Keeping an ear out for a leader

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 | 7:01 a.m.

On Saturday night the final conductor took his bow, the theater cleared out, and the musicians went home.

Now comes the hard part.

The selection committee for the next music director for the Las Vegas Philharmonic has to make its decision.

If you thought it was tough to choose on paper, it became even more complicated after seeing the three candidates perform. Each concert was memorable, but for vastly different reasons. In a situation like this, not only is the conductor on his best behavior, so is the orchestra.

From a stack of more than 200 applicants, the selection committee whittled it down to three and it's pretty safe to say that Las Vegas got lucky.

Each comes from a smaller city with a well-established orchestra. Each has experience reaching out to the community and has a lengthy resume as a guest conductor.

When Hal Weller burst onto the Las Vegas scene in 1998, he picked up the pieces of the defunct Nevada Symphony Orchestra, created a functional symphony with full and fixed seasons.

But Las Vegas isn't the city it was eight years ago.

New arrivals expect a symphonic community much like the one in the city they left, and the orchestra not only needs to be solid, it needs to be aggressive, progressive and embedded in the community. Plus, the orchestra has to get ready to fill a bigger hall when the Smith Center for the Performing Arts opens. Myron Martin, president of the Las Vegas Performing Arts Foundation met with each candidate and attended the performances. He's not part of the selection committee, but is anxious to see who will lead the orchestra into the new center.

Musicians and members of the search committee or board are unwilling to share their thoughts publicly. Some privately said they can't decide. But here's a recap:

Peter Rubardt

Rubardt grew up in Berkeley, Calif., received a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School, was a Fulbright scholar in 1984 and studied piano and conducting at the Vienna Academy of Music. He was associate conductor of the Syracuse Symphony in New York and resident conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra before taking over the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra in Florida 10 years ago.

He grows classical audiences by customizing an orchestra to fit the community. In Pensacola, he initiated a pops program, a chamber orchestra and a "stained glass series," which brought the chamber orchestra into area churches.

Music selection: Rubardt promised a showy program and Las Vegas got one. The audience leapt to its feet and demanded that Rubardt return twice to the stage for another, then another bow. The program - Mozart's 35th Symphony ("Haffner"), Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 featuring guest artist Stewart Goodyear, and Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony - was a success.

The performance was nearly flawless. It was riveting when it needed to be, melodramatic at all the right moments, and Goodyear became an immediate audience favorite with his impeccable mastery of the technically difficult Prokofiev piece.

Coda: Rubardt seems quiet and observant, but he's a real crowd pleaser once he takes the podium.

David Itkin

Itkin is a multitasker who has led the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra for 14 years and the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra in Texas for two. He is a frequent guest lecturer and guest conductor throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East, and he is a composer whose works include an oratorio, "Exodus," which was narrated by William Shatner at its premiere.

Music selection: Itkin took the biggest risk with his selection. Guest conductors usually use familiar favorites to win over audiences. Itkin picked music that was as challenging for an orchestra to put together as it was to excite audiences. While guest soloist Matt Haimovitz was thoroughly impressive performing Barber's Cello Concerto, it doesn't have the broad appeal of Barber's Violin Concerto. Overall, Itkin successfully challenged the orchestra and connected with the audience members who loved his pre-concert lecture and comments during the performances.

Coda: Itkin's communication and outreach skills could be perfect for developing the classical music audience in Las Vegas.

David Commanday

Commanday studied at Harvard College and then in Vienna with conductor Otmar Suitner. Commanday began conducting professionally with the Boston Ballet, then served with a score of orchestras, including the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and assistant conductor of the San Diego Symphony before taking over the Peoria Symphony. He likes new music and is known to bring in nontraditional guest artists.

Music selection: Commanday was the first guest conductor to take the stage, in October. After the concert, patrons were saying that it was the best they had heard the orchestra. He couldn't really go wrong with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the overture to Rossini's "Barber of Seville." Violinist Lara St. John dazzled and intrigued the audience with her flying fingers and overt passion performing John Corigliano's "The Red Violin" chaconne, a popular modern piece. Following her performance, breathless listeners nodded approvingly and showered her with applause.

Instead of going out on a well-deserved high note after Beethoven's Fifth, however, Commanday sat the orchestra and audience down for Barber's Adagio for Strings - a beautiful performance, but some say it ruined the moment.

Coda: The charismatic Commanday offers the promise of programming new music for audiences in the first postmodern city.

What's next?

The plan is to have the conductor begin leading the orchestra next season.

Because each of the three finalists has booked his schedule a year in advance, the new conductor might be leading the philharmonic from his current location. Philharmonic Board President and search committee Chairman William Freyd says all of this still needs to be negotiated and if the board can't come to agreement with its first choice, it will move on to the No. 2 candidate.

"We can't go wrong with any of the three," Freyd says. "Each has a unique set of skills, personality and charisma."

Here's how it will go down:

1. Concertmaster DeAnn Letourneau and associate concertmaster Martha Gronemeier, who are part of the search committee, met with the musicians on Wednesday.

2. On March 1, Letourneau and Gronemeier will present the musicians' results to the search committee.

3. Immediately following that meeting, the executive committee, composed of two philharmonic officers and two members at large, will meet.

4. At 4 p.m. that day, the philharmonic board will meet, look at the results and make its final decision.

5. On March 2, Freyd says, he hopes to begin negotiations with the top candidate, although "it's always possible that we'll get deadlocked."