arts & entertainment
From Bat To Baton
Once an aspiring baseball player, conductor Robert Bernhardt has built a career in music.
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
R
obert Bernhardt believes there
should be a disclaimer attached
to his stint conducting the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a program
titled The Music of John Williams.
His announcement, which has to do
with the inability to cover all of the vast
number of Williams' compositions for
films, will be addressed to audiences at
all of the four concerts scheduled Friday-
Sunday, Oct. 18-20, at Orchestra Hall.
"I'm sorry if someone's favorite piece
isn't on the program:' Bernhardt says in
a phone conversation from his home in
Chattanooga, Tenn. "The hardest part was
making the selections.
"What I do with each tribute to John
Williams — and I do them as often as I
can — is deal with the specific orchestra,
finding out what has been performed
recently and what hasn't been performed
[as of late].
"I try to put music in these concerts that
isn't too often repeated in their pops series.
I put together a series of pieces I enjoy and
that I think the audience will enjoy"
In Detroit, those pieces will include
selections from Schindler's List, Superman,
The Sorcerer's Stone, Star Wars, Jaws, Hook
and Memoirs of a Geisha.
"There's an angle to this concert that's
a little unusual for a John Williams pro-
gram:' explains Bernhardt, principal pops
conductor of the Louisville (Ky.) Orchestra
and the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera.
favorite music — classical and pops — has
"There are three places where a won-
competed with swinging a baseball bat. A
derful violin soloist, DSO Associate
1996 inductee into the Rochester (N.Y.)
Concertmaster Kimberly Kaloyanides
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Bernhardt
Kennedy, is highlighted, and that's
was an Academic All-American baseball
because John Williams
player.
also arranged music for
"For a while, I pursued
orchestra and violin.
music and sports pretty
"One piece I'm particu-
much simultaneously:'
larly excited about is his
says Bernhardt, cur-
adaptation of the score
rently artist-in-residence
for Fiddler on the Roof,
at Tennessee's Lee
which brought his first
University.
Academy Award. He took
"I played soccer and
Jerry Bock's stage music
baseball in college — four
and adapted it to the
years of each — and had
movie. This is a fabulous
my first opportunity to
arrangement that high-
conduct when I was 20
lights a very challenging
and still [attending Union
and wonderful violin
College in Schenectady].
part"
"After college, I took a
Bernhardt, 62, who
year off and was a news-
Robert Bernhardt
has conducted the
paper reporter for a year
DSO several times over
in Rochester. I had a try-
many years and appeared recently with
out with the Kansas City Royals, and they
the Grand Rapids Symphony, considers
suggested some other line of work for me.
Williams a very important person in his
"At the same time, I had been taking
own life, which showed early musical
lessons with the Rochester Philharmonic
interests through piano and guitar.
associate conductor, who told me about
"My first invitation to the Boston
a program at the University of Southern
Pops in 1992 is because he asked me
California in Los Angeles. He mentioned
Bernhardt says. "He has been a mentor
Daniel Lewis, who became my teacher"
through the years, and I consider him not
Bernhardt, who earned a master's
only the greatest film composer ever but
degree from the USC School of Music,
also one of the great composers period.
worked as a professor at the University of
Doing his music always is a joy for me:'
Alabama. He became assistant conductor
For Bernhardt, swinging a baton to lead
with the Louisville Symphony and went
on to conducting posts in Amarillo, Texas;
Tucson, Ariz; Rochester and Chattanooga.
"Many of those jobs overlapped; says
Bernhardt, who has taught continuing
education classes covering the history of
Jewish composers. "A couple of years ago,
I stepped down from the No.1 position
in Chattanooga and moved into the No. 2
position.
"I'm enjoying doing some teaching and
conducting of college students and having
a very wonderful guest conducting life. I'm
still an avid sports guy and a huge baseball
fan, collecting baseball cards with a group
showing Jewish players"
The conductor, active with his local
temple, is married to book artist Nora
Bernhardt. His grown son and daughter
have chosen careers outside of music.
"If anyone wants to bring a guest to a
first symphony concert, this would be a
good one Bernhardt says of the program
devoted to Williams.
"There are very few composers whose
music is adored by 8-year-olds, 90-year-
olds and everybody in between. It is
music that is beautifully crafted for the
orchestra"
❑
The Music of John Williams will
be performed Friday-Sunday, Oct.
18-20, at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.
Performances are at 10:45 a.m. and
8 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday and 3
p.m. Sunday. $19-$105.
(313) 576-5111; dso.org .
e‘ivs
4.• I Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
TV Tribe News
The CBS series The Good Wife ended
last season with Alicia (Julianna
Margulies, 48) and another partner,
Cary (Matt Czuchry), preparing to
secretly leave their law firm, Lockhart/
Gardner, to set up their own firm.
Ben Rappaport,
Rappaport
27, has joined the
cast, playing a smart
young associate who
leaves Lockhart/
Gardner at Alicia
and Cary's invita-
tion and joins their
new enterprise.
Rappaport was the
star of the short-
lived series Outsourced.
Meanwhile, Josh Charles, 41, who
co-stars as Will Gardner on The Good
42
October 10 • 2013
Wife, wed his longtime girlfriend,
Sophie Flack, 30, on Sept. 6. No
details of the small, private wedding
were released.
Based on an Israeli series is CBS's
Hostages, which premiered Sept. 23.
The American version was created by
Jeffrey Nachmanoff, 46, who wrote
the hit film The Day After Tomorrow
and both wrote and directed the
2008 spy thriller Traitor.
Toni Collette plays a surgeon whose
family is taken hostage by a group
led by a rogue FBI agent (Dylan
McDermott) just before she is sched-
uled to operate on
the U.S. president.
She is ordered to
murder the president
during surgery, or
the members of her
family will be killed.
David Nachmanoff,
Nachmanoff
49, Jeffrey's brother,
is a folksinger who sometimes sings
Jewish tunes.
Film Notes
A new version
of Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet
opens in theaters on
Friday, Oct.11, writ-
ten for the screen
by Julian Fellowes
(Downton Abbey).
Co-starring as Juliet
is Hailee Steinfeld,
16, who received
a 2010 Oscar nomination for True
Grit. Steinfeld's father is Jewish; her
uncle is famous personal trainer Jake
Steinfeld, 55.
Detroit-area native Stacie Passon,
45, was profiled in the Jan. 31 issue
of the Detroit Jewish News when
her first feature film, Concussion,
had just been picked up for theater
Steinfeld
distribution after
getting raves at
the Sundance Film
Festival and else-
where. It is unclear
if the film will play a
Detroit-area theater,
but it is now avail-
Passon
able on VOD via most
cable/satellite pro-
viders or on the Web.
Robin Weigert, 44, stars as Abby,
a middle-class suburban housewife
with kids who is married to another
woman. One day, she's hit by a base-
ball, and the concussion she suffers
leads her to seriously change her life.
She begins renovating apartments
in Manhattan, which leads her to
meet a handyman who puts her in
touch with a female prostitute who
services women. Abby discovers that
she desires to emulate this lifestyle
and follows through with her plan. ❑