Utah Symphony: Conducting music like a second skin

Pinchas Zukerman shows no sign of slowing down. At 61, after making music for more than 40 years, Zukerman's annual concert schedule includes more than 100 performances on five continents, conducting orchestras, playing chamber music and soloing on violin or viola. He also spends 10 weeks each year teaching and directing programs he founded for young instrumentalists, conductors and composers.

In Salt Lake City, he will conduct music of Brahms with the Utah Symphony, one of five United States orchestras he will guest conduct this year. "For him to find the time to make Utah a priority was a real feather in our cap," said Utah Symphony | Utah Opera CEO Melia Tourangeau. "It's pretty remarkable what he's able to do in one season."

He's part of a wave of guest conductors scheduled during the hiring process that led to the Sept. 24 announcement of Thierry Fischer as the orchestra's new music director. Following the visiting leaders challenges the musicians artistically and musically, Tourangeau said. "One conductor will come in and have a very different perspective on the repertoire than the next."

Carlos Kalmar recently led the orchestra in Brahms' Second Symphony; this week, Zukerman will rehearse with musicians on the composer's Fourth. "Maestro Zukerman is going to have a very different vision and interpretation of what Brahms is," Tourangeau observed.

Tourangeau, a pianist, thinks Brahms' repertoire is essentially chamber music -- for a

cast of nearly 100 musicians. Zukerman's knowledge of chamber music puts him in a unique position to translate the composer's music to full orchestra.

Tourangeau crossed paths with Zukerman when she was president of Michigan's Grand Rapids Symphony and recalls hearing him perform as a college student attending a London Philharmonic Orchestra performance. His musicianship and technical artistry made strong impressions.

Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and started music instruction on the recorder and clarinet before learning to play violin. Famed violinist Isaac Stern and others helped him move to New York to study at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian.

Pinky, as he is known to friends, has a discography of more than 100 titles and has earned 21 Grammy nominations with two awards, Best Chamber Music Performance in 1980 and Best Classical Performance, Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra in 1981. He was appointed music director of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa in 1998 and has led the ensemble on international tours.

"Because of his absolutely unique background, he always gives the feeling of really wearing the music like a second skin," said pianist Jonathan Biss by e-mail while on tour in Europe. Biss, 29, has a musical association with Zukerman for the past 10 years.

Biss will perform Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, a work he terms overwhelming in scope. "I can't easily think of another piece that is as completely affecting as this one," he wrote.