Music has been a part of Edo de Waart's life since he was born, the son of a member of the Netherlands Opera chorus.
Sixty years ago, he began oboe lessons and started off on a journey that has taken him around the globe.
Now, after conducting stints in Holland, New York, Minnesota, San Francisco, Australia and even Hong Kong, the current Middelton resident is settling in as the sixth music director in Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra history.
After about six weeks on the job, de Waart is still getting his bearings but he likes what he sees so far of both the city and community.
He took time to sit down with OnMilwaukee.com to discuss his career and what he hopes to accomplish with the MSO.
Enjoy this latest installment of Milwaukee Talks, with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Music Director, Edo de Waart.
OnMilwaukee.com: Let's start with the basics, tell me about your background and how you got here.
Edo de Waart: It's a long story by now; I've lived a long time. I was born in Amsterdam. My father was a singer in the chorus of the Netherlands opera. I started piano lessons at eight and the oboe at 11. I finished high school when I was 17 and the got government and city grants to go to the conservatory in Amsterdam for the oboe. In my second year there, I took conducting lessons. I got a job first at what is now called the Netherlands Philharmonic, I was, and I think 20. I did that for three years and then I got a job as associate principal of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. The manager of that orchestra alerted me to a conducting competition to be held in New York -- the Dmitri Mitropoulos Competition. I became one of the winners.
OMC: And that's how you ended up working in New York with Leonard Bernstein.
EdW: Part of the prize was money and part was a job somewhere. I was picked by Bernstein with two other people to be his assistants. That was a special year. I was 24 when I got there. I already had a contract for the same position in Amsterdam. I went to New York for a year and then went back to the Netherlands for two more years then I became staff conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. A few years later I was the music director.
I went to San Francisco in 1977 and was there eight years. In '86, I took an eight-year hiatus and then went to Minnesota and was music director for nine years and subsequently to that, I also held the position with the Sydney Symphony.
In '89, I became music director for the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. That was my longest tenure-15 years. It was probably my most happy and successful tenure until now. I did 10 years in Sydney and in '04, I started with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and in '09, I came to Milwaukee.
OMC: You've had the opportunity to travel the world, what was so attractive about the Milwaukee position?
EdW: It's a very good orchestra. It's a bit of a secret, I don't know if that's on purpose. It's a little bit in the shadow of Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota. Bigger cities or longer histories. It had a good reputation. I've never conducted here but it had a very good reputation in the profession. Everybody who's been here says it's a very good orchestra. It has the great charm of wanting to work. It was an orchestra that would like to go up a notch or two. That's a nice thing to work with so you don't feel that your ambitions are bigger than the people you work with.
So far, I've proven to myself it was a smart decision.
OMC: You actually live in Madison, don't you?
EdW: That was the other attraction. It's in Wisconsin; I live in Middleton with my wife (Rebecca). I didn't have to fly too much. I've lived here for 2 ½ years. Rebecca was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Middleton.
OMC: How did you two meet?
EdW: Eleven years ago, she was one of the apprentices in Santa Fe, where I was conducting an opera. Apprentices are chosen from 1,000 young singers. She was a second-year apprentice. We were both very single and after a few weeks, we went out for dinner and talked and it was clear there was more there. The rest is history.
OMC: Rebecca must be very happy to have you home more often than not now.
EdW: She is and so am I. We're both really happy with this. We have two children, Olivia and Sebastiaan. They were both born in Holland but have dual citizenship. The both attend public schools in Middleton. Its nice, we're all very happy that we get to see each other. It's working out really good.
OMC: Let's talk about music. Growing up, what were your influences?
EdW: Where I grew up, in Amsterdam, there was and still is an incredibly rich musical life. It has one of the world's great orchestras -- the Concertgebouw Orchestra -- as it's home orchestra, which is generally seen along with Berlin and Vienna to be among the three best. That, of course, was a great influence. My oboe teacher, for example, was principal teacher and my conducting teacher was a principal keyboardist with the Concertgebouw. There was an incredibly rich tradition of excellence. That permeated all of Dutch musical life in a way. That was the standard that you looked up to. There's an enormous richness of experience.
It's very hard, at 68, to say for sure what was the biggest influence but that played a big part in forming my taste in music.
OMC: What kind of conductor do you consider yourself to be?
EdW: I'm kind of a stickler for detail. The most important thing, I think, is to be true to the score. Once you do that, you can interpret. The score is the blueprint for a concert. A composer can no longer defend himself -- most of those guys are dead. The conductor has the duty to be as close to letter to what was meant in his eye. Every performance is different. Some people's hearts beat faster or slower; some are more romantic and some are cooler. So the basis has to be the score, absolutely. Since those guys were incredibly fantastic composers; it's hard to do that. Tendency in last 20 years has been to interpret what others wrote. It gets hyped more. It's a little bit painful to see that happen. I'm one of the last old guys that is going to fight that.
OMC: Of which composers are you most fond?
EdW: I usually do best from Beethoven on to almost today. Some contemporary composers that are still alive are very much on my list. John Adams is one of them. We're good friends, actually, and he's one of the best American composers. But we started together in San Francisco and he was completely unknown. We named him composer-in-residence. He's written pieces like "Nixon in China," "Dr. Atomic" and great pieces for opera and chamber orchestras. He's very prolific.
In between, I feel particularly at home with romantic and late romantic works from Wagner, Strauss and Mahler. I could live with a handful of composers easily for the rest of my life if I had to.
OMC: If you had to pick just one, which would it be?
EdW: Beethoven. Output is so amazing. You have nine wonderful symphonies. He had fantastic piano sonatas that I think just get better and better. There's a wealth of string quartets. He has so much; so you don't run out of stuff. In a way, without Beethoven, there wouldn't have been Mahler, Strauss or Wagner. They were all incredible admirers of Beethoven. It's powerful music. The first composer in musical history where a lot of ourselves is composed in it; anger, tenderness, love, longing. With Mozart, it's more subliminal and harder to trace. He's above everybody; the most perfect.
In Bach's time, music was for God. It was written for church and spiritual reasons. Slowly, the music became for humans and for the concert hall. People would buy tickets. Beethoven put a gigantic stamp on that by personalizing that. He's written some wonderful Masses. His music is very personal to human condition. He did us incredible favor with that.
OMC: Are there particular works -- of any -- kind that you'd like to do while in Milwaukee?
EdW: "Fidelio." The text isn't always as great, but the music is indescribably marvelous, I think. I'm actually doing a couple of concerts with Hong Kong at the end of the season at a small, Beethoven festival. It's a great work.
OMC: Have you heard MSO before?
EdW: I came here twice. I heard Andreas Delfs (former music director) do Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." That was a tremendous performance. I also came to the Mahler Eighth program.
OMC: Milwaukee has a rich European heritage, especially German. There were a lot of great groups, back in the day, which performed some of the classic German works. Do you hope to tie into the city's deep ethnic roots and did that play a role in your decision?
EdW: It was certainly a consideration in coming here. I knew there was a richness in experience in the past. Once I know the city and the audience better, and they know me better, I will play in on what the city is and the likes and dislikes of the audience. I'll try to bring things I know they like and will know. Play a lot of great music that I know will be very popular there.
For me it's not a punishment to play Brahms, Mahler, Bruckner and Schubert all the time. We're an American orchestra and we need to play music of our own soil too and further that. I'd like to have as rich a mix as possible, but I will be always tooled on the classics and romantics. You can't forget that.
OMC: Have you had a chance to get to know the city at all yet? Do you have any favorite places?
EdW: Honestly, Milwaukee I don't know that well yet. I've only been here five weeks and have been extremely busy. I'm looking forward, in years to come, to get to know the city quite well. Right now, I stay over about two nights every week. The first five weeks were full with meetings, so I hardly came outside. That will change as things become normal.
What I love about life in Wisconsin and Middleton is my life is crazy enough as it is -- hotels, airports and flying around -- to come here is like an oasis. It's friendly and calm. There are a lot of good things.
