San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Robin Sutherland — star S. F. Symphony pianist
Robin Sutherland, the longtime San Francisco Symphony pianist renowned for his formidable keyboard skills, vivid personality and trademark ponytail, died Friday at his San Francisco home. He was 69.
Sutherland died of a brain tumor, his husband, Carlos Ortega, confirmed.
Over the course of an extraordinary 45year career with the Symphony, Sutherland established his reputation as an artist of elegance, power and stylistic range. He was passionate about the music of Bach and Mozart, deeply committed to the music of the Romantics and exuberantly fearless in the face of knotty contemporary scores.
Even when he was not onstage — many symphonic works don’t call for a keyboard players — Sutherland played a critical musical role behind the scenes, assisting Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and his predecessors to rehearse with soloists and conduct auditions.
Sutherland was also an enthusiastic and witty conversationalist who enjoyed few things more than making personal contact with the Symphony’s patrons. Concertgoers could find him in the lobby of Davies Symphony Hall during intermission, towering above a crowd at 6 feet 5 and swapping erudite musical commentary and joyfully bawdy innuendo.
Music, though, was his primary delight. He could hold forth at length on the comparative virtues of old Bach recordings, often mingling detailed analysis with pungent and unfiltered language. When he took the spotlight for a solo performance, the results were often mesmerizing. One of his signature achievements was the dazzlingly difficult piano part in Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety” — a piano concerto in all but name — which Sutherland helped introduce to the orchestra’s repertoire in 1993 and reprised in a masterful performance six years later.
“He effortlessly combined elegant virtuosity, championship of new music, ideal chamber music performances, and inspiring teaching,” Thomas said in a statement. “He was a master of the French and Hawaiian languages. He was a great wit and storyteller, a treasure trove of esoteric knowledge, amusing anecdotes and outrageous jokes. He was an original and pioneering gay man who was a constant friend and artistic role model for generations. We will all miss him greatly.” Former Symphony Principal Percussion Jack Van Geem said, “Robin was a brilliant musician, linguist, and a deeply compassionate and loving and gentle person. He made anyone spending time with him feel special. He inspired you to feel funnier and smarter when you were around him.”
Robin Sutherland was born March 5, 1951, in Greeley, Colo. He took to music early, studying classical piano and playing in a high school rock band. At 17, he left for New York City to study at the Juilliard School with celebrated teacher Rosina Lhévinne.
“Juilliard and I didn’t get along,” he told The Chronicle in a 2013 interview. “I wanted to get as far away as I could from New York.”
So in 1972, he came west and enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which is where he happened to be when the San Francisco Symphony called in desperate need of a substitute pianist for that night’s concert. Fortunately for him, Sutherland had studied the piece that was on the program, Hindemith’s “Kammermusik No. 1,” and delivered an impressive performance.
A year later, after a historic tour of the Soviet
Union, Music Director Seiji Ozawa created the principal piano position expressly for Sutherland. He held the job until his retirement in 2018 — the single line on his resume, as he liked to quip.
In his later years, Sutherland immersed himself in Mozart’s piano concertos, quoting soprano Jessye Norman to say, “That’s where I live now, honey.”
In that 2013 interview, he continued, “I think there’s always room for a Mozart piano concerto. And if there isn’t, it’s a world I don’t care to be a part of.”
In addition to his husband, Sutherland is survived by his sister, Jean Huffman, of Greeley.
Plans for a memorial service are pending.
“I think there’s always room for a Mozart piano concerto. And if there isn’t, it’s a world I don’t care to be a part of.”
Robin Sutherland, in a 2013 interview