Ravinia 2022, Issue 5

PETER SCHAFF (KARAJAN); SIAN RICHARDS (OUNDJIAN) I’m telling you now, you have the hands o f a c onduc t o r. —Herbert von Karajan to Peter oundjian, 1976 In 1976, Herbert von Karajan, then 20 years into his lifetime appointment as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, led three days of master classes for the conducting program at Juilliard with the student orchestra. Perhaps frustrated by the young conductors’ over-preparation, during the second session he put the orchestra’s concertmaster, Oundjian, on the podium to lead purely from his experience of playing the music. AFTER LEAVING the Tokyo String Quartet, the big question was what to do next. He had a family to support and a mortgage to pay. To find an answer, he looked back at a significant experience at Juilliard, when he crossed paths with another mentor. Cele- brated conductor Herbert von Karajan came to give master classes, and Oundjian served as the concert- master of the participating orchestra. Karajan asked him if he conducted, and, in fact, Oundjian was a conducting minor. The conductor left 20 minutes at the end of the second session for Oundjian to lead Brahms’s First Symphony, and his fellow players worked hard to make the stand-in conductor look good. “I’m telling you now, you have the hands of a conductor,” Karajan told the young violinist. Those words came echoing back in 1995, and Oundjian decided to give conducting a try. The first person he told about his idea was another noted conductor and friend, André Previn. The maestro had Oundjian over to his house and shared some of the things he would need to know, including some of the tricks that musicians would play on unsuspecting conductors. “It was incredible,” Oundjian said. Previn allowed the former violinist to share the podium during a concert as part of the 50th anniversary season of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts near Katonah, NY. That outing went so well that the aspiring conductor went on to serve as the organization’s artistic director from 1997 through 2003 and artistic adviser and principal conductor from 2004 through 2007. Jeffrey Haydon, who took over as president and chief executive officer of Ravinia in 2020, had held a similar position at Caramoor, where he quickly became aware of Oundjian’s prior impact there. “He did an amazing job of raising the profile of Cara- moor,” Haydon said. When Haydon arrived there in September 2012, little was on the books for 2013, so he decided the summer season needed a big orches- tral concert featuring someone with special meaning to the festival. “Very quickly, all eyes went to Peter Oundjian,” Haydon said. He called up the conductor, who maintains a residence about 35 minutes from the grounds, and Oundjian quickly agreed. When Haydon and Marin Alsop, Ravinia’s chief conductor, were planning the 2022 Chicago Sym- phony season, they shared lists of conductors they wanted to see at the festival. One name on both lists was Oundjian’s. Alsop and he were classmates at Juilliard and both played together in the same student orchestra. “I’ve known her for ages and I’ve always liked her and always admired her,” he said. When Alsop served as music director of the Balti- more Symphony Orchestra from 2007 through 2021, Oundjian was a guest conductor 10 or so times, and he now serves as principal conductor of the Colora- do Symphony, which Alsop led early in her career. Perlman is not often able to perform at Ravinia with the CSO, because the summer institute of the Perlman Music Program, which the violinist found- ed with his wife, Toby, usually conflicts. But this year the timing worked out that Perlman could come, and he will perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. “This is a rare moment to see him perform live,” Haydon said. The Ravinia leader asked Oundjian if he would be willing to lead the concert, not know- ing the history between the two performers, and, the conductor jumped at the chance, having shared the stage with his old friend many times before, including at his last Ravinia appearance in 2004. “He is an extraordinary person on many, many levels,” Oundjian said of Perlman. “I can’t believe what he gives to all of us. To be on the stage with him is just a thrill.” Kyle MacMillan served as classical music critic for the Denver Post from 2000 through 2011. He currently freelances in Chicago, writing for such publications and websites as the Chicago Sun-Times , Early Music America , Opera News , and Classical Voice of North America . RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 28, 2022 10