For Ken-David Masur, the new resident conductor of the San Antonio Symphony, the position is all about passion.
"It's about making a connection with people, to raise awareness and passion about music," he says. "Music has no meaning if it doesn't have a connection with people on a personal level. And there's no better way to do that - to make that connection - than as a resident conductor, where you have the contact with the people and with the music."
He'll start making that con-nection at the "A World of Music" interactive family concert Sunday, where he'll introduce kids to the inner-workings of the symphony and lead a program of internationally inspired works.
Activities begin at 1:30 p.m., and the concert starts at 2:30 p.m. at Trinity University's Laurie Auditorium. Tickets cost $20 for adults and $10 for children 10 and younger at all Ticketmaster outlets. Call (210) 224-9600 for information.
"The idea is that we chose to do pieces that are ... from different countries, and try to elaborate on the world of music. Musicians all over the world use music to express their cultural background, to express different emotions and different occasions with different types of music. We have music all over and everywhere."
The performance will fea-ture movements from Men-delssohn's Italian Symphony and Elgar's Enigma Variations, as well as selections from Prokofiev, Lecuona, Mozart and Dvorak.
Before the show, Masur will work with kids in an interac-tive setting at the "instrument petting zoo," where folks can touch and hear the instruments up close, as well as have the opportunity to build their own instruments and perhaps even conduct the orchestra. The goal? To give families a "hands-on, fun but educational" evening with the orchestra so that "they can breathe, smell, touch and hear it' all. They can use as many senses as possible to be encouraged. to be curious, to let kids just explore their emotions and the world."
Masur's own exposure to music began young. His mother was a successful vocalist; his father, a noted conductor. Masur began playing the piano at 6 and singing in the Gewandhaus Children's Choir at the age of 9.
"I always had music with me," he says. "The vocal music and symphonic music was a strong influence when I was a little child."
As a teenager, he played trumpet and composed rock music. For a time, he consid-ered becoming a biologist. But sometime late in high school, he says, he recognized that he "didn't want to live without music." He went on to earn his degree in music from Co-lumbia University and studied voice as a master student of bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.
Professionally, Masur has gone on to make his name as a recitalist and conductor, per-forming and directing around the world. In his San Antonio post, Masur will conduct more than 30 shows, including community concerts, Young People's Concerts and Interactive Family Classics concerts. He succeeds David In-Jae Cho, who accepted a post as the assistant conductor of the Utah Symphony and Opera in Salt Lake City.
While still settling in. Masur is excited to learn more about his role each day. "To be the resident conductor of such a wonderful, wonderful ensemble that can play so many different styles ... it's exciting. I'm really looking forward to conducting the orchestra and making music with these musicians," he says.
Jennifer Rome Laster, San Antonio Express-News, 2007
The circumstances of Ken-David Masur's rookie outing as the San Antonio Symphony's new resident conductor didn't allow a full measure-taking, but the eyeball impression was mostly favorable.
On Sunday afternoon, Masur conducted the season's first Interactive Classics concert in Trinity University's Laurie Auditorium.
This series is designed for young children and their parents, who filled only a few hundred of Laurie's 2,479 seats. But there was plenty of activity in the lobby before the concert as children got to know some of the symphony musicians and play their instruments.
Masur was there, too, leading a conducting class for a dozen or so ankle- biters. In this close-up context he was personable and enthusiastic, and he either genuinely likes kids or is a superb actor.
With limited rehearsal time, the absence of most principals and the acoustical desert of Laurie's vast fan-shaped hall, one can't expect top-drawer music-making at the Interactives.
But Masur impressed with an uncommonly spirited, rhythmically alive account of the first movement from Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony and an incisive, nicely shaped reading of Dvorak's Slavonic Dance No. 8.
Masur got crisp ensemble from the orchestra in both those pieces - no small achievement in Laurie - though the rest of the music wanted more rehearsal.
Mozart's Fugue in C Minor didn't hold together or flow well. But Masur brought a nice sense of line to Prokofiev's "Classical" Symphony and musicality to the finale of Elgar's "Enigma" Variations.
Conducting with his whole body, Masur was communicative and fun to watch.
Though he was born and reared in Germany, the son of the eminent conductor Kurt Masur, Ken-David Masur speaks clear, precise, unaccented English.
His pacing of the explanatory talk between musical works was slow, causing symphony general manager David Filner to repeatedly look at his watch and frantically signal the conductor to speed it up as the projected 65-minute concert stretched to more than 80 minutes.
But there were few defections, and squirming appeared to be minimal, so Masur must have been doing something right.
Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express-News, 2007
Given that Halloween is just around the corner, this may be the perfect time of the year for "Oz With Orchestra."
That's how Ken-David Masur sees it. Masur, the San Antonio Symphony's new resident conductor, will be conducting the Pops program this weekend. The musicians will play the score to "The Wizard of Os" while the 1939 movie plays on a big screen overhead.
Masur still remembers being frightened by the film when he saw it as a child in East Germany, and no wonder. He didn't speak any English, and was watching it undubbed. Those flying monkeys and their green-skinned employer are pretty scary even when you understand the language.
"It was something I was really scared of," he said, noting that Margaret Hamilton's portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West was one reason he was so troubled by the film. "It's amazing how she created a character that makes us shiver so much. She's one of the main reasons why people who are in the mood for Halloween should come see it."
Working on the program has given him a deeper appreciation for the complexities of the film score.
"I saw in the score, for the first time, every time a certain character appears, he has his theme. 'If I Only Had a Brain' appears hundreds of times in different variations, and 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' appears many times in different variations in connection with Dorothy"
Hearing the orchestra play the score live should give audiences a stronger sense of the music, too, he said, and just how much there is. He estimates that at least 90 percent of the action on the screen is scored.
"This is not just a soundtrack; it's definitely a symphonic experience," he said.
Deborah Martin, San Antonio Express-News, 2007
Fans of symphonic music in San Antonio had at least two things to enjoy at Friday night's performance of "Oz with Orchestra," a screening of the classic Judy Garland film with the San Antonio Symphony providing a live soundtrack.
One: The orchestra, which was crisp, clean and precise.
Two: The audience, which comprised all ages, including at least two pigtailed little girls decked out as Dorothy in blue-checked gingham.
The house wasn't packed Friday night, but there was a healthy buzz and quite a few young children - a good thing for the San Antonio Symphony and the audience at large, which had a chance to rediscover the joys of the legendary 1939 musical "The Wizard of Oz."
Friday night's performance showcased an orchestra that was deft and able under director Ken-David Masur's skillful handling. But the joy of a production like this is as much in the movie as in the music. There is a thrill to seeing the beloved story of farm girl Dorothy Gale's trip through the merry old land of Oz play out on the big screen, not to mention the fun of enjoying the adventure with a crowd. Dorothy's quest to save Toto is more poignant, the Cowardly Lion's posturing is more humorous, and the Wicked Witch of the West is all the more deliciously wicked when the crowd sniffles, laughs or cringes as one.
That said, the live music certainly amped up both the foreboding and the fun, putting the crowd in the mood to shy away from the Wicked Witch or laugh at the bumbling Scarecrow.
The symphony players rendered a seamless incorporation of orchestral passages, passing in and out of the on-screen action smoothly. The sound wasn't noticeably impassioned, but it was a perfectly pleasant accompaniment to an old-fashioned night at the movies.
There were a handful of times when folks in the mezzanine couldn't hear the movie's lines over a too-enthusiastic orchestra. But for most of the evening, which clocked in at just over two hours, the symphony made Dorothy's Technicolor wanderings that much more magical. The orchestra brought refreshing sprightliness to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," lyrical poignancy to "If I Only Had A Brain" and a kick-up-your-heels bombast to "Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead," all giving folks one more reason to rediscover a classic.
Jennifer Rome Laster, San Antonio Express-News, 2007
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