Final director hopeful looks ‘to inspire sound’
Vladimir Kulenovic was only about 3 years old when he made his first foray into conducting.
The son of musicians, the toddler was watching his father use a record to prepare for conducting Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” — “which is not something you do; you don’t practice that way, but he didn’t know better and he doesn’t conduct anymore,” Kulenovic recalled with a laugh — when he picked up a baton for the first time.
“He went to the kitchen to make a coffee, and by the time he returned, I have stolen already his baton and I was finishing conducting this piece. He just, like, stood there and let it play out, right? And then I smiled and he played another piece and then I conducted that one,” Kulenovic said.
“You don’t really become a conductor, you know? It’s not really something that after some time you decide ‘Oh, I’m going to do that instead of this.’ It wasn’t a choice for me. … I was born into this.”
Named the 2015 “Chicagoan of the Year in Classical Music” by the Chicago Tribune, Kulenovic will make his Oklahoma City Philharmonic debut Saturday with a classics concert at the Civic Center Music Hall. He is the sixth and final candidate for the orchestra’s music director position to conduct a OKC Philharmonic concert this season, as the symphony’s longtime music director, Joel Levine, preparesto retire.
“The naming of our new music director is drawing closer, and anticipation is mounting as we approach the end of our search … and look forward to the final selection to be made this spring,” OKC Philharmonic Executive Director Eddie Walker in a statement said.
Becoming a conduit
Born in an area of Yugoslavia that today is part of Serbia, Kulenovic is currently music director of the Lake Forest Symphony in Chicago. He previously spent four seasons as associate conductor of the Utah Symphony.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in piano performance, he pursued a master’s degree in conducting from the Boston Conservatory. He holds graduate diplomas in conducting from the Juilliard School and Peabody Institute, where his principal teachers were James DePreist and Gustav Meier.
“I always wanted to do it. The wish was always there. It was really the first wish,” he said. “With conducting, it just takes a lot. … Don’t forget, you’re in front of people and you’re not making any sound. You have to inspire sound. You have to inspire in these people a wish to create this sound, one sound. There are many
different instruments, and they all have to sound harmonious. So in essence, you have to know the truth: you have to really, really, really, really deserve their attention.”
Along with making his bow Saturday with the OKC Philharmonic, Kulenovic has made debuts this season with the Illinois Symphony, Louisville (Kentucky) Orchestra and the South Bend (Indiana) Symphony.
“A conductor is a conduit in essence. So my goal when I come in front of a new orchestra is to be that conduit, to make the connection between the people in the orchestra stronger, to refresh it, to make it more interesting, to open for them new doors and windows into their own music-making, to offer them ideas which are going to inspire them,” he said.
“Our duty is to produce a great concert; whether you’re a music director or the king of the world or a guest, it’s the same duty. The most important thing is to produce a great concert. To have the opportunity to present yourself on top of that, as somebody who can be instrumental in a leadership role, who can have a vision which can bring together a community, is phenomenal.”
Telling musical stories
Putting together Saturday’s program has been a collaborative effort between Kulenovic and the OKC Philharmonic team. The concert will consist of Beethoven’s “Coriolan Overture,” Mendelssohn's “Concerto for Violin in E minor” and Rachmaninoff's “Symphonic Dances.” British violinist Chloe Hanslip will make her OKC Philharmonic debut with Mendelssohn’s popular concerto.
“My philosophy is this: Every piece is a story. I mean it just really is, whether it has a narrative or not. … Stories together have to make sense,” Kulenovic said. “Our mission as performers is to actually be advocates of these composers. They wanted to communicate something to the world. … We, performers, are just actually instruments. Yes, we’re creative instruments, and we have a certain degree of creativity that, of course, we have to use.”
He noted that the three pieces have a common thread: Beethoven’s overture is the introduction for Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s tragic play; the concerto is the last orchestral endeavor Mendelssohn undertook before his death in 1847; and the “Symphonic Dances” is Rachmaninoff's final composition before he died in 1943.
“There is a sense of heroism … in all these three works, but different lights and different perspectives,” Kulenovic said.
As he prepares for his OKC debut, the conductor said he is particularly excited to present Beethoven’s “Coriolan Overture” here, since the OKC Philharmonic last performed it 1970 under the baton of Guy Fraser Harrison.
“It’s much like meeting a new person. You open up your heart and your mind and you welcome a new person. And it’s your job that with every interaction that you have you make the other side better,” Kulenovic said. “The most important thing is that you contribute: The most important thing as a human being, forget conducting. … So I’m looking always forward to that as one and the same thing when I am in front of an orchestra: to contribute and to make it better.”