Meet the Conductor

Michael Newnham
Published Saturday January 9th, 2010
Salon Section
 
 
 
Age? 50.

Provenance?  I'm originally from Hamilton, Ont. I studied conducting, worked and lived in Warsaw, Poland, for several years, and then, through teaching in South Korea, I ended up back in Canada. I live with my wife, Zuzanna, and our two children in Peterborough, Ont., where I'm also the music director of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra. I came to conduct Symphony New Brunswick on a few occasions and was very happy when I received the offer to become the music director here.

Why music?  Because I don't know how to do anything else ... Actually, I fell deeply in love with music as a boy, and I've never been able to imagine myself doing anything else since then.

What was your breakthrough moment?  I've had several. The first, though, is always the most important. It was when my grandparents came back from a trip to Italy with pictures of Bellini's dove at the Vatican. They showed me this while playing me a recording of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. The whole world seemed to make sense to me for those 10 minutes or so.

What would you be if you weren't a conductor?  Most likely I'd be living in Italy being a barista at a local coffee establishment.

What are you working on next?  Next month I'm conducting Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony for the first time.

What place on Earth inspires you?  There are two contrasting places. One is the Tatra mountains in southern Poland. I've hiked through all of them. They're craggy and the local people, known as gorale, have their own fascinating culture and dialect. The other place is my favourite city: Rome. It's the colours of the buildings, the sky, the sunlight and the energy. You can also drink some fabulous coffee there and, of course, the architecture ...

What place in New Brunswick inspires you?  My first experience in New Brunswick was staying at UNB in Fredericton when I was a member of the National Youth Orchestra. What a beautiful campus! Coming by train from Quebec through all the forests - nothing like it. And, of course, the Fundy tides.

Secret indulgences?  I have too many to name.

Your favourite hero of fiction?  Stanislaw Wokulski from Polish author Boleslaw Prus's The Doll. He is a self-made man in late-19th-century Warsaw who completely loses his head for a beautiful, cold aristocratic woman. He is the type of person who can accomplish anything, and this woman almost manages to destroy him, until he finally pulls himself together at the end. God, I wish I could be more like him.

What is your greatest extravagance?  I'm your typical person with champagne tastes and beer money.

What is your greatest fear?  I'm a parent. All parents fear losing their children.

Greatest joy?  Again, my children. My younger daughter has started learning piano recently. She has to make me stop crying every time she shows me that she's learned a new piece.

What are you reading?  Pan Tadeusz by Polish romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz - for the 10th or 11th time. It's a saga of life during a time of political unrest. It's funny, tragic and beautiful. I've just finished Henry-Louis de La Grange's sprawling biography of Gustav Mahler.

What's on your iPod?  Shostakovich string quartets with the Hagen Quartet; Schubert piano sonatas with Maurizio Pollini; music by Scottish composer James MacMillan; the Warsaw Village Band; Pat Metheny; Polish jazz vocalist Anna Maria Jopek; and Led Zeppelin.

What talent would you like to have?  I wish I could play jazz piano. It would be nice to have more of a flair for cooking as well. Luckily, Zuzanna is an amazing cook.

What is the greatest public misconception about classical music?  That it's elitist. That it is 'entertainment.' That its connection to our own reality is not clear. All these ideas are untrue.

Your most treasured possession?  That would have to be my espresso machine.

What is your motto?  In Polish it's Nie dam sie - I won't give in to outside circumstances.

How would you like to die?  On the podium, conducting a piece that I love.

Your favourite musical work?  It's always what I'm working on presently. Now it's Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. Some others include Karol Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, Mahler's Song of the Earth, all of Haydn's symphonies; and I can never get enough Mozart or Beethoven.

Your favourite painting on Earth?  Again, I wouldn't be able to choose. Art is another passion of mine. The first painting that struck me as a teenager was Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. It was a place and time absolutely frozen in motion that I longed to be able to join.