No stranger to solos, concertmaster Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio gets a chance this time to stand in front of the Fresno Philharmonic. If you watch closely, you’ll probably see her dance.
By Donald Munro
Like other symphony orchestras, the Fresno Philharmonic usually imports renowned guest artists as soloists. These “big names,” often internationally acclaimed, can offer star power to the proceedings.
But when booking soloists, an orchestra can also turn to the talent within its own ranks.
That’s the case this weekend with the latest in Fresno Philharmonic’s set of Masterworks concerts. Music director Rei Hotoda turned to Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, the orchestra’s longtime concertmaster, to perform as the soloist in the colorful and evocative “Poema autunnale” by Respighi. (The orchestra performs 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov 24, at Shaghoian Hall.)
As she performs the 14-minute song, it’s a chance to put one of the orchestra’s best known and dynamic musicians in the spotlight.
I caught up on Friday with Sant’Ambrogio to talk about the Respighi – and what it’s like to be a concertmaster. Some of my takeaways from that interview and after many years of watching her:
1. The concertmaster gets noticed.
Sant’Ambrogio gets to make a ritual grand entrance at the beginning of the concert, for one thing, when she walks out to audience applause and then turns and leads the tuning of the orchestra.
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And then there’s the matter of where she sits: front and center. As the section leader of the first violins, she gets the best real estate, directly at the left-hand of the conductor.
The rituals continue when the concert is over. If there’s a guest soloist, he or she usually extends a hand to the concertmaster as the audience applauds. The conductor, after taking a bow, follows as well.
2. You’d notice her on stage even if she weren’t the concertmaster.
Still, there’s something about Sant’Ambrogio that captures your attention beyond the little nods to tradition. What really makes you notice is how intensely she seems to love the music.
Playing while seated really isn’t the idea situation for somebody like Sant’Ambrogio, who has been a fixture as concertmaster in Fresno since 2010.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I like to move,” she says.
Oh, but I do. I tell her that if anyone is able to dance in a chair, it’s her.
She laughs. “That’s what music is really about,” she says. “I like the music. I mean, the rhythm, the beat. It’s like it’s just hard for me to keep my body still.”
3. There’s a lot to being a concertmaster that the audience doesn’t see.
One responsibility is to be the leader of the strings.
The concertmaster also marks bow movements in the score for the violins, a requirement for aesthetic reasons – it looks a lot prettier when all the violinists move their bows in unison.
The concertmaster also is expected to perform smaller violin solos for which the orchestra doesn’t bring in a guest artist.
Generally, the position is all about leadership. Sant’Ambrogio calls herself a “second pair of ears.” She often consults with Hotoda about difficult parts of the music and points out problem areas the conductor might have missed.
She and Hotoda have a tight musical relationship and are able to talk “shop” together in a way that nobody else really can. (They even carpool to rehearsals and performances together.)
Sant’Ambrogio has a lot of experience doing the concertmaster thing.. Before that she was concertmaster at the San Antonio Philharmonic for 13 years. (Her career started at the age of 24 with the illustrious Cleveland Orchestra, but she left that after a time to find a better career-family balance.) She moved to teach at the University of Nevada, Reno to become a professor of violin and viola, and she thought her concertmaster days were over. Then Theodore Kuchar, the previous music director of the Fresno Philharmonic, asked her to take the job in Fresno. She’s been commuting from Reno ever since.
4. The Respighi piece, written in 1925, is a little-known gem.
It isn’t a traditional violin concerto; instead it’s called a tone poem. The composer had in mind the “sweet melancholy” of an autumn day, writes Tully Potter in the Naxos recording notes. It is enlivened at one point by a Dionysian dance until finally the great god Pan ‘wandered lonely across the fields under falling golden leaves.’ Rather than have the woodwinds evoke Pan’s pipes, Respighi allotted this task to the solo violin.”
In the dance, there are a lot of pyrotechnics for the violin, Sant’Ambrogio says.
To imitate the flute, the violin plays harmonics up high on the G string.
“And then there’s another little country dance, not quite as wild and intoxicated as the first one. And then it ends sweetly, slowly, beautifully, in that same melancholy feeling … It’s not a gangbuster kind of ending. It’s just very, very beautiful and sweet.”
She only learned about the Respighi piece recently after talking with an Italian-American conductor, who encouraged her to track it down. She found a “gorgeous recording” by Julia Fischer and knew she wanted to play it. She ended up performing it at her final retirement concert with the University of Nevada-Reno orchestra last year. Now she gets to do it with a professional orchestra.
I’m surprised that a lifelong classical musician is still able to “find” a piece for her instrument that was written in 1925. It shows how much great music there is.
“There really is,” she agrees. “Yes, there’s so much repertoire.”
5. This is a rare chance to hear this piece in performance.
Part of it is just the timing. At only 14 minutes long, the piece isn’t considered “worth it” to be performed by a guest artist. (Why would you fly someone across the country to play for less than a quarter of an hour?) Because of that, shorter works like “Poema autunnale” can be lost in the programming shuffle.
This isn’t the first time for Sant’Ambrogio to stand in front of the orchestra as a soloist – it’s actually the fifth during her time in Fresno. But it’s rare enough to make it a big deal. As a spiritual person, she says it’s one more chance to share her gift with others. If she’s the center of attention, that’s something she tries to forget.
“God is the performer and I am the instrument,” she says. “I try to get myself and my ego out of the way, because otherwise, I can’t express the beauty. I want to convey the beauty and perfection of the music, but I want it to come through me, but it’s not me. I don’t think it’s really me doing it.”
Also on the program: Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” overture, Reena Esmail’s “RE|Member,” and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.
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