Maestro Bagwell

Here’s a page from my “Face Book.” The faces are from the Bard College Symphonic Chorus in New York State. The figure is the conductor, James Bagwell.
Maestro Bagwell is the dynamo behind Bard’s choral music program. He paces across the stage with all the brooding intensity of Beethoven. When he turns to face the audience, he bends forward stiffly, mouth tight, cheeks puffing out, unable to mask his passion for the music. When the music turns lyrical, he melts and looks as if he were holding a baby.

Sitting in the audience with my sketchbook in my lap, I was nervous that sketching might be as distracting as coughing, so I tried not to bob my head up and down, and I worked very small. I had only a few seconds to observe his pose, remember it, and then try to jot it down in the tiny book.