We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paul Polivnick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paul below.

Hi Paul, thanks for joining us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

I started studying classical music when I was eight years old. I started playing in youth orchestras as a violinist and trumpeter when I was 10. I fell in love with the communal act of making music with others. I had great, positive teachers, went to all the best summer music festivals (Aspen, Tanglewood, Academia Chigiana in Siena, Italy), graduated as a conductor from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, after which I won a post as the Conductor of the Debut Orchestra of the Young Musicians Foundation of Los Angeles. The orchestra was composed of some of the best collegiate musicians in the area and it always had a talented young conductor in charge who was just getting started. My first year on the job was exhilarating. I was on my own, using my abilities freely and in love with making music with my new friends. The second year I was assigned an advisor by the Foundation which had always been the custom. This advisor had just retired from being the concertmaster of one of the world’s great orchestras and as such represented “authority” to me.

He came to my rehearsals over a period of a couple of months, sat in a chair behind the violin section and made faces like he felt I was an idiot, shaking his head, sighing, etc. When I came to his home for a “lesson” he said things like “you know Paul that a conductor has to be a god, he can’t make any mistakes.” This is total nonsense but at the time I was young and impressionable. I took it all in without evaluating its truth in any way. The cumulative effect of his false “advice” and invalidation caused me to come to a rehearsaal one night and have to stop after an hour, telling the orchestra “I have to leave. I don’t feel well.”.

I went to my apartment and was in the blackest of depressions. (I never got depressed in my life prior to this). Even though the room’s lights were on, it looked black and I had no idea why I felt so completely worthless. Then after a while I suddenly opened my eyes wide, threw out my right arm pointing and exclaimed “it’s Him!!!!!!” From that moment on I was free of his influence and went back to just being myself with full use of my abilitiy, training and talent.

The lesson I learned was that not everyone has my well-being in mind, that there is a type of degraded being whose goal is to
suppress, injure and hold down others. No one has a right to do that and it is vital to stay clear of them if you value your happiness and productivity. The art world is full of those characters. Have you ever seen a concert review where the reviewer seemed to want to hurt the artist, not just express a musical point of view? Or a ballet director who thinks that if he invalidates the dancers enough, they’ll work all the harder to prove him wrong? It’s all nonsense. I’m glad that I learned that lesson early on. I am responsible for my own personal integrity.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I conduct symphony orchestras in a wide range of classical music that spans centuries and many of the world’s cultures. I trained as a violinist and trumpeter with my father and then a succession of fine teachers in the New York area. I went to the best summer music festivals and graduated from the Juilliard School in Manhattan with a degree in orchestral conducting. Following that I auditioned for and won my first post as a conductor with the Debut Orchestra of Los Angeles. The year was 1969 and I was 22. While involved with that I was also a violist with the top notch Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner as well being on the faculty of UCLA.

In 1977 I won a post as the Associate Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, one of the major orchestras of the USA. This was a big post with over 75 concerts a season. In 1981 I held a similar post with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra with 90 concerts a season. Having been a highly successful “number 2” I became of interest to good regional orchestras that were looking for a new Music Director and in 1985 I won that post with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. It was a busy time. The season expanded to 46 weeks, we toured and made recordings and developed an extensive outreach program.

From 1997-2002 I was the Music Director of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestras, the oldest conservatory of music in the USA. I conducted two orchestras there and taught conducting. During this period my guest conducting expanded and to date I have conducted over 80 orchestras in Europe, North America and Asia. I had long runs of annual visits to Korea, Lille, France and San Jose, California.

Also during this period I started a long association with the New Hampshire Music Festival as its Music Director and then its Conductor Laureate. It has been a labor of love for over 20 years.

In all of this activity, my purpose has been and remains to share my love of this great repertoire with as many people as possible. Musical vibrations cause us to experience emotions we would never feel without having had those vibrations hit us. Plus, the admiration we performers feel for the music we play is carried in the sound and that really uplifts the audience. The problems I face and my fellow musicians face are the customary human problems of interpersonal relations, group dynamics, ethics and financial duress. People may think that orchestral musicians are on cloud nine all the time by dint of their involvement with producing glorious art but that is not the case. My job as their leader is to help them overcome these distractions, difficulties and upsets by remaining myself focused on simply doing the best I can for the music I conduct. What makes me the most happy is seeing that my players are proud of what we are doing together. I am somewhat unusual in that I want everyone to have a good life and to realize their potential. The history of conducting was until relatively recently a matter of master and slave. The musician was considered nothing more than a key on the conductor’s keyboard. The relationship should be like a good two-way conversation with each “side” communicating equally and inspiring each other through the interaction. The results can be astonishing. Once at the New Hampshire Music Festival I was conducting something at a performance, had a thought about a kind of sound I wanted to hear from the violins and then immediately heard their sound change! I didn’t say anything or change my physical movements at all. We were just in such good communication. Another time, earlier in Milwaukee I was conducting a famous piece by the French composer, Olivier Messiaen called the Turangalila Symphony. It’s for a very large orchestra and is intensely colorful and extremely positive. In performance I had the sense that the piece was not only affecting the audience in the concert hall but all of life!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

There is a lot of talent in the world. I have had to go through numerous auditions over the years to win professional posts. It took resilience to keep moving forward when faced with odd circumstances. Here’s one story. I was a candidate for the post of Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in 1982. At that time I was in my second year as the Associate Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In October of that year the town’s pro baseball team, the Brewers went to the World Series. My wife and I were big fans and the series was happening when we were in Memphis for my audition week. My concert was a big success and afterward the Board Chairman took me aside and said the the job was mine. They had to look at 4 other candidates over the next several months but “you’re the one.” Well I ended up not being chosen and it wasn’t until 20 years later that I found out why: I had worn a Milwaukee Brewer’s sweatshirt at one of my rehearsals and the orchestra’s biggest donor thought that I was thumbing my nose at Memphis “being from the big city!” She told the Board that if I was hired she would stop giving them money! All I really was doing by wearing that shirt was trying to show that I had many interests and that I support and promote where I live, something that I would have done for Memphis had I gotten the job! So in the end, when things like this happen there are those who get upset and give up and those who don’t. I didn’t and believe me, I had several humdingers!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My reputation was built on consistent quality, personality and philosophy. I have a unique sound which I produce with orchestras which is the result of how I want to hear music played. That basic personality has not changed over the years. The way I treat people has not changed. I am simply more aware now and know what I am doing and why. Musicians have aways reacted positively to me because they feel the respect and affection I have for them. Audiences have also responded to my work with enthusiasm because I try always to give them “the real deal,” not a routine experience. So I would say in my profession, word of mouth has been the prime builder of my reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.paulpolivnick.com
• Youtube: www.youtube/user/Polivnick