Chicago Tribune
By John von Rhein
May 18, 2010
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The most prominent podium up for grabs in the area at the moment is the Chicago Sinfonietta’s. A search for a new music director has been underway since last year when Paul Freeman, the orchestra’s founder and chief conductor since 1987, announced he will step down for health reasons at the close of the 2010-11 season.
The field has since been narrowed to eight candidates, five of whom have directed the ensemble this season. The latest contender, John McLaughlin Williams, made his Sinfonietta conducting debut at Orchestra Hall on Monday night, when he shared the program with Freeman. His strong showing suggested the board may have found Mr. Right Fit.
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The 52-year-old North Carolina native, who lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and young daughter, has paid his professional dues. He is an accomplished violinist and pianist. Most crucially, he’s a gifted conductor who shares the sinfonietta’s commitment to advancing diversity.
Although Williams has recorded 10 CDs (one of which, an Olivier Messiaen disc, won a Grammy in 2007) and has garnered widespread praise from musicians and critics, he has been repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to land an orchestra of his own.
“I’ve had a bit of difficulty gaining access to the higher-level auditions,” he said recently. “It’s really been a guerilla campaign.”
Part of the problem, he explained, was that he got a late start on his career and missed out on professional contacts that could have helped him to the next level.
As to whether his being African American has held him back in a field where black conductors still are rare, he said, “I don’t think that that’s been an issue, at least not for me. There have been other issues, but race was not one of them. There are those who would disagree. I have spoken to older black conductors who say their careers were completely marked out by race. I think we are in a different place now as a society.”
The deciding factor must be leadership ability. Certainly the fusion of Williams’ abilities with those of the dynamic young Harlem Quartet at Monday’s event lifted the music-making out of the mediocre rut in which it has been stuck for years.
His portion of the program focused on lighter Americana – Michael Abels’ “Delights and Dances” and George Frederick McKay’s “Variants on a Texas Tune.”
The quartet, made up of first-place laureates of the Sphinx Competition for young black and Latino string players, had great fun with the Abels piece, an amiable fusion of jazz, blues and bluegrass elements that gave each member a chance to boogie. (Russell Rolen filled in ably for the Harlem’s regular cellist, Desmond Neysmith, who had cancelled because of a thumb injury.)
“Delights and Dances” gave Williams and the orchestra relatively little to do but they lent snappy support to the quartet. The conductor’s spoken introduction to McKay’s charmingly folksy series of variations on a Texan lullaby, “Mustang Gray,” lasted about as long as the 12-minute piece itself but proved his ability to engage an audience on a non-didactic level – another attribute that should recommend him to the board.
He led a spirited reading of Kodaly’s “Galanta Dances” to close the concert. The first half held works by Mozart conducted by Freeman.
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The orchestra will announce its next music director in August, said executive director Jim Hirsch. The timing will allow the new person almost a full year in which to map out his or her debut season while the sinfonietta prepares for its 25th anniversary in 2012-13.
As for his valedictory season beginning in September of this year, Freeman will share baton duties with guest conductors Harvey Felder, Hector Guzman, Leslie B. Dunner, Terrance Grey and Mei-Ann Chen.
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