Musical America: New Artist of the Month: Conductor Sameer Patel
As he describes the career choices that have led to his current position, Sameer Patel refers to a verse from the Bhagavad Gita: “‘It’s better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another’—in other words, to follow your own virtue or path or journey.”
The San Diego-based conductor is reminded of this ancient advice when discussing how the pandemic influenced his decision to take over last year as artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony (SDYS). “One thing it awakened was a desire to go by my own playbook of what will bring me happiness,” he explained during a recent Zoom interview. “I’ve found that this involves a balance between working with students, traveling to exchange with different orchestras as a guest conductor, and being at home with my family.”
Musical America
By Thomas May
As he describes the career choices that have led to his current position, Sameer Patel refers to a verse from the Bhagavad Gita: “‘It’s better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another’—in other words, to follow your own virtue or path or journey.”
The San Diego-based conductor is reminded of this ancient advice when discussing how the pandemic influenced his decision to take over last year as artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony (SDYS). “One thing it awakened was a desire to go by my own playbook of what will bring me happiness,” he explained during a recent Zoom interview. “I’ve found that this involves a balance between working with students, traveling to exchange with different orchestras as a guest conductor, and being at home with my family.”
Patel already showed a strong inclination to follow his own path while growing up in Port Huron, Michigan, just across from the Canadian border. His Indian American parents encouraged him to study music as an extracurricular activity that would promote well-roundedness. But they didn’t expect this to turn into a serious passion and were surprised when their son announced his determination to become a professional musician.
Read more here.
Musical America: New Artist of the Month: Violist Jesús Rodolfo
At heart, Jesús Rodolfo is a storyteller who uses four strings and a bow to give voice to his restless imagination. The young Spanish violist constantly returns to the model of narrative—even when discussing music as formally abstract as Paul Hindemith’s sonatas for the instrument, which rank among his favorites. Two of his albums to date are devoted to the composer’s sonatas (those with piano accompaniment and the solo viola sonatas).
Musical America
By Thomas May
At heart, Jesús Rodolfo is a storyteller who uses four strings and a bow to give voice to his restless imagination. The young Spanish violist constantly returns to the model of narrative—even when discussing music as formally abstract as Paul Hindemith’s sonatas for the instrument, which rank among his favorites. Two of his albums to date are devoted to the composer’s sonatas (those with piano accompaniment and the solo viola sonatas).
Read more here.
Musical America: Gerard Schwarz Headed to Palm Beach
Having been appointed to the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami last month, conductor Gerard Schwarz is planting further roots into the Florida sands by accepting the post of music director of the Palm Beach Symphony. He starts next season, succeeding Ramón Tebar, who held the job for eight years.
Musical America
Nicholas Beard
Having been appointed to the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami last month, conductor Gerard Schwarz is planting further roots into the Florida sands by accepting the post of music director of the Palm Beach Symphony. He starts next season, succeeding Ramón Tebar, who held the job for eight years.
Read more here.
Musical America: Conductor Gerard Schwarz Pays Tribute to Benaroya Hall at 20
On the 20th anniversary of the first concert at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Maestro Schwarz reflects on the opening night concert among other events the hall’s first few weeks.
Musical America
Gerard Schwarz
On the 20th anniversary of the first concert at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Maestro Schwarz reflects on the opening night concert among other events during the hall’s first few weeks. Read his reflection here.
Musical America: Top 30 Movers & Shapers - Neeta Helms
Neeta Helms is named one of the top 30 professionals of 2017 by Musical America.
Musical America
Movers and Shakers: Musical America's Top 30 Professionals of the Year
Susan Elliott, Musical America Editor
If “Movers and Shakers” is a familiar moniker for bigwigs and high rollers, “Movers and Shapers”
represents a perhaps less visible but arguably more important category. These are the individuals who are actually “shaping” programs, practices, and perceptions of the performing artists.
NEETA HELMS
By John Fleming
Music is the universal language, and Neeta Helms speaks it around the world. As founder and president of Classical Movements, now in its 25th year, she specializes in tours for orchestras and choruses, with clients ranging from the National Symphony Orchestra to the Yale Glee Club. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, the company does about 60 tours a year, and has brought music to 145 countries.
Helms is a risk-taker whose breakthrough came in 1993, when she organized a tour of the Choral Arts Society of Washington with the National Symphony Orchestra and legendary Russian conductor and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich to the former Soviet Union. Rostropovich led a free concert in Moscow’s Red Square that drew more than 100,000 people. “It was probably like touring the United States with the Beatles, that was what it was like going to Russia with Rostropovich,” she says. “It was so exciting. The world was changing.” Last spring, Classical Movements handled its 30th NSO tour, again to Russia.
Classical Movements also produces choral festivals in Washington, DC, and South Africa, as well as a summer festival for young singers and instrumentalists in Prague. Since 2005, the company has commissioned composers from 20 countries to write more than 50 works. In 2015, it commissioned 10 American composers for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s 100th anniversary. This year, Syrian clarinetist-composer Kinan Azmeh became the company’s first composer-in-residence.
Helms grew up in a musical family in India. She began studying piano at age four, sang in public at five, and went on to earn a BA in economics and an MBA. She has lived in the United States since 1986.
What annoys her most about travel? “Airlines get on my nerves. They are absolutely the most difficult part of our job.” Some tours take special resourcefulness, such as those in Cuba, which has a shortage of musical instruments. In June, Classical Movements took both the Minnesota Youth Symphonies and the Stanford
Symphony Orchestra there. “Our biggest challenge, believe it or not, was finding and renting the timpani.”