Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
Print
E-Mail
tool name
closeSunday, Oct. 12, 2008
Modern maestro: Wallin, 34, becomes Mid-Columbia Symphony's youngest conductor
By Dori O'Neal, Herald staff writer
When Nick Wallin learned in June he'd been named the new conductor of the Mid-Columbia Symphony, the first thing he did was call his parents in Michigan.
"My dad told me he'd looked up the story about all the candidates on the (Tri-City Herald) website and figured I didn't stand a chance," Wallin said with a chuckle. "Not that he didn't have faith in my abilities, but the other candidates were very impressive and had much more experience than I did.
"It made me all the more honored."
At 34, Wallin might be the symphony's youngest maestro ever, but he's no rookie.
He's an assistant music professor at Washington State University and for eight years has been conducting the WSU orchestra and the Washington Idaho Symphony and has been a guest conductor at the Spokane Symphony.
That might make him sound like a musical egghead. But to make time for a recent interview on the Pullman campus, he had to break away from a Chicago Cubs baseball game he'd been watching on his computer.
"I'm a huge Cubs fan," Wallin admitted. "I got introduced to this team in middle school while at a friend's house where his family always seemed to have a Cubs game on the television."
That was back in the days when the colorful Harry Caray was the Cubs broadcaster. So what's one of his favorite early musical memories?
"I loved listening to Harry sing Take Me Out To The Ballgame," Wallin said. "I've been hooked on baseball ever since. There's a feeling you get when you fall in love with a team that I can't really explain, even if they are lovable losers sometimes."
Though he's a self-proclaimed sports junkie, it's music that drives his passion in just about every direction, from rock to pop to folk. But classical music is his favorite.
"I love classical music because it's so vibrant and alive," Wallin said. "And I love to sing."
He sings to his two small children and to his wife, he said. And, he admitted with a grin, he sings arias in the shower where the soap is his only audience.
But conducting is at the heart of his musical soul.
He hopes his youthful approach will prompt changes that musically enrich the Tri-City community.
"The classical field has to change," he said.
Concert halls shouldn't be museums, he believes, and it's important for an orchestra to perform new works periodically that will draw younger audiences. Previously, there hasn't been a whole lot of humor in concert halls, and he'd like to see a little more.
It's important for young and old alike to attend classical concerts, Wallin said.
It's a chance to see "a relevant celebration of young love," he said. "Music translates into life in all sorts of wonderful ways. And there is a vibrancy in the classics that enriches us as humans."
Tricia Vest, executive director of the symphony, said Wallin endeared himself to the orchestra from the moment he stood in as guest conductor last year.
"I have not met anyone who doesn't like Nick," she said. "He is the perfect combination of personality, intelligence and artistic talent."
Sandra Stanley, president of the symphony board, couldn't agree more.
"Nick brings a youthful vitality to the symphony, its board, the staff and the musicians, and we are all looking forward to working with him," she said.
Wallin aims to reach out to the community. When he's in the Tri-Cities for concert rehearsals, he plans to make time to visit schools to promote the symphony to a younger audience.
He also is willing to spend extra time in the Tri-Cities before and after concerts, something past conductors haven't done, Stanley added.
Wallin is excited about his first concert of the new season, which will be Oct. 25 at the Three Rivers Convention Center.
"We're going to have some fun at this first concert because the music is quite lively," he said. "We're calling it Celebrate America, and that's exactly what we're going to do. We've got some Gershwin and some Copland music and a Samuel Barber number with Kari Ragan as our guest soloist."
Ragan is a Richland High grad who now lives in the Seattle area where she teaches private voice lessons and performs professionally.
Wallin doesn't dispute that some young rockers might think classical music is for sissies. To them, he might recommend a little session with renowned rocker Eddie Van Halen, who grew up listening to classical music.
After all, Van Halen named his son Wolfgang after his favorite composer -- Mozart.
"There's so much more to a classical concert than the music," Wallin said. "When the instruments are played, it's like watching a flurry of color -- visual eye candy, of sorts. And I feel very strongly that the Mid-Columbia Symphony's orchestra is ready to have some fun."
* Dori O'Neal: 509-582-1514; doneal@tricityherald.com
@Nyx.CommentBody@