Jindong Cai Is Expected To Take The UA School Of Music To A Higher Playing Field. By Dave Irwin WHEN JINDONG CAI speaks, he searches for the right words. But when the Beijing-born conductor switches to gestures, he takes on the grace and perfection of a dancer, his hands articulating precise concepts of melodic motives and timing. There's no mistaking the art and beauty of his meaning. Illustrating a phrase from Brahms' First Symphony, his hands move fluidly, elegantly, and without ambiguity. It's an art he learned from masters, including Leonard Bernstein. Hired as the new acting director of Orchestral and Operatic Music at the University of Arizona, Cai is charged with taking the UA program to a higher level of excellence. It's a challenge he embraces in his quest for an artistic life. However, Cai's debut earlier this year was ambiguous. Last September, he led the UA student symphony orchestra skillfully through the treacherous rhythms of Joan Tower's 1998 "Tambor" in their first concert of the semester. But the orchestra was less than impressive on relative war horses, Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" No. 8 in B minor, and Shostokovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op 47, with anemic entrances and shaky ensemble playing. Still, he refused to fault the students. "It showed this is a promising orchestra," Cai averred. "They only had three weeks, and they really worked...They had never practiced that hard before. I really appreciate the work they did. It was not the best in my standards, but it was the best they could do in that time. I had students come to me in tears, and they said they really enjoyed the experience. I think that in music in general, especially in education, the process is more important than the result. Through the process, they understand what music means. They learn through the struggle. That is the most important thing." By the end of the semester, Cai had made clear progress with his charges, giving a much more satisfying reading of the Brahms work earlier this month. He is looking forward to even greater improvement as he continues to take an increasingly active role in the university's music program. Cai comes to Tucson after a number of international successes. He maintains relationships with the China National Symphony, the National Opera and Ballet of China, the China National Broadcasting Symphony, and the Shanghai Symphony. He will conduct concerts this spring in China and Mexico. The role of a conductor, according to Cai, is as a leader: "You ask them to do your way," he says, "and then you channel them to do your way...the one right approach to convince 80 or 100 people to the one way you think is right. "Students think they know, but you have to teach them more," he notes. "(With) professional orchestras, you have to trust that they can follow you. Everything is more technical. (With a) student orchestra, you sometimes go bar by bar, and connect (them)." By way of example, he illustrates bowing techniques from a section of Brahms--from "frog" (short bow at the base) to middle bow to tip. "When you tell them about those, they say, 'Ahhh, that's what music is about...so detailed, a different sound from the same notes,' and you feel their eyes are opening." Cai's position on the UA faculty comes after several years of unexpected instability within the school. The conductor hired after Leonard Pearlman's retirement had to resign following medical problems. Cai was hired over the late spring of 1998. Although technically in an acting position, the school's director, Gary Cook, says the university has a multiple-year commitment to Cai which will also allow him to continue his international involvements. "We were very fortunate to find him," Cook says. "He's very committed to the university program. It fits his professional development, and his artistic gratification." Indeed, one of the reasons Cai chose the UA position was that it allows him to continue work in both orchestra and opera. Professional organizations would have required him to choose one path to the exclusion of the other. His kudos in operatic works, as well as his symphonic experience, make him ideal for the position. Cai learned conducting in China after playing in an army orchestra during the Cultural Revolution. His initial conducting teacher had been trained in the former Soviet Union, China's cultural partner following World War II. After coming to America in 1986, he was selected to study with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood near the end of Bernstein's life. The impact of that experience infuses Cai's art. "It was fortunate that I got to spend time with him in the last year of his teaching," he recalls. "I think of what he said every day: He told us, 'Conducting is very difficult, because it looks so easy.' "

Home | Currents | City Week | Music | Review | Books | Cinema | Back Page | Archives

		© 1995-98 Tucson Weekly . Info Booth