The Making of a Maestro : A young conductor on the uncharted professional path

David Alan Miller bounds onto the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, his 5-foot-8, 145-pound frame covered by a familiar blue bodysuit and red shorts. There’s a big S on his chest, and his red cape is flying.

But don’t mistake him for Superman, the 28-year-old conductor warns his audience and, no doubt, the more somberly dressed members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Superman is his cousin. He is Super Orchestra Man.

Super Orchestra Man is there to play and explain Benjamin Britten for an audience of 3- to 6-year-olds, one of three symphony programs Miller will conduct that day. As one of the Philharmonic’s two assistant conductors, he will conduct two children’s concerts in the morning and be back--in tails--for a more traditional evening subscription concert.

Two hours earlier, he appeared onstage as Mozart, nearly unrecognizable in wig, pantaloons and frilly white shirt. As Beethoven, he once arrived in a time machine. And to show the many sides of Igor Stravinsky to children, he became game show host Mr. Television to introduce five Stravinsky look-alikes--all of them orchestra members--in a spoof called “Will the Real Igor Stravinsky Please Stand Up.”

It’s a long way from Mr. Television to the helm of a major orchestra. Yet, Miller seems to have both feet planted on the fast track. A master’s in orchestral conducting from the prestigious Juilliard School. Conducting fellow for not one but two summers at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. Six years at the helm of the New York Youth Symphony. Nearly two years behind him at the Philharmonic.

From June 25 through August 13, Miller moves to a full-time position as associate director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. In that job he will help plan programs, work with its orchestra of young musicians and as a liaison with the Philharmonic. Next month he conducts two “Disney Symphonic Spectaculars,” a Mozart concert, and several evenings of French music at the Hollywood Bowl.

For a young conductor, he has assembled an impressive scrapbook. In 1984 the New York Daily News noted “this kid is someone to watch.” He received terrific reviews in late 1987 when he filled-in for an ailing Andre Previn, and just last summer, Symphony Magazine referred to his career as “soaring.”

But there have also been disappointments. One of 5 finalists from 250 applicants, he was recently passed over for music director of the Long Beach Symphony, a position which went to JoAnn Falletta, the 35-year-old director of the Queens Philharmonic, Denver Chamber Orchestra and Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic. And he withdrew his name for the same job with the Inland Empire Symphony in San Bernardino; Stewart Robertson, 40-year-old music director of the Santa Fe Symphony and Glimmerglass Opera was hired for that position.

The problem in both cases was apparently youth and attitude. Although offered the Inland Empire Orchestra job, Miller was later made aware of the musicians’ strong preference for Robertson and withdrew to avoid what he calls “nonmusical politicking.” And in Long Beach, personnel manager Steven Scharf says while musicians there “saw David as talented, some people in the orchestra felt he was just immature, that he needs more time.”

A chastened Miller says he regrets the way he lobbied to become “the musical mayor of Long Beach.” And at the Philharmonic, where he’s still learning how to be leader-like yet respectful of musicians who were playing in major orchestras before he was born, he quickly responds that “a less experienced conductor is going to have a more difficult time making great music with this great orchestra.”

His boss, Philharmonic executive vice president and managing director Ernest Fleischmann, calls Miller “one of the most gifted conductors under 30--if not the most gifted--in this country.” Fleischmann feels Miller’s two setbacks were, in fact, “probably quite healthy for him. In both cases, those orchestras passed up a pretty extraordinary talent.”

Spend a few hours with Miller auditioning young musicians for the Institute and one can sense the rapport he must have had with the Youth Symphony players. But it’s a different ballgame with the Philharmonic, says New York manager John Gingrich. “The big jump he is making is from young people to a world-class orchestra. You just simply talk to them differently. You have to teach young people. You have to collaborate with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.”

Miller, who looks even younger than his 28 years--and who, he says, Previn calls “kid”--has no easy task. On a typical day before Previn’s recent departure as music director, Miller would be plopped out in the hall, his burlap book bag on the next seat, listening to hear if the balance is right or the orchestra is drowning out the soloist.

Then, for several concerts a year, he is the maestro, up on Previn’s podium, commanding the same orchestra that Previn, Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini and countless celebrated guest conductors have also commanded. At a salary of $35,000--which may double with conducting fees--he’s earning not only a fraction of the $582,000 that Previn received in the ‘87-88 season but about a third less than the lowest-paid Philharmonic musician.

David Alan Miller is one of a number of young maestros in the making who work several steps below the superstars of the field. Previn, one of those superstars, has recently focused a considerable amount of attention on the Los Angeles Philharmonic because of his abrupt departure.

While Miller is still years away from even being considered for a post such as the one Previn just left, the young conductor’s career provides a look inside the rarefied world of men and women who are paid to stand in front of 100 musicians and tell them how to make music. It is a story of innate talent, hard work, complicated relationships and timing.

Unlike instrumentalists who can practice or perform alone, conductors need orchestras. But finding them isn’t always easy. European conductors traditionally worked their way up a ladder that took them through opera coaching and minor conducting assignments, but the apprenticeship process in this country is far less organized.

Miller began as an instrumentalist, like so many other American conductors. Raised in the San Fernando Valley, he studied trombone at 8, started piano a few years later and taught Jewish folk songs to children on his guitar. He read musical scores with his father--a cantor and music teacher--and at age 15 began serious conducting study.

After graduating from Monroe High School in Sepulveda, he went on to UC Berkeley, where he studied music and played trombone in the campus orchestra. It was during his years at Berkeley that he started conducting, working with several small local orchestras. He earned his bachelor’s degree in only three years and went off to Juilliard for graduate study in conducting.

He was a man in a hurry. At his Juilliard entrance audition in spring, 1981, the 20-year-old Miller attracted the attention of the music director of the New York Youth Symphony. Miller began part-time work there as assistant conductor during his first year at Juilliard. In his second year, when the Symphony’s music director post became available, he lobbied and got the job. And when he finished his two-year master’s program, he again successfully lobbied the board, this time to make the job a full-time position.

It was a good start. Miller had hoped to land a job in New York, where he knew he would get the best exposure needed to move ahead quickly. His Youth Symphony post placed him on the stage of Carnegie Hall three times a year, and got him that exposure. Leading his corps of musicians aged 12 to 22, he followed in the footsteps of such prominent conductors as Leonard Slatkin.

Posters of Miller conducting the Youth Symphony still cover considerable wall space at the organization’s tiny two-room office at Carnegie Hall. There, symphony executive director Barry Goldberg calls Miller everything from “charismatic,” and “a real idea man” to “a great communicator,” and “a genius at inspiring people.”

During his tenure, Miller introduced a coaching program with the New York Philharmonic, developed a chamber music program, and began commissioning new works by young American composers. Many of the 12 world premieres he commissioned have since been played by major orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Begun as “sort of a marketing ploy” to get attention in a crowded musical marketplace, Miller’s eclectic programming also caught L.A. Philharmonic executive Fleischmann’s eye. Fleischmann says he was “rather impressed with the programs I used to get from the New York Youth Symphony, which seemed to indicate a very lively interest in all kinds of music, and I liked his approach to new music.”

His Youth Symphony work also got him a manager, rare for someone at his career level. People on manager Sheldon Soffer’s staff had been to Miller’s concerts and recommended him to Soffer. Soffer, one of only about 15 artists’ managers nationally who take on conductors at all, gave Miller a call and signed him in 1986.

“Orchestras can go hear (a pianist), get a tape, or even have him play for the music director,” says Soffer. “But what are you going to do with a young conductor who just graduated from Juilliard and has nothing concrete to show you? A lot of young conductors stop on our steps looking for management. . . .I only accept ones I feel are going to make it.”

In 1985, Miller successfully auditioned for one of three conducting spots with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute training orchestra. There, says Fleischmann, “he stood out head and shoulders above anyone we’d had until then,” and was brought back for an unprecedented second visit. As an outgrowth of his Institute work, he was hired to lead a few children’s concerts the next year.

Previn says he was impressed with “the great aplomb” with which Miller carried out his work with children. And although Previn had already appointed Heiichiro Ohyama, 41, the orchestra’s principal violist, as his assistant, Previn and Fleischmann agreed that the job was big enough for two people, and Previn hired Miller in 1987.

Today Miller works mostly at home, a spacious Hollywood apartment with high ceilings, hardwood floors and great views where a brand new grand piano dominates the living room. He has no office at the Philharmonic--just a shelf in the Philharmonic Institute office where he keeps musical scores, a few books and his car radio--and if he isn’t “covering” at rehearsals or concerts, he’s generally at the piano practicing or working on orchestral scores.

He and Ohyama divide up the season, whether at the Music Center, UCLA or on tour, and although the Chicago Symphony’s two assistants each keep tuxedos at Orchestra Hall, rarely do understudies actually go on for their conductors. But it does happen. Ohyama subbed last February for Oliver Knussen, and Miller has filled in for both Previn and principal guest conductor Simon Rattle.

Previn came down with bronchitis in fall of ‘87, and Miller, who had just come in from New York on Tuesday, got the call to be on deck Wednesday. He stayed up until 3 a.m. studying scores, took the rehearsal and when he got home called Previn “to tell him how the rehearsal had gone. He said, ‘Listen kid, you’ve got the week, I’m just not feeling up to it.’ So there I was, second week of the season, conducting ‘Also sprach Zarathustra,’ one of the biggest war horses in the repertoire.”

Previn, who attended the last concert, says he thought Miller did “very well indeed.” Los Angeles Times music critic Martin Bernheimer said the event “bore the markings of the classical star-is-born story. . . . (Miller) rose to those challenges (of Prokofiev and Strauss) with poise and promise.” Former Los Angeles Herald Examiner music critic Mark Swed said in his review that “the promise is there, and the Philharmonic would do well to foster it.”

But Miller’s career did not take off like those of Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas or Esa-Pekka Salonen, celebrity conductors thrust to prominence in their mid-20’s after subbing for ailing maestros. Rather, his climb was clearly going to take a little longer.

While many important conductors have emerged from the orchestra itself, tomorrow’s superstars are more likely to follow thepath that Miller has: Graduate-level study in conducting followed by work with community or other semiprofessional orchestras. Some form their own groups--one conductor even followed strangers carrying musical instruments, hoping to lure them into playing with him--until ready to apply for assistantships or other, less glamorous entry-level jobs.

“There are very few positions nationally for conductors in their 20s trying to make that transition from student to professional,” says New Mexico Symphony Orchestra music director Neal Stulberg, a former Philharmonic assistant conductor. Stulberg is one of just 48 young conductors selected by Affiliate Artists’ 16-year-old program to serve full-time residencies with major orchestras and opera companies.

Miller acknowledges the burden of promise. “It’s like the student who goes to Harvard or Yale. Certain doors are open to that student that just aren’t open to students who didn’t go to those schools. When you’re an assistant conductor, it doesn’t assure you of anything--there are plenty of people who’ve been assistant conductors of major orchestras who’ve gone into the great black hole and been heard from no more--but you have now the opportunity to have a ‘major career.’ ”

There is no clear-cut career path, however. Some conductors stay on as assistants for a few years, others move to their own regional orchestras, and some do both simultaneously. How do they do it? Says Jesse Rosen, a former vice-president of Affiliate Artists and today executive director of the American Composers Orchestra: “Artist managers generally serve to help people with established careers, so conductors looking to enter are on their own and have to be persistent, have a personality people find engaging or make friends in the right places.”

The American Symphony Orchestra League already provides conducting workshops and the chance for a few young conductors to perform at its annual employer-packed convention. But equally worried about future generations, the League is systemically developing apprenticeship and residency programs it hopes to have in place in four or five years.

“We really don’t know who the next Claudio Abbado or Leonard Bernstein is going to be,” says conductor Daniel Lewis, chairman of USC’s Conducting Studies Department which takes just four conducting students a year. “I teach them everything I can, and then they run the maze themselves.”

Some move through the maze faster than others. Miller’s Juilliard classmate Andrew Litton, 30, is already principal conductor of England’s Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, a base from which he travels the globe. His schedule was recently slashed back while he recuperated from a ruptured appendix, but between May 1 and the time he appears at the Hollywood Bowl in August, Litton expects to conduct orchestras in Philadelphia, Chicago, at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va. and Bournemouth.

Lesser known conductors like Miller find it tougher going. Regional and smaller orchestras rarely have more than a handful of guest conducting slots open and they, like their bigger, richer and more famous counterparts, want the best that money or reputation can buy. “I’m beginning to believe what all the managers say,” says Miller. “ ‘Wait. Bide your time. It’s a long process.’ Because until you’re on a roll, you’re hard to sell. Then everybody wants you.”

Management helps. In 1986 Soffer’s general manager, Ellyn Kusmin, knew that Paul Reuter, executive director of the Hartford Symphony, was looking for a conductor for some summer downtown concerts. They were less prestigious than subscription concerts, but she figured they would still expose Miller to public and press. She went on for months, she recalls, “telling him everything David was doing in New York. I tried to sell it on: get it while you can.”

Miller has been back to Hartford since then and last year was a guest conductor for several performances of the New York City Ballet. He says he was recommended by Michael Torke, a composer he had commissioned while at the Youth Symphony, to conduct the world premiere of Torke’s “Black and White,” choreographed by Peter Martins. And in May of this year, he was invited to conduct a concert with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Miller just settled into Los Angeles full-time last fall, ending a long period of commuting back and forth to New York. Wanting to conduct the New York Youth Symphony through its 25th season last year, he made 20 round-trips to the East Coast. He stayed with his mother in Los Angeles, his fiancee Andrea Oser in New York.

Oser, a lawyer, is now clerking for a federal judge here. While they try to entertain in their shared home--Previn came for dinner during salmon-in-herbs month, Miller quips--neither one has much play time. Miller admits that he has no hobbies, and can rattle off in a minute the few weekends he’s taken off in recent years.

His work and play overlap to the point of being almost concentric circles. For fun, he says, he invites a singer over to work on songs, accompanies a string player on the piano, or drags friends and family off to concerts. “The more conducting styles you hear, the better. You want to get as much input as possible and eventually your own style emerges.”

Even his reading mixes work and pleasure. Filled bookcases line walls in nearly every room of his apartment, including the kitchen. Studying Shostakovich, he read a biography of Stalin, for instance, and when he conducted Tchaikovsky ‘s Fourth Symphony, he read “Anna Karenina.” There are dozens of scores, for orchestra and for voice, as well as a set in the kitchen of miniature scores. Miller says that the half-size “miniatures” are often used by young conductors because full size scores are so expensive ($25 as opposed to $5).

In the rush to the top, conductors have often been catapulted to prominence before they were ready. It is something Miller says he worries about, and which Fleischmann says he worries about on Miller’s behalf.

But the pressure to move ahead quickly is there all the time. “There is a feeling that if you haven’t made it by 30, move over since the next batch is coming,” says Donald Thulean, director of artistic affairs at the American Symphony Orchestra League in Washington. “We don’t appreciate the fact that the conductor, like every other creative artist, has to mature.”

There are other problems of quick success, as Miller is learning. Miller got so much attention so fast, says Fleischmann, that “he may have been a little overconfident with the musicians.” Philharmonic musicians have sometimes been critical, but Fleischmann feels “the regrouping can take place in sympathetic surroundings, and I think David will emerge all the stronger for it. By and large, the musicians are on his side. They have great expectations for him. “

It helps that Miller acknowledges the problem. “When you’re on the podium, you have to exude mastery, knowledge, confidence. But implicit in that title ‘assistant conductor’ is the fact that you are given this privilege to work with these great musicians as an assistant. You know they don’t want a dishrag-- a little student saying, ‘What do I do next?’--and yet at some level you’ve got to learn from them. Maybe it’s off the podium, afterwards, over dinner or a beer. But you’re in this very strange position, because you are the assistant, and yet when you stand there, you are the conductor.”

Miller’s irreverent children’s concerts haven’t made it easier, though former Philharmonic assistant Stulberg also crossed the stage costumed as Mozart and Charles Ives. “Some think that it’s really over the edge, that it’s tasteless, that it’s insulting to this great art that we’re involved in,” says Miller. “I am always trying to find analogies from (the childrens’) experience, whether it’s television, pop culture, cartoons or sports, so that they don’t just come to a concert as so many adults do, and shut their minds and take a nap.”

Flutist Roland Moritz, a 34-year-Philharmonic veteran, is sanguine about it all. “There are those of us who feel the music itself should receive more of the importance than the visual part of it, but if it’s done well--and it has been done well by David--it does stimulate interest in the music as well as the show. We even get quite a kick out of it at times.”

Previn also feels Miller’s problems are common ones. “I think (Miller) has a great many more of the pluses that many young conductors have and some of the same minuses (of) not knowing exactly what tone of voice to work with. All young conductors tend to be either too apologetic or too abrupt, and he’s probably done a litle of both. And it’s not just a fault of young conductors. It’s a fault of all of us. Sometimes we conduct too much and sometimes too little. . . . I have enormous faith in him. I think he’s going to be just fine.”

What next?

Miller says that after he finishes apprenticing he hopes to have his own “regional mid-sized orchestra, in a growing, developing community.”

Many conductor watchers point to a shortage of qualified conductors at every level, not just the top, making it more likely such a move would keep Miller in the game. With orchestra managers more likely to travel to out-of-the-way cities these days, long-time Affiliate Artists executive Rosen sees less of “the out of sight, out of mind symdrome. Conductors used to be afraid to assume positions with orchestras off the beaten track because they feared they would be invisible and forgotten by the industry.”

Semyon Bychkov, for example, moved from orchestras in Grand Rapids and then Buffalo to his new post as music director of the Orchestra of Paris. And in Albequerque, Stulberg says he does not feel at all isolated. The New Mexico Symphony Orchestra seemed to be “the next logical step,” says Stulberg, 35. “ I’ve been able to develop my own ideas, my own style, without the kind of pressure and destructive sense of being in a fish bowl that can often happen in a large center.”

(Stulberg, 35, who won a prestigious Seaver conducting award last year and has begun doing important guest conducting, is not Miller’s only distinguished predecessor. Myung Whun-Chung, 36, the newly named music director of Paris’ Bastille Opera and music director of Germany’s Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra, assisted Giulini at the Philharmonic in the early ‘80s.)

One of Miller’s role models is Rattle, also music director of England’s City of Birmingham Symphony. In Birmingham, says Miller, Rattle “is a king. He can do whatever repertoire he wants, he can make whatever records he wants, . . . . (and) the orchestra loves to make music with him. While we can’t all be Simon Rattle, the thing to be learned from him is that he’s chosen to make really good music with a less than great orchestra, because that’s a place where the conditions are right for him.”

Previn says he’s already given assistant conductor Ohyama some dates to conduct in England, but Miller’s slate is still relatively clear. Besides his Philharmonic concerts this year--and his wedding in September--the only other major entry in his calendar is a 1990 engagement to conduct the Vancouver premiere of John Adams’ opera, “Nixon in China.”

“On one hand, I’m sitting and waiting for my break, but on the other hand, I’m being paid to work with a great orchestra and study them,” says Miller. “When I was 18, I figured I’d be the assistant director of a major orchestra by 22, and by the time I was 35, I’d be conducting all the great orchestras. Well, it’s a little more long-term than all that, I’ve discovered.”

Times librarian Tom Lutgen contributed to the research in this article.