Architect of Note

It’s not nearly enough to say that Frank Salazar, who died two weeks ago, was a familiar face on the Ventura County music scene. In very real, hands-on ways, he was a principal architect of the scene, someone who guided young musicians, was a fearless leader of regional orchestra here and became an overall champion of classical music culture in the area.

Although he had retired in the early ‘90s, making him a less visible force, it’s fair to say he helped make the local music landscape what it is today. Ventura County is just small enough, and yet ambitious enough an outpost in Southern California, to allow someone of Salazar’s passion to have a deep effect.

He came here after earning a master’s degree at USC and began teaching at Oxnard High School, then moved to Ventura College. He took his message to the street, too, forming the Ventura County Symphony in 1962 and helping to build a formidable classical audience here, defying the notion of this area as a backwater to that hulking urban center to the South.

In 1992, Salazar passed the baton he had held since founding the symphony, opening the spot for Canadian maestro Boris Brott. A few years later, the Ventura County Symphony was wiped off the map. It disappeared in the merger with the Conejo Symphony, which created the New West Symphony, rankling many who still believed in the importance of regional orchestras.

Salazar, for whom music was an obvious life force and more than a diversion, could be found in corners of the county wherever music was being made, including the latest Ojai Festival in early June.

During an interview in 1991, Salazar discussed Mahler, whose Second Symphony the orchestra was about to perform, but he spoke also of the inner drive he had to spread the musical gospel.

“When we hear this incredible music that he made, this insight, this depth, this extension--you might say--of the ‘Eroica’ Symphony to great heights, we know not only its historical and aesthetic importance but its magnificent beauty that we don’t want anybody to miss out on. I always get the feeling that, ‘Gosh, somebody’s out there in the audience hearing this for the first time.’ What a thrill.

“I know the structure, not only the emotion of Mahler, but where he was, what he’s trying to say--not only musically but sometimes his struggles too,” he said. “They are struggles that we all have. It’s art at one of the highest levels.”

As maestro of the Ventura County Symphony, Salazar tended to the business of Mahler and other standard repertoire, but he also found ways of inserting more “difficult” and contemporary music. Audiences weren’t always in sync with Salazar’s broad musical tastes. He recalled the time the symphony performed the violin concerto of serialist Alban Berg, “an established classic. From the letters that I got, you’d have thought I was up there playing a symphony by my pet chimpanzee. I won’t go so far as to say that these people are philistines. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of exposure.”

And helping grant exposure to the wonders of classical music was his mission, from the classroom to the concert hall.

“I have faith in the music,” he said. “When I have problems, I always think of what my fine teacher at USC said. ‘When you have problems, just turn to the score. You’ll find the answer there.’

“Yes, I think most people do. I hope so, anyway. Some don’t. But I have to do what I have to do. Sometimes it’s not the most popular, but over the long haul, it means something.”

And it did. For his message, his dedication, and, of course, his music-making, Salazar is already missed. He goes down in Ventura County’s history as one who made a huge difference.

Rite of Summer: The Music Academy of the West, the main reason for classical music lovers to go out in the summer, is presenting a meaty show for the first of its official orchestra concerts Saturday night at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara.

British conductor Graeme Jenkins will lead the student-based orchestra in a performance of that great and rarely performed 20th century classic, Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” Opening the program is a work by a fellow Russian--but one who stayed in Russia--Shostakovich’s Second Symphony.

The “Rite of Spring” has been missing in action in Santa Barbara, neglected by the city’s symphony for years. But what’s this, you say, students braving this fiendishly difficult piece? Believe it: Despite the fresh, scrubbed faces of these musicians, who come here from all over the world, the Academy Festival Orchestra is an amazing ensemble. It’s capable of leaping tall challenges and inspiring us to have faith in the future of classical music.

DETAILS

Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra; Saturday, 8 p.m.; Lobero Theatre, 33 Canon Perdido in Santa Barbara. Tickets: 963-0761; for a season brochure, 969-4726. Web site: https://www.musicacademy.org. E-mail: festival@musicacademy.org.

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Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com.