Beyond the score

Much more than meets the ear

We have many opportunities to appreciate music, but seldom find the gift of a true musical experience. David Ramadanoff, conductor for the Vallejo Symphony Orchestra, makes it clear that every performance has a life of its own and there’s more to the sound than just notes on the page.
    Ramadanoff is currently celebrating his 25th season with the Vallejo Symphony. “I’ve simply enjoyed the process of working with and developing the orchestra, and it really has grown artistically every year,” he says. “We’ve developed a way of working together so that they trust me musically, I trust them, and it’s a wonderful collaboration.”
    The symphonic experience is a unique process, with mood and energy affecting the outcome of every performance. “Each day you’re different, from moment to moment, from hour to hour,” Ramadanoff explains.  “You take the same orchestra playing the same piece and you ask four or five different conductors to conduct that piece––the sound of that orchestra is going to be changed somewhat.” Even the audience has a power all its own. “The collective energy of the audience sitting in the auditorium changes depending upon the particular group of people,” he says, “and you can feel how they respond to what you’re doing.”
    A recording on a stereo system is certainly “one kind of experience, but that is one experience of a particular piece frozen in time,” Ramadanoff says. “When I was conducting with the San Francisco Symphony, each week that orchestra would do four concerts, four performances of each program. Each one was different, because the energy of the performance and the audience was different. There’s nothing, really, that can replace the live concert experience.”
    In addition to the Vallejo Symphony, Ramadanoff has been conducting the Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra in Los Altos for 29 years, and the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra in Berkeley––the oldest youth orchestra in California and the second oldest in the country––for the last 20 years.
    “Conductors don’t really mature until after they’ve been working 10, 15, 20 years. I’ve been at this now a little over 30, and I feel like I’m still growing––not just in terms of the score study, but [also how] I work with the musicians,” Ramadanoff says. “It’s spiritually rewarding too, because there are emotions brought up that just open you up as a person. When you study someone like Beethoven or Mozart, there are all kinds of emotional layers in the pieces.”
    This season, Ramadanoff will be conducting Mahler’s Fifth Symphony with the Vallejo Symphony Orchestra. “Mahler generally writes for very large orchestras, and those concerts are very expensive to put on. But the board said, ‘You know what David, it’s your 25th season, you should be able to conduct something you want to do.’”
    Prior to his performances, Ramadanoff often offers pre-concert talks with musical excerpts and insightful commentary about who the composer was, and explains what was going on in the composer’s life that inspired the featured piece. “A goal of ours is to be as user-friendly and as accessible as possible,” he says. “And hopefully, [people] feel that when they come to the concerts, that we’ve opened them up, both emotionally and spiritually.”

Celebrate 25 Years with David takes place on Sat., May 3. For more information visit vallejosymphony.org.

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