Cumming Finds Leaving Isn’t Easy

By almost any measure, Edward Cumming’s new job as assistant conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony is a great career move.

But emotionally speaking, given the idyllic relationship he feels he has developed in his capacity as conductor of the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, he’s heading to Pennsylvania with a bittersweet song in his heart.

“I have very mixed feelings,” Cumming said. “I’ve grown attached to all the young people in this orchestra. When I took the [Pacific Symphony] position, it was as an interim appointment. In fact, I didn’t think I could do three positions and do them all well. What happened was that I fell in love with them, and that was something I did not expect.

“There was an esprit de corps in the youth orchestra that I’d never encountered in professional groups.”

Cumming pointed out that some of his musicians at Cal State Fullerton’s Pacific Symphony Institute already work as professionals, and there certainly wasn’t the sort of parental involvement that he found at the youth orchestra. At the institute and even more so at the Pacific Symphony itself, he said, “professional detachment” is the norm.

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Despite frustrations over his departure voiced by youth orchestra members and their parents, Cumming said he has no hard feelings stemming from his association with the Pacific Symphony management, which had chosen not to renew his contract well before the Pittsburgh job came up.

“Absolutely not,” he said.

“I’d understood from the beginning that the position was temporary--two to three years at most. It’s been that way as long as there have been orchestras and assistants, with the exceptions of some top major orchestras.”

He nevertheless understands the parents’ frustration.

“Young groups thrive on continuity. As long as there is that marriage [between the youth orchestra and the Pacific Symphony], there’s always going to be that tension. You have a duality. [The appointment] is temporary yet one longs for continuity.

“The parents have every right to be passionate when they see something they like,” he continued. “They think that this youth orchestra is very special, and things that are good we don’t want to change. In this case, change on one end brought about change in another where it was harder to take.

“For me too.”