Maestro’s legacy

By Kristen Peterson

Sunday, April 29, 2007 | 7:24 a.m.

When Hal Weller sets down his baton and takes his final bow with the Las Vegas Philharmonic on Saturday night, he'll walk off stage a hero.

In nine years the 66-year-old maestro has done what many said was impossible.

He built an orchestra that feeds Las Vegas audiences a steady diet of classics - Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Wagner, Prokofiev. And he created dependable seasons that put the orchestra on firm financial footing.

Moreover, Weller demanded commitment.

"He created a culture for this organization when it was almost impossible to do that in this town," concertmaster Dee Ann Letourneau says. "He wanted a core group of players and had to make tough decisions, telling great musicians, 'If you can't commit to this orchestra, we can't commit to you,' and bypassing the most phenomenal players. He knew how to steer this orchestra.

"He took this orchestra out of the dirt and brought it to where it has over a $1 million budget."

Now he's handing his legacy to a new music director, David Itkin, who'll guide the orchestra as it prepares to move into the Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Weller couldn't be more proud of the orchestra nor more confident about where it's headed.

"It's in excellent health. It's in good hands," the personable leader says while sipping coffee and reminiscing last week at the philharmonic offices.

This isn't just the end of a job, it's the end of a career that began in Dayton, Ohio, where Weller haunted the local library as a child, reading symphonic scores and checking out classical albums even though he didn't have a record player. He played piano, trumpet and viola, and was writing arrangements and conducting school concerts by the eighth grade. The next year he composed his first overture, which was performed by the all-city orchestra.

"I was born old," Weller says. "I avoided the temptations of pop culture. I lived through the era of rock 'n' roll, and I was not at all impressed with it. Not one bit."

Indeed.

After a year and a half at Oberlin Conservatory, he left to become assistant conductor of Hamilton University Orchestra and director of the Ohio town's symphony. He led a string of orchestras at universities - Ashland, Old Dominion, New Mexico. Then he moved to Flagstaff, Ariz., where he taught conducting and le d the city's orchestra.

When Weller came to Las Vegas in 1997 to head UNLV's orchestra, the idea of a professional philharmonic was brewing in his mind.

No one wanted to compete with the struggling Nevada Symphony Orchestra. But that group crashed, burned and canceled its Fourth of July program. Weller and Dick McGee had less than two weeks to put together a symphony.

At that 1998 concert a proud Weller turned to the audience and announced:

"This is the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Do you want the orchestra to continue?"

The applause confirmed his notion that Las Vegas wanted a serious orchestra.

Weller teamed with Susan and Andy Tompkins, who were instrumental in pulling all the arts patrons to the table. A series of children's concerts followed. Their first serious concert was May 1999. No small undertaking, a 95-piece orchestra and 125-voice chorus presented Mahler.

"I remember saying that people aren't going to come see Mahler's Second Symphony. I was telling Hal that there wasn't a classical audience that would flood to the concerts," associate conductor Dick McGee says. "He proved me wrong several times. After the success of the Mahler concert I felt we could move forward with a real season."

McGee wasn't the only doubter. Nobody thought the fledgling philharmonic would last.

"There was doubt from musicians in town," Letourneau recalls. " 'Yeah, right, we're going to start an orchestra in this town and make it work.' "

Musicians had been burned by earlier attempts to start a symphony orchestra.

"All of us had such disenchantment with what had tried to conspire with many conductors and orchestras before," says Mary Straub, a musician, teacher and resident since 1975. "This town was always: 'Work on the Strip first, play whatever second.' This was the first time in any Las Vegas orchestra that there was a contract."

Philharmonic co-founder Susan Tompkins says part of it was timing. "Bellagio was opening and Las Vegas was hitting its stride. There was a renaissance in Las Vegas. It was no longer a sawdust town. It was a critical period in Las Vegas' growth."

Myron Martin, the former head of UNLV's performing arts programs and now president of the Smith Center, saw another obstacle: "What ties high culture together is not just income, it's also education. Back then the city was well below the national average."

Though Weller has publicly butted heads with Martin over the new performing arts center, Martin holds no grudge.

"Hal connected with the audience since Day One. He understood the parameters of the community and that he could stay in those parameters and make everyone happy."

Instead of bringing in big names, like Yo-Yo Ma, to sell tickets, Martin says, Weller brought in young, talented guest artists without breaking the bank.

"This community owes Hal Weller, as well as Susan and Andy Tompkins, a great bit of thanks because , without them and Hal's leadership, we might not have a symphony. They've defied all odds.

"Starting a symphony in a town our size, that's God's work."

What's next for Weller?

He doesn't golf, he's handed his trumpet down to his grandson, and he doesn't plan to compose.

He's an advis er for the Nevada School of the Arts. He'd like to start a baroque festival and continue helping young musicians, maybe starting a foundation.

Weller introduced young pianist Corbin Beisner to philharmonic board members Jeri and Rick Crawford. A fundraiser at their home pulled in $12,000 to send the musician to Barcelona , Spain, for a competition, which he won. Weller is working on connecting a 17-year-old Polish violinist with the Eastman School of Music.

"They just need to be found and helped," Weller says. "I remember all of my teachers, all of the people who helped me, with love and gratitude."

Part of helping young musicians is "immortality," he says. He wants to leave a legacy.

He already has. Weller doesn't expect tears at his final concert.

And the orchestra?

"It's going to be very emotional for the entire orchestra," Letourneau says.