The Birmingham Post
1 April 2004 • Warming up for the fun run
Conductor David Curtis tells Christopher Morley how he intends to take the fitness plunge

Many orchestral conductors undertake some form or other of physical exercise in order to keep themselves fit for their stints on the rostrum, but David Curtis, artistic director of the Stratford-based Orchestra of the Swan, does seem to be going a little far in his quest for the body beautiful and biddable. On Sunday he takes part in the Stratford Marathon, raising funds for his orchestra and crowning months of dedicated training.

“Like all the best ideas in our house, this came as a suggestion from my wife,” explains the Marathon Maestro. “Why don’t you carry on the jogging you like doing and go in for the Stratford Fun Run?’, she said. ‘It’ll also get you fitter and you could raise some sponsor ship for the orchestra at the same time.’

“This sounded like a good idea, especially as at the time I thought the fun run was about five or six miles, not 26. The idea was mentioned to our wonderful Secretary of the Friends of the Orchestra (320 members, do join up), and the next thing I see is the autumn issue of the friends newsletter with an article explaining that I had entered the Stratford Marathon and was hoping to form an Orchestra of the Swan team.

“By this stage I realised that further resistance was useless, further visits to the sports shops, bookshops, chemists and a six month running/training schedule were in place. Do please bear in mind that I haven’t done more than run for a train for the last 30 years.”

And Curtis has organised himself a conscientious and well-structured training regime.

“The running schedule has taken me up to about 50 miles a week, with the longest run so far being 21 miles. I’m now in the closing stages when, and I quote from that bible of other runners Marathon Manual (no, it really is true), ‘now is the week to concentrate on your eating’; now they tell me.

“We have a team of four runners taking part for the orchestra — David le Page, leader of Orchestra of the Swan and Chris Wheeler, our designer and printer are both running the half-marathon and one of the Friends of the Orchestra, Miranda Chambers and I are running the full marathon, hopefully raising sponsorship for our programme of education and outreach work at Stratford Hospice and Schools.”

Along the way to this marathon enterprise David Curtis has found himself involved in other sporting activities tending towards the bizarre. “I went Cross-country skiing (which makes your arms feel as though you have been in a tag wrestling match with Mick McManus and King Kong) and, when also in Finland this January I succumbed to an invitation to go ice swimming,” he tells. “Working with the Mikkeli City Orchestra early in the New Year I asked the manager if there was a nearby gym that I could join for the week to keep up the running. Somehow this news filtered through to the orchestra and the principal cellist, Hyro Pulkkinen, invited me to try the delights of ice swimming.

“I’m sure he really is a very kind-hearted man but ice swimming is altogether different type of experience, giving a whole new meaning to words like cold, freezing etc.
“Picture this, the concert hail and home of the orchestra is by a beautiful lake, with three feet of ice on it. In a far corner there is a small log hut with a section of water kept clear of ice, the hut is relatively warm to change in. But then, clad only in a pair of rubber shoes, you step into the night air, only -15°C, so rather chilly.

“The reason for the rubber shoes? Everything, absolutely everything, is covered in thick ice. Walls, steps into the water, handrail. On reaching the final step before the water one shoe is removed, the moment of no return, the next shoe is off and you’re in. The sensation is quite unbelievable.

“After swimming around for about 15 seconds you emerge dripping, shaking and cursing. This is when you need to put the rubber shoes back on; if not you’re frozen to the steps like a stalagmite until the spring thaw. Perhaps this is how they get rid of their less popular conductors. “But then, change in the warm hut and your whole body tingles with the sheer joy of being alive. And the sensation lasts for hours. At this stage my host says in the wonderful Finnish understated style, ‘yes, it’s a good hobby to have; it doesn’t take very long’. “I can’t wait to go back next season.”