New conductor hopes to lead ESO in new directions

A new era for the Elgin Symphony Orchestra begins this weekend when Andrew Grams opens the ESO's 64th season in his debut concerts as music director.

Grams, a native of Maryland who currently resides in Cleveland, was named the ESO's fourth music director in June following a two-year international search. Most recently, he appeared here last spring as guest conductor for the season-closing Classic Masterworks Series program, featuring Dmitri Shostakovich's 10th Symphony.

This season's opening concerts at Hemmens Cultural Center will feature guest artist Terrence Wilson in two works by George Gershwin, the Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, and the “I Got Rhythm” Variations. Grams will close the program with Gustav Mahler's dramatic Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”).

This will be the first of three Classic Masterworks Series programs to be conducted by Grams this season; the other four will be led by guest conductors. Grams will be on the podium for the concerts of Nov. 9 and 10, the program including Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2, along with ESO concertmaster Isabella Lippi as the soloist for Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto. In his concerts of Jan. 10 and 12, Grams welcomes guest soloist Michael Ludwig for Max Bruch's “Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra,” with that program also featuring Felix Mendelssohn's “Scottish” Symphony.

“To say the least, I very much look forward to this season, working with this wonderful orchestra,” Grams said. “Due to previous scheduling, I am able to do only three weekends this season. In the future, I'd like to do as many weeks as I possibly can; it's a matter of working out my schedule. What I'd really like to do is earn the trust of the public right off the bat and use that trust to broaden our musical tastes or our musical experiences — not too quickly, but also not too glacially.

“It's a very delicate balance, that I think I'd like to go through a particular season and use familiar departure points to get us to perhaps slightly unfamiliar composers and time periods,” Grams said. “To be a conductor, especially a new music director, your goal is to organize, and more importantly, to inspire the musicians in front of you to work together.”

While just in his mid-30s, Grams has already accumulated impressive credentials. He earned his degree in violin performance from New York's prestigious Juilliard School of Music, then moved on to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he received a conducting degree while working under Otto-Werner Mueller.

Before turning fulltime to the podium, he played violin in the New York City Ballet Orchestra (1998-2004) and performed with other New York-area ensembles. His guest-conducting assignments have led to appearances with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, National Symphony of Washington, Melbourne (Australia) Symphony and the BBC Symphony in London, among others.

Between 2004 and 2007, Grams was an assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Ironically, it was a discussion with another former Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor — James Levine — that Grams remembers fondly. Levine enjoyed a two-decade run as Ravinia's music director.

“I had a couple of wonderful conversations with Levine while he was with the Boston Symphony,” Grams said. “He told me that to this day, he is still learning little things about all the intangibles of conducting. He's been working with singers for so long, which is so very valuable. James Levine is one of my conducting heroes because he gets the best from everybody.”

Grams realizes that selection of repertoire is crucial to an orchestra like the Elgin Symphony, which has only seven weekends of classical concerts. A balance must be achieved between “meat and potatoes” works like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and important pieces that may be new to area listeners. Last spring's Shostakovich 10th Symphony was a prime example of a how less familiar music can hit a high note with the audience.

“No, we won't ignore the familiar works,” Grams said. “One thing I would like to do is use these pieces that we all know very well to help establish my working relationship with the orchestra, and what sorts of things they come to expect. It's through these familiar pieces that as a player you don't have to concentrate on just executing the music. Yes, the orchestra was excited by a sense of discovery playing its first-ever Shostakovich 10th, and now, to take a piece like the Beethoven Fifth and create that same level of excitement by finding ways to make it more exciting as an ensemble is our challenge. How can we make our ensemble better and better — every sound that we produce exciting in some way to the audience?”

Grams said he hopes to remain beyond his initial contract.

“I would not like to limit it to three years,” he said. “It's a wonderful initial period, but the really interesting work takes place after you've established a relationship with the players and with the audience. And then, see where we can go.”

<b>Elgin Symphony Orchestra</b>

Andrew Grams, conductor; Terrence Wilson, guest soloist

<b>When:</b> 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday

<b>Where:</b> Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin, (847) 888-4000 or <a href="http://elginsymphony.org">elginsymphony.org</a>

<b>Tickets:</b> $25-$60