Stage Presence

Oct. 25, 2006

To say that Kevin Rhodes is a man of the world is too slight a statement. When he’s not here in the States conducting the Traverse Symphony Orchestra (TSO) or the Springfield Symphony in Massachusetts, chances are you’ll find him stirring the winds with his baton at some of Europe’s most hallowed opera houses in Vienna, Paris and Verona.
And over yonder, we’re talking about the rarest air in the world of high culture -- the pinnacle of the peak -- where Rhodes has led hundreds of concerts in the territory of divas and prima donnas, royalty and jet setters, legends of the stage, tuxes & tails and the pressure of stratospheric artistic expectations...
But you would never know it to meet Kevin over a cup of brew at a downtown coffeehouse. Face-to-face, he’s anything but high-falutin’. In person, he’s a hard-working, down-to-earth guy who crackles with enthusiasm for classical music, generating electrifying performances with the TSO.

STAGE PRESENCE
“I sort of think of myself as a man of the theatre,” says Rhodes, 42, who is currently preparing for the second concert in the TSO’s season. “So much of my life’s work has been done in the theatre, from being a small kid playing as a rehearsal pianist with a community theater to all of the work I’ve done in the opera houses of Europe.”
In fact, in the 11 years he lived in Europe (and subsequent seasons such as the three months he spent there this summer) Rhodes has conducted most of the major operas and ballets of the world’s great composers: Strauss, Bartok, Bach and Stravinski, to name a few.
That background in opera has given Rhodes’ conducting a dynamic, dramatis personae. “There tends to be a certain difference between musicians and people of the theatre,” he notes. “There’s a certain dramatic aspect that you learn from opera, so I’m always trying to bring this quality to the concerts that I direct as well.”
Those theatrical performances have energized the TSO, which Rhodes joined in 2001. Along with TSO Director Andy Buelow, the two have transformed the organization from a community orchestra to a professional symphony that’s created sold-out seasons and an excited buzz around the region for its virtuosity and imaginative productions.

BEGINNINGS
A native of Evansville, Indiana, Rhodes began playing the piano as a child and was soon sitting in with a community theater group. “After a few years, I wanted to be the person in charge and at the same time I began to discover orchestral music,” he recalls. “I realized there was only one thing to do -- become a conductor... As luck would have it, there was no one available to conduct a musical when I was a junior in high school, so that was my first experience.”
He pursued an undergraduate degree in piano performance at Michigan State University where he was fortunate to serve as assistant conductor of the school symphony. Thereafter, he completed a Masters degree in conducting at the University of Illinois and went on to posts at the Aspen Music Festival and as pianist with the New Mexico Symphony, among other gigs.
But his big break was with the Basel Stadttheater of Switzerland, where he conducted 60-70 performances per season. That led to other appointments, such as with the Vienna State Opera in 1995, when he was appointed Principal Ballet Conductor. By the 2000/2001 season, his biography states that he had conducted nearly 700 performances in Europe with 20 different orchestras -- most among the best in the world at legendary venues such as the gilded, opulent Paris Opera House.
That incredible amount of pressure seems to be deflected by Rhodes’ lighthearted nature.
“I’ve been conducting at the Vienna Opera House for 11 years now -- talk about a sense of responsibility,” he says. “You’re standing on the same spot as the conductors of the golden age of opera. Every major conductor since World War II has stood in that same box. People like Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Metha.”
Does he get stage fright?
“Of course you do,” Rhodes says with a laugh. “But like anything, by the time you’ve been doing it for a long time, it’s less and less. But there’s always a little edge up there.”

GO NORTH, YOUNG MAN
So, how did Rhodes go from the international stage to tiny Traverse City?
“My wife Jane is from Saginaw, and in the mid-’90s her parents moved to Traverse City, so we began coming here in the summer when we came back to the States,” he says. “I was very impressed by the place and had heard of Interlochen.”
One day after he had applied for a position with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, his mother-in-law Phyllis Young called to say that there was an opening for a conductor in Traverse City. Rhodes was fortunate to obtain both positions, conducting dual seasons on a part-time basis while continuing to perform in Europe.
“My very first concert here was five days after 9/11 in 2001,” he recalls. “We performed Copeland’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ with the ‘Hymn to the Fallen Soldiers’ from ‘Platoon.’”
Rhodes says that he undertook the transformation of the TSO to the level of a professional orchestra as a “fascinating project.”
“It was something I wanted to do with my life and I was fantastically lucky to find my counterpart in Andy Buelow, who had worked with the Milwaukee Symphony before coming here,” he recalls.
With the support of the TSO Board, the symphony began attracting professional players from afar and tightening up the practice schedule. Today, almost every member of the TSO is a musical educator or professional musician; pay rates have gone up and there have been more performances to attend.

CHOICES, CHOICES
How does Rhodes choose his season? For starters, he listens to a lot of classical CDs through the year.
“Certain things are always on the season,” he notes. “Beethoven is always included because people want him. And there’s definitely a strong Russian presentation -- I love Russian music so much. Then, I try to balance out things that are on the ‘hit parade’ of classical music. There’s no way around the fact that there are pieces people love to hear and you love to play. I try to balance that out with some pieces that are less known so that we can meet new friends.”
Once a season is nailed down, the heavy lifting begins. “There’s a lot of preparation -- oh yeah! -- absolutely,” he says. “Even with works you’ve done before, there’s a lot of renewing and considering how you might like to do things differently.”
But if the notes and time signatures are all scored out, why so much preparation?
“It’s simply the sound of the orchestra,” Rhodes says. “When there are this many people playing together with so many parts, there’s no way that two conductors will mix and equalize those sounds the same way. You might want to bring out section X or Y at different points. There are an infinite variety of ways to play even the simplest of phrases and actual notes. It’s the same as when you think of a play’s script and how it is done different ways by different actors.”
Then there’s Rhodes’ own rock star performance as a conductor factored in to get the symphony’s blood up in that ineffable quality that defines a killer show.
See for yourself this season with “From Russia With Love” this weekend, Oct. 28-29, featuring the works of Gliere, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. Then there’s “Beethoven’s Best” on Nov. 19. The popular “Home for the Holidays” show features sounds of the season on Dec. 8-10, with a “Winter Surprise” show Jan. 28; a Spanish guitar “Sizzling Espana” performance Feb. 18; “The Mark of Zorro” featuring the swashbuckler himself on March 18; and the Season Finale of popular favorites on May 26-27 closing the season.
Then, perhaps for Kevin Rhodes, it’s back to Europe for another tour of the legendary venues of the greatest conductors who ever lived. In the meantime, consider yourself lucky to be able to catch his act here in the hinterlands with a season of surprises.

For info or tickets to the TSO, see www.tso-online.org or call 231-947-7120.