Heart & soul of a conductor

Try not to think about this when you hear Neal Gittleman conduct Beethoven’s 5th Symphony with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra on Sunday. But his name fits perfectly into the opening motive of this popular classical piece.

C’mon now. Hum it out loud:

Da-da-da-DUM.

Neal-Git-tle-MAN.

Gittleman probably doesn’t want you thinking about this during the concert, and he certainly doesn’t want you singing it out loud. This is, after all, his interview concert, the second in a series of five this season during which guest conductors will contend for the position of BSO music director.

Gittleman would much rather you pay attention to intonation — the accuracy in the pitch of the instrumentalists’ notes. If the intonation is good and the style is strong, then the BSO should sound like a different orchestra for each of the three pieces they will play for the concert, says Gittleman.

“Intonation is that most important thing,” he explains. “It’s where you start to separate good orchestras from bad orchestras. It speaks to the heart and soul of a musician, and to the heart and soul of the relationship between musician and conductor.”

Gittleman has a lot to say about such relationships:

“As a conductor, you have to be there for the musicians. As a conductor, you’re not there to put on a gymnastic show for the audience, but to represent the composer’s interest and give the audience the best you can. The whole art of conducting is principally one that goes on inside you. It’s between you and the composer, and then it’s figuring out a way to convey that to the musicians.”

His goal, he says, is to get as close to a faithful reproduction of what the composer wrote on the page.

Sound familiar to all you Maine conducting aficionados out there?

It should, because Gittleman, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., learned it in Maine at the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestra Musicians in Hancock, where he spent six summers.

“I had a friend go to the Monteux School for one summer and he told me about it,” recalls Gittleman, who is 38. “He said, `You’ve never heard of this place. It’s like walking off the edge of the universe, but it’s good.’ And he was right.”

The seed for Gittleman’s professional conducting career was planted long before he began studying the craft, however. As a student and violinist with the Yale University symphony, he fell in love with the dynamics of the orchestra: “Just as you assume pianists gravitate to the sound of a piano because they love the sound, in a way, that’s why I’m a conductor. I enjoy making music in the strange way conductors do.”

During his time at Yale, Gittleman studied with the renowned French teacher and conductor Nadia Boulanger, and with Charles Bruck, current director at Monteux’s school. Afterward, he was assistant conductor with the symphony at Hartt School of Music in Connecticut and worked with the Oregon and Syracuse orchestras.

For the past five years, he has been associate conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and music director for the Marion (Indiana) Philharmonic, an orchestra similar in size to the BSO.

His interest in picking up another conducting position reflects his desire to be challenged professionally. He does not, however, want to be a gig-hopping conductor. He is simply interested in making music with orchestras.

He realizes, too, there’s more than music to directing an orchestra. Although he doesn’t expect that he and his wife, Lisa Fry, will move to Maine, he knows that his presence in the community is another important factor in creating a strong symphonic group — both in terms of the playing time and the support that patrons are likely to give to a conductor they see and know locally.

As a sign of his commitment to other communities in which he has worked, Gittleman did morning radio shows on a rock ‘n’ roll station, and currently leads a Classical Conversations series of innovative concerts with behind-the-scenes looks at music.

“Conductors have to be perceived as part of the community,” he says. “You have to be prepared to do all sorts of things they didn’t prepare you for in music school.”

Although the BSO is nearly 100 years old, Gittleman can see and hear that it still has some steps to take before it has reached its potential.

“The biggest problem this orchestra faces — and which it shares with other orchestras in the country — is that these guys don’t play together enough,” he says. “But it’s a challenge to me. Every conductor is looking for a challenge, to re-form an orchestra, give it a push in the right direction.”

The Bangor Symphony Orchestra will perform 3 p.m. Nov. 21 at the Maine Center for the Arts. For tickets, call 942-5555.