San Diego’s Musical Globetrotter: David Atherton
by Darlene G. Davies photo by Vincent Knakal
At the age of 24, David Atherton became the youngest conductor ever to appear at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has conducted many new productions for the Canadian Opera and English National Opera, and he returns to the Metropolitan Opera on a regular basis. In 1967 Atherton co-founded the London Sinfonietta, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras, and he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. From 1980 to 1987, he was music director of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, and he returns to San Diego each summer to direct the Mainly Mozart Festival, which he founded in 1989. He was made an Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth for his work as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He is an immensely talented conductor whose services are sought throughout the world. He is also articulate, accessible, and enthusiastic — in short, an interviewer’s dream come true.
Darlene G. Davies: You live all over the world. In your heart, where do you really reside?
David Atherton: As you will appreciate, being a conductor involves traveling to cities in which orchestras and/or opera companies exist. I have recently conducted new opera productions in New York City at the Met and in Toronto with Canadian Opera and these have required six to eight weeks in each city, allowing me to rent an apartment for an extended period. Conversely, if I am doing concerts or radio/TV work, I will often only need to be away for a week or so, for example, two recent concerts in Brussels of Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony, and a hotel is the most likely residence. This, of course, begs your question of what I mean by “away” and where “in my heart” I reside.
DGD: It sounds like the world is your home.
DA: If I’m working throughout Europe, which I do for about four months of the year, “away” means traveling from London, where we have an apartment and where my children live, although they are all in their 20s and pursuing their own careers. If traveling throughout North America, “away” is from either San Diego with the Mainly Mozart Festival, or Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands where I am a Permanent Resident. If working in the Far East, “away” translates as from Hong Kong, since I still have ties there from my 11 years as music director. As their conductor laureate I now return there each season for at least four weeks each year. In short, it really is impossible to answer your question. Suffice it to say that San Diego has a particularly special place in my affections.
DGD: Since 1967, when Sir George Solti invited you to join the music staff of the Royal Opera House, London, yours has been an artistically rich and varied life. Has it followed paths you imagined when you were only 23?
DA: At age 12 I knew I wanted a career in music, but only gradually did I realize that it was to be as a conductor. By my 20s I knew that conducting was all consuming and something I just had to do. Looking back I see it has been a privilege. Where else are you applauded every time you finish a day’s work?
DGD: You were the music director of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in the ’80s. So, when you founded the Mainly Mozart Festival in 1989, you must have been familiar with the music scene in this area.
DA: Yes. I wanted to give something back to San Diego and also give myself a professional reason to return. By deliberately choosing a time of year, early June, when there is little other professional musical activity in San Diego, I felt that we could fill a gap in the musical scene by inviting musicians from all over the country to collaborate in a convivial working holiday environment. By handpicking our wonderful chamber orchestra, I was able to select musicians who would work well together and have similar high standards. The results have exceeded all my expectations — and the fact that we are still going from strength to strength some 15 years later is a testament to our success and to the expertise and devotion of our executive director, Nancy Laturno Bojanic, who has piloted the festival since its inception.
DGD: What did you bring with you from other experiences to the Mainly Mozart Festival that enabled the fledgling organization to survive and now to thrive?
DA: An understanding of what the public wants, how musicians are motivated, and how to remain fiscally sound without being unadventurous. We have created a festival which I honestly believe is of a higher standard than anything you will find elsewhere in the U.S.
DGD: Mainly Mozart has established a strong connection with Mexico.
DA: The development of our Mexican links has been tremendously important. We realized from the outset that, if we were to succeed in northern Mexico, we would need the support of people living there to give the festival an identity of its own. Previously, organizations had treated Mexico as a profitable “run-out” venue — invest as little money and time as possible, and get out as quickly as possible earning a small fee in the process. We weren’t interested in this model. We wanted our supporters there to be as enthusiastic about us as we are about them. So we made a decision that, from the outset, any money raised in Mexico would remain in Mexico to develop a separate festival there.
DGD: Considering your many years with the San Diego Symphony, and remembering the continual financial struggles while you were conducting there, what was your reaction to the very large and generous gift given recently by Irwin and Joan Jacobs to the San Diego Symphony?
DA: Total amazement at its size, and gratitude that Irwin and Joan could afford to be so staggeringly generous to give on this scale to a musical performing organization. We will all be the richer for it. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t wish that it could have happened almost a couple of decades ago when the symphony was at its zenith, but I well remember Irwin back then already being one of its keenest supporters, giving of his time and money more than most to ensure its survival. Of course that was almost two decades ago and Qualcomm was still in its earliest stages of development. Timing is everything, as they say.
DGD: You have an intense work schedule, and you’ve maintained this high energy routine for decades now. What keeps you going?
DA: Love of my work and the enjoyment I am hopefully able to give others.
DGD: What do you do to relax?
DA: What’s that? Eleanor and I love to go to movies, but only in the late morning and early afternoon when we have the theatre to ourselves. I’m a Mac-nerd, and have been since the week after its release in 1984, so much time is spent on the computer. When I went to Hong Kong as music director in 1989 I networked the entire office of 32 people — there’s much satisfaction in seeing a new Chinese office recruit typing Chinese on a Mac using a Western keyboard within hours of joining the staff. I’d say the Mac is my second love — oops, correction — my third love after Eleanor and my three wonderful children.
DGD: Do you and your wife have pets?
DA: Absolutely, categorically not. Neither do we smoke.
DGD: What’s your favorite food?
DA: A good, hearty breakfast, complete with everything that is bad for you.
DGD: David, what would you like to do that you haven’t done yet? It’s hard to imagine there is much left for you to achieve.
DA: One of the frustrations of conducting is that you may have the perfect interpretation in your mind, but you begin every performance knowing that if you achieve 70 percent of such perfection you are on a winning wicket, to use English cricketing terminology. One is always striving to reach 100 percent and for maybe a minute or two, here or there, it’s possible. If I could reach five minutes on one occasion, I’d be very happy.
DGD: What’s in Mainly Mozart’s future, both short-term and long-term?
DA: Initially, more of the same — why change a winning formula? However, we’d like to extend the range of music performed, maybe by performing some larger scale works with soloists and chorus, maybe over a lengthier period in more locations.
DGD: You’ll continue to strive to reach 100 percent.
DA: Of course. The music demands it. |
