Macon Magazine

• • • THERE'S A MOMENT OF RESOUNDING SILENCE AT THE START OF THE SYMPHONY, WHEN THE CONDUCTOR STEPS TO THE PODIUM – A TANGIBLE MOMENT OF ANTICIPATION WHEN ALL EYES ARE ON THEM. "At that moment, it's important for me to be firmly and intensely focused on the music and what we're about to accomplish. It's a powerful moment – the moment an audience stops clapping and the music is about to be set in motion. Unlike a painting or other art, you're recreating something that already exists on a page and may have for centuries. You're involved in an art of interpretation and recreation brought about by hours of painstaking thought and rehearsal." — Roderick Cox • • • B renda Cox hasn't yet seen Conducting Life, the documentary film about her son, and she is more than excited about watching it for the first time during this year's Macon Film Festival, Aug. 18 - 21. She's proud of how she raised him as a hard-working single mom in Macon, along with his brother, Robert, who has also gained notoriety playing high school, college and then professional basketball in Europe. But Roderick Cox, at 34, is a bona fide star in the classical music world. For a young conductor, he's won the most prestigious of awards, received sought-after fellowship positions and served in conducting roles, from nearby Georgia and Alabama to his time at the Minnesota Orchestra, first as assistant conductor before quickly becoming associate conductor. Cox was there until 2018, when he moved to Berlin to operate as a featured guest conductor with orchestras worldwide. He's received high praise with orchestras and groups from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., Seattle to Cincinnati and worldwide in Germany, London and Paris, to name only a few locales. Though Cox's mother hasn't seen the film, she's had a taste. "I have seen him conduct in amazing places and seen the movie trailer," she said. "Seeing him now so good at his music – I can say it fills and thrills my heart. I don't have the words to describe how I feel. I'm proud of both my boys." As portrayed in Conducting Life, Cox's early life wasn't an obvious starting point to international symphony stages. He experienced the challenges of a poor, youth whose father was absent from the home. But he was blessed with a loving family and, according to his mother, a supportive church family at Bethany Seventh-day Adventist Church. Gospel music was what filled their home, and his mother was a dedicated choir member. Though she didn't expect his career choice at the time, she said there were clues. "He would see the choirs, then come home and set up his action figures and direct them," she said. "He'd arrange them as sopranos and altos and such as that." In public school, Cox was edged toward drums, but taught himself piano at home on a little keyboard his mother bought. At times it was pawned to pay pending bills. Cox said involvement with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Georgia was also a factor in his upbringing and led him to the attention of Zelma Redding, widow of the late Otis Redding, and the Otis Redding Foundation. Redding bought him a French horn, paving his way to attend the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University for true classical training. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2022 | maconmagazine.com 49

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