'm in that age bracket. I don't know if it still exists.

Origin Story And Early Talent

SPEAKER_01 16:02

I uh I don't think it does. Um, but you know, that was like back back in the day where you had the chart um uh uh every week and you wanted to know who was number one in the chart. And this live television show from BBC TV Centre in London went across the nation and everybody would sit there wondering who was going to be the number one this week, and it was such a big deal. And I used to listen and watch that with my family, and when there was a a song that I liked that hit number one, I would then go to the family piano, that was my gr grandmother's piano, and that was in in our house, and I would go and somehow I would play the piece of music that I heard on the TV. Now I hadn't had any um training, no lessons, I just knew how to do that somehow. How old were you? Uh seven.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

And um at that point my parents said, okay, we need to give him piano lessons. Um and and then really quickly, by the age of ten, I'd done grade eight, um, which is the top grade that you can do um from an examination point of view before you go into things like diplomas. Um and so I just sort of I raced through it. Um in terms of being pushy as a parent, my my I hated practice. I still do. I I the I the irony about um me as a as a musician is I I kind of I really dislike playing the piano which is a very strange thing to say considering I'm a pianist and a conductor. Um but I really disliked practice. I loved performing. Um but the getting to the bit where I can play well enough to practice I really disliked. Um so my parents had to push me very hard and I um and I didn't like that. But I was also lazy, um inherently lazy. And one of the reasons is because I could kind of just do it at the start, so I didn't need to practice that much. And that gave me a uh a slight cocky, arrogant um uh little nasty boy syndrome, which I look back on and I go, go, you're a horrible little What's it? Um but um and I I see it in my son now, Teddy, who is ten. It's so difficult. Uh you know, I had a fantastic argument with him this morning because he was trying to learn his D minor scale on the violin. Um he played it once and he played it just about okay-ish. And then he was like, job done. I was like, no, son, job is not done. You have to play it five times in a row, perfect. Then you know you can play it, then job is done. He's like, Oh, but do I have to? I said, Yes, you do. He said, Yeah, but I played it okay. Yes, and yeah, but that was a fluke, Teddy. You know, if you play it to me again five times in a row, that's perfect, then it's no longer a fluke. That is life. It doesn't matter if you're applying that to violin or learning your French for your examination, or or or you're learning computer coding, it's the same principle in life that you have to to just accept uh that's how you learn things. And we have this spectacular argument. Um and uh which I think I probably uh in my head I'm like, yeah, I won that, but I don't think it changed his mind in the slightest.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Do you do you ever win an argument with a ten-year-old? I I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Well, do you ever win an argument anyway? I don't know. Yeah, that's true.

Teen Entrepreneur Conductor

SPEAKER_00 19:37

I don't I don't very often I I do I do feel sorry for Teddy having uh you know a professional orchestra conductor as a father teaching him music and going, I I think from my professional opinion, that wasn't good. Or that was good. There was a there was a story, just going back to you being a sort of tenacious kid in this sort of um environment, there's a story that you I told on something else with that you were sixteen and that's sort of first time that you had gone and you're in the Birmingham uh you went to the Birmingham Orchestra to try and get them to play and you wanted to conduct. Was this the first time you'd conducted something? Um or or a paid game?

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yeah, I basically I I I've got a place at the Royal College of Music in London. And my parents who I don't come from a wealthy family, my parents said um that's great, but you you're gonna have to find a way to fund that yourself. You you're gonna probably need 15, 20 grand a year to live and survive in London and play pay your tuition fees. Um four-year course, you need to earn, you know, roughly 80,000 um over the next four years. And I just thought, well, I I don't want to go and work in a bar or something, nothing wrong with that, but I just I want to earn money out of my my hobby, out of my job. Um, so I thought the easiest way um of quite frankly being a cheeky little shit is uh is asking uh a symphony orchestra if I can hire them but not pay for their services. And then I decided I didn't want to hire in a conductor um because that would cost money and I should do that myself. Um so I thought it can't be that hard waving a stick around. So I persuaded the Birmingham Philomonic to to let me use them for a week, um, and then I persuaded a venue to let me have the venue free of charge for a week, and then I conducted a series of concerts that week, and I earned enough money to get me through my entire college degree um from that week's worth of performances, uh, and that was when I was 17. Um, and so of course I liked that, and I thought this is great. I like producing my own uh my own work because I I I get paid as a performer and I earn uh a small fortune um uh you know producing these concerts. Well, of course, it doesn't quite work out like that in the real world, um, because as soon as you start having to pay for your orchestra and pay for your venue and pay for your lighting and everything else, it's very difficult then to make money. Um uh but but yeah, fundamentally that's how I started. And I didn't have any training, I just figured it out really.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Same as you learning piano, I guess, back in the day, to sort of just throw yourself into it. But I I I I'm surprised that you just called up the orchestra and went, hey, I mean, this is not a small amateur orchestra, this is like you know, the Birmingham Orchestra and said, Hey, yeah, do it for free.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

But you can the the the the funny thing about um humans is that we are much more pliable, flexible, uh than what we realise. And when you are a child, you have the ability to use your your youth, your cheekiness, and adults then look at that and they have a slight smile on their face, and they're like, Yeah, fine, you know, yeah. If you're a 45-year-old man, then then I I would not be going for this, but you're a young kid, I I like your attitude, let's do it. But the funny thing is you you you think as an adult, you lose that ability to be that cheeky chappy when you're older, uh, but it's not the case. You can still achieve all the the the things that you need to achieve. Um you just have to have the ultimate confidence to do it.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah, just be charming and you know, be confident and people kind of go with the flow, don't they? Uh it's interesting. Um on this uh show I always ask guests to come on and and share sort of like uh you know the most significant um experience of their career, you know, one that really stands out um above and then sort of relive that for us. And I I can imagine you've got loads, but we chatted before we start recording about the one you got, and I'm so excited to to hear the full version of this because it's bonkers.

The Billionaire Birthday Saga

SPEAKER_01 24:05

It is a bit bonkers. So you want to hear it? Oh, go for it. Give it give us give us all the dirty details. So picture this. I'm sitting at my desk one day and my phone rings, and there's an agent on the other end of the phone, and and she says, Are you free next week to go away for 72 hours? I said, Yeah, fine. Where where to? She said, I can't tell you. Said, excuse me. She said, I can't tell you where you're going to go for security reasons. I said, Okay, this sounds very strange. Fine. So w in that case, what am I going away for? I can't tell you, Robert. Okay, fine. What am I going to go and perform? She said, I can't tell you, Robert. I was like, this is very strange. I said, okay, well, what's the money? She went, that's entirely up to you. And as soon as she said that, I thought, well, this is brilliant. I don't care where in the world I have to go. So I'm going to say the most stupendously high figure, which I did do, assuming that she would say that's far too expensive. And she went, the money will be in your account later today. And then you went, should have gone higher. And there was a large amount of money in my account about two hours later. Wow. And so I was hooked in. So all I knew is I had to go to a private airport just outside of London to get a private jet somewhere, and I didn't know where to who with what for. Um but the money was secure in my account, so I thought, well, hey, why not? Yeah. And so I got onto this jet and we got up in the air. And eventually I said, Look, can somebody please tell me where I'm going? And they said, Well, yeah, now that you're in the air, we can tell you um you're going off um to uh a country I I think I'm not so I'm not allowed to tell you I I I think I should not tell you where which country, but it was one of the stands. So if you think of like um that region, uh former sort of one of the stands. It's one of those countries. And so I landed and I said, Again, what am I here for? And they said, Well, we can't tell you that until you're in the compound. I said, What this is getting stranger and stranger. I said, Okay, fine. Can you tell me what am I conducting? And they said, Well, um, you you're conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra of this country, but we can't tell you who the artist is or what it's for until you're in the compound. So I get into this armored-plated Mercedes, and I have my um my uh my bag with me, my sort of um man bag as it were, um, and and somebody opens the door for me when we get to the other end. And I don't he looked like a sort of a bellboy type person, and but it was a private compound in a very large palace, essentially. And so I give my bag to this person. Kind of I was a bit grumpy, I was a bit tired after the travel and uh a bit nervous as well because I thought this is really weird. I I don't know who where I am or what I'm here for. So, you know, I wasn't in the best of moods, so I kind of shoved it into this person's chest, like here I go, there's the person who held the door open for me, and then I walk into the compound, and then I get get greeted by an assistant of the of the billionaire who owns this this kind of palatial um I would say it's a house, but it's not a house. There are there's essentially a private street on top of a hill, and there are six gigantic palaces on either side of this house, with one gigantic garden that is connected on both sides, and each of the houses are connected underground through tunnels. And I went into one of these houses and you walk in through the front door with front door, it's got an Olympic-size gold-plated uh swimming pool, uh, with a balcony around with slides like a theme park going into this pool. This is just like as you go into one of these um properties, it's just like out of this world. I cannot begin to tell you the wealth of this person. Yeah, um, he he's in the top 20 um richest people in the world. I since found out, but I didn't know who he was at the time, I didn't know why I was there. And this assistant said to me, I'd like to introduce you to um to to Mr. Billionaire, who it's his 50th birthday, and this is the reason why you're here is to conduct the orchestra for an outside party for his birthday. I'd like to introduce you to the billionaire, and in walks this billionaire holding my bag, because when I got out of the car, I'd shoved it into his chest because I thought he was the bell boy, and he threw it back at me and with a twinkle in his eye, he said, It's been years since I've had to hold anybody's bag, Miss Emery. Welcome to my house. I was like, Oh wow, I'm so sorry, sir. I'm so sorry I didn't notice you, nobody told me anything. He's like, No, it's no problem.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Um you might have been disappeared. You you're very lucky.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Yeah, very lucky. Um, and then he said, Uh um, I would like to um I I've put on a welcome party for you. I said, a welcome party for me. He said, Yeah, um, we've got the national dancers of um this country, um, and they are going to present uh uh uh uh um a performance for you. So I said, Oh, that's very kind, thank you very much. So the national dancers of this country come out, and there's about 40 um ladies who are, I guess, between the age of 18 and 30, and they're essentially kind of belly dancers, they're wearing very, very little, and they're they're all doing this dance on this purpose-built stage in his garden, and uh, after about 10 minutes, he leans over to me rather disgustingly. He says, Tell me which one you want, and she can be yours for your entire stay. And I'm a bit shocked by this, and I said, Well, there's this okay, thank you very much. Uh, but uh, do you know what I'm I'm a happily married man, so he looked at me and he went, so I said, No, I thank you, um, but no thanks. And I could tell he was slightly offended, um, but I thought, well, there's nothing much I can do about it. Um, and then I said, I would like to know um what I'm conducting. Nobody's told me this yet, and what the rehearsal schedule is like. And he said, Well, the the party is um tonight, the performance is tonight. There are 350 of my closest friends from around the world who are flying in to be here for my 50th birthday, and then we're having it here. There's the stage, sir, and um, and it'll be the the the National Philharmonic of the Or of the of the country who are going to perform, and uh you're gonna host this, and we have a special guest um which will be um uh Andrea Bacelli. I said, so Andrea Andrea Bacelli's going to come and sing. He said, Yes, he's singing um two songs, and uh and you'll conduct. So I said, Okay, well I've I've I've never worked with Andrea Bocelli before. He's quite a big name.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Um I was gonna say for people who don't know him, he's a he's a he's a big dog in in uh opera, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah, he well he's like uh he's like the biggest dog in the world for sort of classical crossover music. Um he famously sung a song called Time to Say Goodbye with Sarah Brightman. Um but you know he's he's like he's huge. And I said, Well, you know, I don't know him, I don't know what he's gonna perform. Do you have any information? He said, No, I don't know. He he will just arrive by helicopter in in a few hours' time. He said, But we've got plenty of time, so don't worry. Let's have a drink. Now, I have a hard rule. I do not drink whilst I work. Yeah, he said, let's have vodka. Now, I don't drink vodka anyway. So I said, That's very kind of you, sir, but no, thank you very much. And he looked at me as he said, No, no, he said, let's have a drink of vodka. Okay, fine. So he clicks his fingers, and this man comes over with his tray with his vodka shots. And he says, uh He said, You you you should be very grateful. I said, Oh, why why is that? He said, Well, there are only three people in the world who have had this vodka. There's me, there's you and there's my good friend Vladimir Putin. Oh my god. Gave me this bottle from his own personal seller. Oh, yeah. And this is the only bottle in the world. So you should count yourself lucky. Now, I want to say, just for clarity, this story happened before the war with Ukraine kicked out. Okay, yeah.

unknown 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

And I am a massive supporter of the Ukrainians. I've just been on tour with them for a month. I just need to make that very crystal clear. So I look back, you know, at this point in time, the idea that Vladimir Putin was going to to to destroy millions of people's lives hadn't even entered my psyche. Um I said, uh, okay, well, thank you. I'll I'll just have the one then to to try and be kind to this man. He was his buddy is the reason why. You can't say no. No. Um, so I had one shot. I did not like it, um, but I said, Well, thank you very much. And he went, You don't have one, you never have one with me. Next, clicked his fingers, and the man came over and bought me a second, and I uh and I just said uh look, I I I can't be drunk to do my job, and it's very kind of you. And then he went, No, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. We are having this drink. And I I had literally no choice in the matter, and I tried in the most diplomatic way possible to say no thank you, and he was just not having it. So I ended up having this second vodka shot, and then after the second vodka, he clicked his fingers and he said, We never have two, we always have three, and this went on again and again and again, and I honestly I lost count how many shots I'd had of this vodka. I it must have been seven or eight. I was so so off my face, it was just the most surreal thing ever. And I then had to go and start rehearsing with the orchestra before Bacelli came in. And I I mean I I was spinning, but I started conducting this music, and then these very sweet men came over to me and said, Maestro, I'm sorry to stop you. We have to stop the rehearsal. I said, No, no, no, no, no. I need the rehearsal time. He says, No, we have to move the piano. I said, No, I'm fine with the piano where it is, thank you very much. It's exactly where I would like it. He said, No, we have to move the piano. I said, Why do you have to move the piano? He said, Well, because the stage is built on top of the swimming pool, and we miscalculated the weight of the piano, and we've noticed that the stage on the side of the piano is slowly sinking into the swimming pool, and we're slightly concerned that we're all going to end up in the swimming pool. So we have to move the piano, and so I don't know, seven seven or eight um of these men they pick it up and they pick up this piano and they then um lift it off the stage and put it on the ground about ten metres away. And it then goes horrendously out of tune, of course. And I say, Can we please get a tuner into tune? And they look at me and they say, There is no tuner in this country, we have to fly them in from Russia, and we don't have time for that. So the piano was just it sounded like a dodgy honky tonk bar piano. I thought this is a disaster. I'm drunk, I've got a piano which sounds like a honky tonk piano, I've got Andrea Boccelli coming in, and I've got one of the world's richest people to perform to in a several hours' time. This can't get any worse. I need some food. So I went to the guy uh who was like an assistant for me, and I said, Is there any chance that I could get some food? And they said, Yeah, we'll give you uh the best food from our country. This is a delicacy, you will love this. I said, Oh, perfect. I just need something to soak up this alcohol. I feel really bad. And he comes back about 10 minutes later and he presents me with a soup. I said, Oh, this is interesting. What what what is this? He said, This is a delicacy of our country. This is sheep's eye soup. It's delicious, sir. You will love it. I mean, really, I I had to to use every fibre of my strength to not vomit all over the place at that point in time. So I said, Well, thank you very much. That's very kind of you. Could I have some bread with it, please? They said, We don't have bread with this soup. And I said, uh, okay, I know, but but I I'd really quite like some bread if that's possible. I said, okay, fine. So they brought some bread over, and I kind of ate the bread, and then there was a big bamboo bush, and I just when nobody was looking, I grabbed the whole of this bowl of soup and just chucked it into the bamboo, hoping that nobody would see the sheep eyes, which were literally sheep eyes bobbing around in the soup, were now attached to the bamboo stalks. I have never felt so bad in my life. And uh anyway, I then do this concert. Uh instead of performing for 20 minutes, which was the idea in the end, I performed about six minutes on stage, and then he essentially just clicked his fingers and he went, Yeah, I've had enough of that. Let's put the DJ on. So fine, whatever you want. Um, and then I flew home the next day. Uh, I was so ill I had alcohol poisoning uh and ended up in a hospital um to try and and get myself sorted um through absolutely no fault of my own. And I had to go into uh a music studio, it was Angel's studios those days, um, to go and record a session. And I was so unbelievably ill recording this session, and I never remembered it, never forgot it in my entire life. And I said, look, I would never do that again, and then blow me down three years later. I get the phone call, which is the same phone call, the same woman, the same deal. We're gonna ship you off to somewhere, we don't know where. Um, but uh will you do it? And I doubled the money that I asked for the first time of thinking that they would say no, and they said yes. And I had to go and do the same gig again. Uh and I thought, do you know what? This time, I'm just gonna hide. I'm gonna appear in the compound. I'm gonna hide so nobody can get me drunk, nobody can give me sheep's eye soup, and I'm just gonna hide, and and by some miracle it worked, and I earned a lot of money from it. It was it was a great gig, and I didn't have to have alcohol poisoning. One of the most surreal things that have ever happened to me in my entire. Entire life. And I should just say, on the way back, they didn't put me on a private jet. They put me on their national airline. But this Mercedes, this armoured Mercedes, drove up to a plane. I got on, and I was seat like 1A, and I was looking around, and there was no seat 1A. I said, This is very, very strange. And I went to the air stewardess and I said, Look, I'm looking for my seat 1A. I can't find a 1A. Um, is is is this is this um is this information wrong? And she looked at me and she said, You are going to Canaria, aren't you? And I said, No, I'm going to London. She went, You're on the wrong plane, sir. I said, How can that be possible? How can I be on the wrong plane? She went, I don't know. You just you need to exit this plane. This is not the plane for you. So I walked down the steps, and this Mercedes then drove me on the tarmac around to all these different planes where I had to just go up the steps and just sneak into this plane and say, excuse me, are you on the way to London? And they would say, No, we're going to Turkey. So fine, come down the steps. Eventually I found my plane. I thought, oh my word, this is just the most bizarre story of my life. And there we go. That that is like that that's a summary of my life. And these things happen to me. And hey, it means that I I'm never bored, so I I can't complain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

I mean, that that that um that story in the stand is absolutely bonkers. I mean, looking back on it now, like what do you were there any lessons learned particularly? Um, do you learn anything about yourself or you know uh yeah yeah, vodka doesn't agree with me.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

Yeah. Is is the main lesson I learned. Um the other lesson I learned is if you are in one of these countries and you ask for food, um make it clear you'd like pizza uh r rather than sheepsized soup. Um but honestly, I I just would I do it again? Well, yeah, I clearly did. If the money is right. Um that's the thing. I I guess you look at these people who who who go on these celebrity shows, you know, I'm a celebrity, get me out of here, or the big one in here in the UK is celebrity traitors. Um why do they do it? Well, they do it for exposure, of course, uh, for their brand, but but fundamentally they they do it for money, and sometimes we have to do odd things for money in this uh industry. So yeah, do I uh did I learn anything about myself? I guess just I would do stuff for money that I didn't think I would ever have to do.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Hey, you also learned that I guess I I mean could you say you can perform when you're drunk? I guess it probably proves your point, actually, that you're not a very good performer when you're drunk.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

Yeah, I I I think I got away with it, but I I will never know to this day the reason why he cut it down to six minutes instead of twenty is if I was terrible or if he had just kind of got bored. I I don't know. I'm not sure I care so much. I mean, he's the one who made me drunk. I didn't want to get drunk. Um I tend not to drink really, so yeah, crazy. Just a very strange uh situation.

Lessons From The Wild Gig

SPEAKER_00 43:10

So um, you know, obviously and on the bigger scale of your career, you know, we talked about you know that crazy story in the stands and stuff, but you you you do a lot of performances live with audiences and you probably get a feeling from them, you know, and the and what I really love to know is is music definitely has a power. I think we all can appreciate that. And what have you learned about the power of music throughout your throughout your career?

The Power Of Music And Grief

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Yeah, I mean music can be such a cathartic um tool to use, and I never forget uh I was supposed to be going to Japan um and it was uh the year of the the natural disaster of the um tsunami that hit Fukushima um and then the that power plant blew up, the nuclear power plant. Um and uh absolute catastrophe and um so so many people lost their lives, um and so many people uh l lost their um houses and their security and their safety in where they live. And I was supposed to go out um the d I think it was the day after the tsunami hit. And obviously the flights were cancelled, the event, the concert was cancelled. Um it was absolutely unsafe um at that point to go and pointless because um we didn't know if the concert hall had survived. Wow. Um but we were just um keeping in the loop with the promoters and uh about ten ten days later the promoter said okay, we would still like you to come out if you were happy to do so. And we had conversations and we decided it would be a um clever thing to go out. Um it's still a little bit dangerous with aftershocks and things, but we decided um it was not too dangerous and it was worth it. And we wanted to go and perform um to try and to try and help people in a in a strange way, to try and give them some sort of enjoyment for what is fundamentally a horrendous time that they were going through. Um, and music, as I said, can be so cathartic. At the end of the performance which was sold out, um we uh we decided to do a piece of music which we said would um we would do it in honour of uh your family and friends and your loved ones that you've lost in the past um two weeks through your your utter disaster, and our thoughts and prayers are with you, and we we honour them by performing this piece of music. And I will never forget it now to the day I die because I started conducting and there was a commotion behind me and I realized that the whole audience had stood up and were now in tears, uh like properly in tears. This is not a a a silent tear coming down the cheek. They there were people who were wailing um and it has obviously um struck a nerve with them and people couldn't control their emotions, and there were two thousand people in the audience, of which they were all crying, of which several hundred of them, as I said, were were utterly distraught. Um and it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do as a conductor is to carry on conducting, to try and keep my composure, to try and ignore that noise that was coming from the audience and to do my job because I knew if I looked around too much, if I took notice too much of um how they were reacting, I wouldn't be able to cope and I would break down myself. Um and then if that happened I couldn't carry on conducting and the whole thing would fall apart. So uh it was uh one of the things that made me realise um music, of course it's entertainment as I've as as I keep on saying. But it can be used um in so many different ways to help us humans live through the troubles that we have to all live through at times. Um music can do these things. Music fundamentally highlights emotions. I don't know if you've ever been sad in in terms of like really properly sad, not not not like sad because uh I don't know, it's a miserable day outside. I mean like really, really properly sad. And if you listen to a piece of music which is emotive, it can make you feel so much worse, actually, or it can make you feel so much better, yeah. And the same with if you are on a high energy day and you feel like you could conquer the world and you listen to some brilliant music, and it can just it can send you soaring into the stars, um, and it can give you so much energy and so much passion and um and vivaciousness for life. So music has the ability to do all of these things and more. Um, and we just have to respect that as professional musicians that we can change people's emotions through what we're doing, and it's just very important for us to know that.

SPEAKER_00 48:58

I mean, this is uh as a as a documentary filmmaker and a science filmmaker, and this might be a more of an anthropological question, but have you ever considered or thought about the fact that you know this is this is just a mixture of sounds and you know noises and and w how does this particular concoction of noises affect our brain in such a way to literally play our emotions like a freaking guitar or whatever? It's it's such a bizarre thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 49:28

It it it is a bizarre thing. Um and what's even more bizarre is I I mentioned um earlier on that I've got into writing um and producing meditation music. So there are certain frequencies um that we can insert into our music that can really have a fundamental um uh change in us. Uh so for instance there's a frequency which is 528 Hz. We can insert that into our meditation music, and that sort of Solfeggio healing frequency has the power to do different things. It can it can help things like uh r repair DNA. Um there are other frequencies that can give um we there's a hundred and forty uh 174 hertz that we use occasionally. 174 hertz has been proven to relieve tension and pain. Um it relaxes the muscles, it slows down breathing. So you listen to that frequency, um, and a lot of people who've got bad back pain um can um can uh be relieved by that that hurts. So we use this to the to the maximum we can in the orchestral music, uh orchestral meditation music which we create, um and then on top of it we write melodies and write tunes and chord sequences which affect the human emotion. And um and how does it do that? Why does it do that? I have absolutely no idea. And there's part of me that doesn't want to know the magic and the science behind it because I want it to stay magical for me.

SPEAKER_00 51:13

Yeah. Interesting. I I'm the opposite. I'm like, I'm I need to figure out what's going on. Like, how is that like translate your brain is again? I go back to like you know, Neanderthals Neanderthal times when there was no music, but at some point someone probably two s two sticks on a on a rock, you know, and that's it's just gone from there. It's absolutely fascinating. And I say you've made career people have made careers out of music, and music is now such a fundamental part of our you know, our civilization. You know, you cannot imagine humanity without music. It just it doesn't it's sort of um yeah, incomprehensible. But um I mean for someone who does want to join join you and your and your fellow musicians and colleagues, I mean what advice would you have for them uh for anyone that wants to follow in your footsteps and either to be a conductor or a musician in general?

Healing Frequencies And Meditation

SPEAKER_01 52:05

Don't um that's my first bit of advice. Simple, short and slow. Okay, yeah, great. But but but but if well I say don't. Only do it if if you have the biggest burning desire in your in your life, in your world to do it. You know you have to do it, you have no choice, it is not an option for you. Um then of course it's a path that you should um walk down. But unless that is the case, don't even think about it. Don't even think about it, oh it's a quick way of making money, it's not. It's an easy way of making money, it's definitely not. Um, it's a safe way of making money, it's absolutely 100% not. The only reason why you should ever become a professional musician is if you feel like you have no choice in the world but to do this, and it's the reason why you're put on this earth. That's how I felt, and it was not a choice. Now, if that is the case, then you will do everything it within your power to make it happen. You will move heaven and earth to to build up the contacts, and unfortunately, this business is I uh I would say um 60% talent, 40% luck. It's as strong as that. Um, and if you don't have the talent, then your luck is not going to be there. Um, but you can have absolutely the biggest talent in the world, and you will have all the bad luck in the world, and you will not make it as a professional musician. So there are ways to manipulate the luck by trying to get to know relevant people and trying to understand the business a little bit more, trying to figure out how to communicate to the relevant people that you are good at what you do. Um, and that's the same essentially with any other self-employed job in life, where I don't know, you you are a um an artist, a painter, and you're trying to get commissions, it's the same concept. Um, but if you are not a professional musician or you don't want to be a professional musician, but you just want to make music, that's great. I think that's a fantastic thing. If it's purely a hobby and you're not relying upon it to put a roof over your head and bread on the table, perfect. Absolutely brilliant. Then the world is your oyster. You have choirs in every city, in every village around this world. There are orchestras in all the places, there are people crying out to make bands because there's a bass guitarist who doesn't have a drummer, or there's a drummer who needs a lead singer. You just have to be confident, go out there, use the internet, search for these people who want to make music and go and join them. It doesn't matter how good or bad you are or indifferent, um, you will just enjoy it as long as you find people who are relative to your level. And it's as simple as that. If if you want to make music, go make music, go and uh meet other people who are in the same boat as you, because there are millions of people around the world who are in that same boat. Um, and if that is your aim, I wish you all the luck in the world, and it's it's absolutely possible to have fun doing that.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

Brilliant. Well, listen, Robert, it it's been it's been so much fun chatting about um your amazing stories, your amazing career. Um, I mean, where can people find what you're up to? Plug what you're up to?

SPEAKER_01 55:21

They can go on to to Robertemory.com um to see information about me as a as a musician. Um uh the the the big thing that I'm really getting into, and the more I do this, the more I realise it really can affect um people, um, is is the meditation music, and that's orchestral meditations with an S in the end, orchestralmeditations.com. And I'm getting more and more into this, uh, I'm enjoying it more and more. I'm realizing that there is more awareness in this world for mental health, wellness, and and I think um just taking a few minutes, people get scared by the word meditation, um, because they think it's some sort of woo-woo strange thing. Fundamentally, it's sitting there either in silence or with some relaxing music and just letting your mind do what your mind needs to do, nothing more, nothing less. Um, and so you don't need to be scared of it. And I've written this music with with Moritz Schneider, this this Swiss composer, to generally help people just have a bit of calmness in their life when we have bonkers governments and we have bonkers things happening with the economy or the interest rate or your mortgage or global warming, or all these scary, crazy things that are happening in the world. And and and I want to give you an opportunity to turn all of that off for anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes, and just to have some peace and calm, and just to listen to a bit of music that takes you off into another world of relaxation, um uh then that's what orchestral meditations is all about. So if you're interested in trying to get a little bit of wellness in your life for your for your brain, go on to orchestralmeditations.com.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

I mean, that's it's exactly what we need right now, you know, an antidote to all the craziness out there. So um, I'm definitely gonna check out check out that after we uh jump off here. So brilliant. Thank you. Amazing, Robert. Thank you so much for your time. It's been uh absolutely lovely speaking with you.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

My pleasure. Thanks, Chris, and good luck with the podcast. Keep it going.

SPEAKER_00 57:25

Thank you so much. All right.

SPEAKER_01 57:26

My pleasure all the best. Thank you. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

And that is a wrap on this week's episode. A huge thanks again to Robert for sharing his bonkers and inspiring stories with us. If you'd like to learn more about Robert's work or dive into his orchestral meditation projects, you'll find all of the links on the show notes or on our website, NoOrdinarymonday.com. And as always, you can find extra clips and visuals from this episode across our socials, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and of course our No Ordinary Monday podcast community on Facebook, where you can join the conversation, ask questions, and share your thoughts about the show. Alright, so next week we are stepping into the mind of a man who spends his life exploring the darker corners of the human mind and human history. My guest is Dr. Chad Scott, a criminal psychologist, therapist, and dark tourist who has spent years interviewing high-risk offenders, counseling people through extreme trauma, and traveling to some of the most unsettling places on earth. Not for the thrill of it, but for something surprising, healing. Chad shares the very personal story of how he discovered this phenomena as he was battling a life-threatening disease himself. It's a strangely uplifting tale, and unlike any story we've told in the show so far. So hit subscribe now so you don't miss out on that episode. And that is it for this week. If you enjoyed today's episode, um consider leaving a 5-star rating review, maybe tell a family member or friend. Um it actually helps more than you think it does. With your support, we can keep growing the show, attract more extraordinary guests for you guys, and we can inspire new listeners each and every week. This show is independently produced, hosted, and edited by me, Chris Barron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a great month, everyone, and we will see you next week.