Second candidate to conduct orchestra

The Florida Orchestra continues its search for a new music director with a performance with the principal conductor of an orchestra in Spain.

By JOHN FLEMING

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2001

TAMPA -- The Florida Orchestra's search for a new music director hits the podium this week, with one of six candidates to succeed Jahja Ling conducting the orchestra for three concerts, beginning Friday.

Maximiano Valdes is the second candidate to be a guest conductor this season. Michael Christie, who led an all-Copland program in November, has been asked to return. Four other candidates will conduct during 2001-02, which is Ling's last season. Next season's schedule will be announced in a week.

All the candidates are men. The only U.S.-born conductor is Christie. Three are Russians from famous musical families: Stefan Sanderling, Dmitri Sitkovestsky and Pavel Kogan. Two of the candidates -- Valdes and Theo Alcantara -- were previously music directors of American symphony orchestras, in Buffalo, N.Y., and Phoenix respectively.

Other potential candidates who haven't been booked for one reason or another may surface in the future.

"At this stage of the game there are probably 10 or 12 names we're interested in," said general manager Jeff Woodruff. "We developed a short list for the purpose of inviting conductors here next season."

Woodruff and executive director Leonard Stone, both on the 12-member search committee formed last spring to find a successor to Ling, described the process during a recent interview.

Additional conductors they mentioned who might become candidates included Roberto Minczuk, a Brazilian who recently conducted the Florida Philharmonic; Grant Llewellyn, conductor in residence of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Peter Oundjian, former first violin in the Tokyo String Quartet and now a conductor; Boris Brott, a Canadian; and Kenneth Montgomery, an Englishman who has conducted at the Santa Fe Opera.

"There's no lack of conductors," Stone said. "The easiest search I have been involved with is when somebody shoots away from the rest of the pack."

That happened when Stone was executive director of the Calgary Philharmonic. Austrian conductor Hans Graf made such a strong impression in his guest engagement that he essentially short-circuited the search.

"It was just an instant love affair, obvious to everyone," Stone said.

Graf has enjoyed a successful tenure in western Canada. Recently, he was selected by the Houston Symphony to be its next music director.

It's possible the Florida Orchestra could face a situation similar to Calgary's with Graf.

"What happens if somebody absolutely sends you a signal that they want it, and they can do it?" Stone said. "Do you curtail the search? That will be a tricky one."

A music director search that goes on too long could leave the orchestra in dangerous limbo. Yet selecting the wrong music director would be worse. Then there's the matter of competition among orchestras for talented conductors.

Christof Perick had been slated to guest conduct the Florida Orchestra next season, but that changed several weeks ago when he was named music director of the Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina.

"Nobody's waiting for us to decide," Stone said. "Look at Perick. There's a case in point. He didn't wait. We had him on the list. His management knew we had him on the list. Charlotte came along, and he grabbed it."

Another conductor previously mentioned as a candidate is no longer on the list. Last summer, members of the search committee went to Amsterdam to hear a concert led by Estonian conductor Eri Klas, but he apparently didn't impress, or perhaps he was not interested in the Tampa Bay post.

The search committee, co-chaired by trustee Dave Harbert and percussionist Kurt Grissom, includes six musicians chosen by the orchestra as a whole.

"Musician empowerment is kind of a buzz word these days," Woodruff said. "Musicians are tired of sitting on the sidelines. They want more of a voice."

For example, musicians had a decisive say in the recent appointment of Lorin Maazel as music director of the New York Philharmonic.

"If 20 musicians came down to the office after the first two or three rehearsals and said this guy is it, you'd really have to pay attention," Stone said.

The only current candidate actually to have conducted the orchestra is Christie, who was well-received by audience and players. Some musicians are acquainted with other candidates from playing under them in summer festivals or with other orchestras.

"At this point, it's mainly a matter of reputation," Woodruff said. "There's a network among musicians, and they'll get a read on a conductor faster than I will."

Naturally artist management firms put their clients forward as possible candidates. The six conductors now on the orchestra's list are represented by four different firms.

Ling, in his 13th season as music director, never called the Tampa Bay area home. His family lived in Cleveland, where he is resident conductor and artistic director of the summertime Blossom Festival. He also is music director of the Taiwan National Symphony and does a great deal of guest conducting.

"I think the days of the jet-setting conductor are over," Woodruff said. "Most orchestras are going to demand a major local presence from their music director. That's where we're headed. Whether or not we're going to put into the contract that he must buy a house and live here, I don't think we're prepared to do that. Ideally, the guy would live here, but we would want a conductor who, in addition to us, has got other things happening in his career."

Money is also a major concern for an orchestra with a history of financial problems. Ling is paid an estimated $200,000 a year for being music director. He is scheduled to conduct seven programs in 2000-01.

"My sense is that when you look at Jahja today, his contract reflects his years of experience and the esteem that the music world has for him," Stone said. "In all likelihood, we would be compensating at a lower level with his successor."

But the details of a contract are not the paramount issue when a potential music director arrives for a week of rehearsals and concerts.

"My main concern is the music," Valdes said, "how well we do it and what we can achieve together in a few days. Everything is related to that."

Valdes' program plays to his strengths as someone who was born in Chile and lives in Spain with a pair of Spanish-themed pieces, Debussy's Iberia and Ravel's Bolero. The soloist in Schumann's Piano Concerto is Orli Shaham, who was conducted in her first professional engagement by Valdes in Buffalo.

The 50-year-old Valdes said he doesn't feel pressure from being under scrutiny.

"I think I have learned that things when they have to happen, somehow they happen, and you can't force destiny," he said. "If I am the right person, then I think everyone will be convinced about that, and if it happens, then I will be honored. If it doesn't happen, then life goes on."

Candidates on the short list

Here are music director candidates who have been booked as guest conductors of the Florida Orchestra:

Maximiano Valdes was music director for nine years of the Buffalo Philharmonic. Born in Chile, he now lives in Spain, where he is principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias.

Spanish-born Theo Alcantara was music director of the Phoenix Symphony from 1978 to 1989. He is a frequent conductor of opera in the United States.

Michael Christie, raised in upstate New York and trained at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, was asked back after conducting the orchestra in an all-Copland program. The only candidate under 30, he was named music director of the Colorado Music Festival in September.

Dmitry Sitkovetsky is a well-known violinist turned conductor. The son of Russian piano giant Bella Davidovich, he has been principal conductor and artistic adviser of the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast since 1996.

Russian Pavel Kogan also comes from a musical family. His father was violin virtuoso Leonid Kogan, and his mother was the sister of pianist Emil Gilels. Kogan is principal guest conductor of the Utah Symphony.

Another Russian candidate with a distinguished musical lineage is Stefan Sanderling, son of conductor Kurt Sanderling, who led the Leningrad Philharmonic. Sanderling's half-brother Thomas conducted the Florida Orchestra and Master Chorale in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in 1999.

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