A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE

There is more to being a conductor than simply standing in front of the orchestra and waving a baton like a magic wand. But it is like magic, says Uruguayan conductor and composer Jose Serebrier. He is one of the most recorded conductors of his generation and has received several Grammy Award nominations.

“You’re not touching anything. You are touching the air, and the musicians have to read your mind. It is really mysterious work,” he told China Daily during his recent trip in China.

However, the mystery of his work is derived from detailed preparation and abundant rehearsals.

“Knowing every note in the music, analyzing it, having in mind how it should sound. If the conductor makes a very sharp gesture, the music will sound harsh; if a conductor makes a soft gesture, it will be more soft and melodic. Eye contact is very important as well. It transmits to the players’ body language, like a dance.”

Serebrier always analyzes the music he is going to conduct. He says interpretation is the most important part, while analysis should be one step ahead of interpretation. “When the musicians come to rehearsal, everything is marked by me. All the interpretation is in the music already, so I don’t have to speak.”

The analysis and interpretation of music not only brings success to the performance, but also imprints his conducting style on the music itself.

“When you ask what my conducting style is, the personality is very important,” he says. “My style will be adjusted according to the music.”

He is concerned that many conductors today just play the notes, beating time with no pressure and making the sounds pretty much the same, no matter whether the composer is Schubert or anyone else.

Serebrier puts emphasis on getting the music across to the audience. “The other thing is to transmit to the public. We are not playing for ourselves, we are playing for the public,” he says.

This may also explain why he is one of the most recorded conductors in the world, with more than 300 recordings to his name. He and the orchestra treat the recording as a real concert and act as if they are playing for an imaginary audience.

However, conducting was not Serebrier’s first choice of career. He studied violin for several years until he found out the repertoire for the instrument was very limited, while the symphonic repertoire was enormous. Because of a love for music, the young Serebrier latched on to conducting.

He stepped onto the stage and conducted his first orchestra when he was 11. At first he wanted to work with the National Symphony of Uruguay but the orchestra thought he was too young, especially he wore short pants when they met.

This rejection didn’t dampen his enthusiasm. He went to see the Minister of Culture and said he wished to organize a youth orchestra. After receiving a letter from minister, giving him permission to skip school sometimes, he recruited about 80 young musicians and toured all over the South America for four years.

Serebrier was the conductor and also the youngest member of the orchestra. “I made the musicians memorize all the music,” he laughs when recalling those days. “There were three months of rehearsals. I didn’t know enough. I thought they should read from memory.” The first concert was a big success, attracting the then-president of Uruguay to attend.

Now South America is leading the world with youth orchestras. “I didn’t know I was being a pioneer,” he says. “I just wanted to conduct so I organized the orchestra.”

At the end of the golden age for conducting worldwide, 16-year-old Serebrier left Uruguay and arrived in the United States to pursue his musical dream. He was lucky, he says, to receive lots of attention from the professionals there.

“I was so fortunate that Leopold Stokowski, one of the most important conductors of the 20th century, premiered my first symphony when I was 17,” says Serebrier. Two years later, Stokowski organized his own orchestra in New York and Serebrier became his associate conductor. “That was a great influence, watching him rehearse, because he got the most beautiful sound out of the orchestra.”

Leopold Stokowski hailed Serebrier as “the greatest master of orchestral balance” at the age of only 21.

The great conductor was also his mentor although, as Serebrier says, Stokowski never taught him anything. Instead, he learned by watching.

“I asked him a very silly question when I was 17,” he says. “I’d only met him for a minute and I said, ‘Maestro, I would like to be a conductor and can you give me some advice?’ He said, ‘Of course. Go around the world and watch all the bad conductors and learn what not to do’.”

It was good advice. Serebrier learned from other people’s mistakes, which benefited him for his whole career. For example, he learned not to disturb the orchestra during rehearsal from a conductor who would always stop the orchestra every two notes.

Five years after working with Stokowski, Serebrier went to Cleveland and worked as composer-in-residence with George Szell, one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors.

“I was very lucky to meet these conductors and work with them,” he says.

Serebrier was born to Russian and Polish parents of Jewish extraction in Montevideo, the capital and largest city of Uruguay. The family later moved to the United States, so Serebrier grew up in a multicultural environment, bringing elements from different cultural into his music.

Some of his music seems to have a Slavic flavor, while some other pieces have a South American influence. He wrote two tangos, one of which is called Tango in Blue.

“I have nostalgia for Uruguay,” says Serebrier. “I do go back if possible.” To him, Uruguay is a fantastic and amazing country. “It’s considered the Switzerland of Latin America because it’s so peaceful and so cultural.”

With such a love for the country, it’s no surprise that he has achieved so much with Latin American music. He won the Latin Grammy Award for the Best Classical Album in 2004 for his own work, the Carmen Symphony. In the Latin Grammy Awards of 2005, he was a nominee for Glazunov’s 5th Symphony.

Last month, he worked with RTE National Symphony Orchestra to bring an auditory feast to a Chinese audience at China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. It wasn’t Serebrier’s first visit to China. He did his first performance in the country six years ago with the Young Orchestra of the Americas.

“China is like a new world. It’s one of the oldest countries and it acts like a new country. There’s so much enthusiasm and entrepreneurship,” Serebrier says. “Chinese people are so smart. They are beautiful and wonderful people.”

Now, Serebrier is planning a tour with five concerts in December, starting from Beijing.

“I love China so that’s why I come back,” he says. “I think it's fantastic. I'm in love with this country.”

You’re not touching anything. You are touching the air, and the musicians have to read your mind. It is really mysterious work.” Uruguayan conductor and composer

PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Jose Serebrier is one of the most recorded conductors of his generation.