Rochester’s Maestro

Jere Lantz has led the Rochester Symphony Orchestra for 40 percent of its 100-year history. He’ll step down from his CEO responsibilities in June but remain artistic director. (Marie Ferguson, courtesy of the Rochester Symphony Orchestra)

When Jere Lantz came to Rochester to lead the local orchestra, he thought he might be here for five years, maybe 10. But 40 years fly by when you love what you do, and Lantz clearly revels in being out front and making music.

“I think of myself as an evangelist -- an evangelist for great music,” said Lantz, who now more than even looks the part of the maestro, with a mane of gray hair that flies loose when he’s waving his arms or jabbing the baton. “I love to pass along my love of music. I like to get up in front of people and talk, and you can’t stop me. People tell me to just say a few words and it hardly ever happens, it’s always a number of words. It’s the same thing with conducting.” The Rochester Symphony Orchestra is a century old this year, and Lantz, 71, has been artistic director for 40 percent of its history. The orchestra and maestro have been celebrating the occasions all season, and on Story by jay furst Contributing Writer

March 14, Lantz will took a bow with a program called “Cheers to 40 Years,” featuring music that has special meaning for him -- the first piece he conducted with full orchestra, Wagner’s “Meistersinger” Overture, for example, and the Symphony No. 2 by the composer he’s come to realize is his favorite, Johannes Brahms. Lantz has had a remarkable impact on Rochester’s arts and culture life since the days of Jimmy Carter and vinyl records. Theater directors have come and gone (some under dark clouds), other institutions such as the Rochester Art Center have had their ups and downs, and the city has boomed even as its arts attractions have not. Through it all, with creative programming, a lively wit and common touch, and a Bernstein-like talent for spreading the gospel of classical music, Lantz has helped keep the Rochester Symphony growing, vital and relevant. That’s no easy task in an era when there’s an infinite number of ways to be entertained, and fewer kids grow up listening to the classics.

Forty years with a baton in your hand and a score in front of you -- or in your head -- is quite a feat. The League of American Orchestras estimates that the average tenure of current U.S. maestros is 13 years. “Jere Lantz’s tenure is a powerful testament to his

APRIL 2020 | www.souther NmINn SCENE.com Lantz, who counts Leonard Bernstein and George Szell among the conductors who most influenced him, works on a score in advance of the Rochester Symphony Orchestra’s concert on March 14, a celebration of his 40 years on the podium. (Photo by Elin Lantz Lesser)

success in providing audiences in the Rochester, Minnesota, community with a meaningful musical experience,” said Jesse Rosen, the league’s president and CEO . “The orchestra’s centennial anniversary underscores the strength of Jere’s leadership, the Rochester Symphony’s ability to connect with its constituents, and the value of one of Rochester’s oldest cultural institutions to its residents.”

Philip Brunelle, artistic director of the Minneapolis-based choral ensemble VocalEssence, knows something about longevity in the music business. He started what’s now VocalEssence 51 years ago and remains out front at age 76, touring nationally. “You have to love what you’re doing and be excited about it,” he said in a phone interview from Pittsburgh last month. “You have to wake up every day and say, ‘Oh good, another day at this.’ Jere is extremely good at sharing his feelings about music with the audience and the wider community. He’s always finding new avenues and trails for enjoying music.” In 2015, when the Rochester orchestra’s executive director abruptly resigned, the board asked him to take on that job as well as his musical one. “I said I could give them five years,” he said, and that’s how it has turned out. He’ll step down from the executive duties in June and return to being the artistic director exclusively, which he calls “semi-retirement.” He’ll also continue to conduct two ensembles in the Twin

A short stay became a long stay

Lantz grew up in East Stroudsburg, Pa., population 7,000, in the Pocono Mountains. “There was no orchestra. I didn’t hear an orchestra until I was in late middle school or high school.” But his parents were well-educated and his mother played the piano -- “she could play Mozart sonatas and the easier Chopin polonaises.” He took to the piano and also picked up the trombone. He went to Yale to study economics but left with an advanced master’s degree in music instead. Brunelle, then music director of the Minnesota Opera, hired Lantz as his assistant in 1977 and he’s been a Minnesotan ever since. When that gig was up in 1980, Lantz was hired to lead the R ochester orchestra, which was founded in 1920, only 17 years after the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now the Minnesota O rchestra). When he arrived in Rochester, the orchestra was operated by the city Music Department and his office was in old City Hall. Twelve years later , the city “decided my job shouldn’t be fulltime, it should be half-time,” so he and his family moved to the Twin Cities, where he added other musical work “to put a living together, support the kids and all that,” but he continued to lead the Rochester Symphony. He thought about taking a shot at the big leagues in the mid-1980s; he completed his doctorate in conducting at Yale, which opened doors to top academic jobs. He also had an agent who found guest-conducting work for him all over the country. “I would conduct this orchestra in upstate New York and that orchestra in California and that orchestra in Alabama, and it was kind of fun,” he said. “But my kids were growing and I wanted to give them more attention, so after nine years I parted company with the agent, stopped traveling so much and decided to focus here. We just really liked it here.” C ities, the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra and the Minnetonka C horal Society. The Pops Orchestra, which he’s led for a mere 33 years, plays about a dozen outdoor concerts all around the city of Minneapolis in July, and the Minnetonka chorus “takes care of the choral side” of his musical interests, along with the Rochester chorale, which has 90 singers and is an integral part of the organization. The Rochester orchestra is semi-professional -- it’s not a fulltime job for the 70 or so musicians but “everyone gets paid, every time,” he said. There’s little turnover from year to year, which allows for more consistency and growth than with a community orchestra. Half the players are from the Rochester area, the rest are from the T win Cities, W isconsin and Iowa. “ W e have a tri-state trombone section, for example,” he said. “They get along just fine together.” The maestro’s bucket list Forty years in charge of anything is an accomplishment, but in the music world it’s exceedingly rare. Eugene Ormandy was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 44 years. James Levine ruled the Metropolitan Opera orchestra for 41 years -- too long, as it turned out -- and Zubin Mehta has conducted the Israel Philharmonic for more than half the country’s history. At age 71, Lantz has one major item on his bucket list as a conductor, to lead a performance of Beethoven’s opera, “Fidelio.” He’ll celebrate 40 years as the Rochester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale’s maestro with a concert on March 14. (Marie Ferguson, courtesy of the Rochester Symphony Orchestra) Lantz doesn’t aspire to Mehta’s longevity, though he jokes that he only has four years to go to top Harold Cooke as the longestserving Rochester maestro, “so I have a record to break.” “There’s kind of a cliche of the aging conductor,” he said. Many stay around too long. Some go out with their boots on, such as the former Minneapolis Symphony maestro Dmitri M itropoulis, who collapsed during a rehearsal at La Scala and died hours later. “ When I was in graduate school, the comedian Danny Kaye came in and conducted a concert, and one of his bits was to be the old conductor. He was hilarious. I don’t want to be that old conductor. Physically I’m not as energetic, and at some point I may just leave it, but it’s fantastic aerobic exercise. There’s nothing better than conducting -- and it’s low-impact.”

After stepping down as CEO , he’ll have more time to read -- he wants to fill in the Shakespeare plays he hasn’t read -- perform more often with his wife, Kristina, who’s a violinist in the R ochester and Minneapolis Pops orchestras, and goof off. “There’ll be days when I’m not going to think about music at all, or the business of music, or the Rochester Symphony. I’m looking forward to that.” He and Kristina plan to stay in Rochester. “We love our house and love the community, and we’re so glad we’re not in the T win C ities anymore.” He also plans to focus on a few projects that are close to his heart: building up the endowment to keep the orchestra on an even keel, and beating the drum for a first-class concert hall in Rochester, which doesn’t have anything of the kind now. The acoustics in Presentation Hall, the orchestra’s home in Mayo Civic C enter, were improved with a renovation a few years ago, but no one would say it’s good or versatile or attractive enough for the city’s size and ambitions.

“It would be a concert hall for ever ything, not just for the R ochester Symphony,” he said. There’s almost no public talk about the idea currently, it would cost $60 million or thereabouts, and there’s no great tradition of arts philanthropy in R ochester, aside from the Mayo brothers’ generosity a hundred years ago. Still, for a city that aspires to destination status, it’s not impossible. Lantz would be uniquely qualified to lead such an effort. Though many assume we’re in the twilight years of classical music, Lantz is an optimist. There’s infinitely more competition for time and attention than when he arrived in Rochester, but managers and maestros have become less doctrinaire about what type of music belongs on the program. “We might bring a piece of film music into a concert alongside a Beethoven symphony , for example. We’re becoming more adept at creating programs that have relevance to the community and meaning for people.” That’s been among his virtues as Rochester’s maestro: his willingness to embrace all kinds of music, with the exceptions of country and hip-hop. Just about everything else has been fair game. To keep the classical tradition going, you need an audience, and if that means you compromise and add some razzledazzle to get people through the door, so be it. “The mission is to have people really appreciate great music, whether it was written 300 years ago or last week,” he said. After more than 40 years, you might guess he’s conducted everything he wants to play at least once, but there’s one big item on the bucket list and if there’s any justice he’ll get his chance to do it: Beethoven’s opera, “Fidelio.”

Not that Lantz is in an elegiac frame of mind, but when asked how he wants to be remembered for his decades of work in Rochester, he says without missing a beat, “I want people to remember the wonderful time they had with music when I led it, talked about it, introduced it. I want them to look back and say, ‘That was good. I’m glad I went to that. And because of that gift of music, I hope they give it to somebody else, their children or grandchildren.” SMS “Cheers to Forty Years” The Rochester Symphony Orchestra will celebrate Artistic Director Jere Lantz’s 40 years on the podium with a special concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at Presentation Hall in Rochester. On the program: Wagner’s “Meistersinger” Overture, William Walton’s “Suite from Henry V,” and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2.