Symphony Conductor

Picking up the baton at the Women's Philharmonic

Hsu: "Making music is such a satisfying thing."

by Alethea Yip

In Apo Hsu's family, love was expressed through gestures and pride was stated through approving glances, not words. Growing up, Hsu was painfully shy and reserved, unsure of how to unleash her passion for her music and for life--until she decided she wanted to be a conductor.

"The first time I stood on that podium I was shaking," Hsu recalled of her student conducting days. "But it felt so right and so natural for me. And immediately that told me what I needed to do.

"I had to overcome sharing my feelings through music," the 40-year-old Hsu recalled of her college days when instructors tried to coax her out of her shell. "Coming from Asian culture, which is more introverted, I had a tougher time showing people how I feel. But as a conductor you can't be shy. The audience needs that indication from you about how the music feels."

And today, as the newly named conductor and artistic director of the Women's Philharmonic--the only professional orchestra in the world devoted to commissioning, performing, recording, and reconstructing historical works by women composers--Hsu has come a long way.

A native of Taiwan, Hsu first started committing herself to a career in music when she was in grade school. After receiving her bachelor's degree in piano from National Taiwan University, she came to the United States in the early 1980s to earn her artistic diploma in conducting from the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. Hsu has conducted throughout the United States and Asia.

She recently resigned from a critically acclaimed six-year term with the Oregon Mozart Players to take the position at the San Francisco-based Women's Philharmonic--a route that she admits shatters tradition for classically trained conductors, but one she eagerly embraces.

"This is a very different step for me," Hsu said. "This is not [considered] a traditional or usual step to my colleagues. I am stepping into a different territory that would greatly challenge me. Everything about it is untraditional. The uniqueness of the pieces and the activities are different than traditional orchestras. It's different because of the mission. "It's true that worldwide, women composers are underrepresented and just having so much good music out there that I could get involved in researching, promoting, performing, recording it, and letting people know about it, just the thought of it is quite exciting," Hsu said. "These people are committed to their mission and they believe strongly in helping and performing the music the best that they can. So, that energy and that conviction from every individual in that organization is what thrills me and encourages me about this organization and the position that I am going into." Although Hsu said that she has never personally met with sexism, she is aware that it exists in her male-dominated profession. But that has never stopped Hsu, who was determined to be a conductor at a very young age.

In the beginning her mother encouraged her to pursue music, and she did well playing the piano and eventually mastering the doublebass. But watching the passion, the emotion of her conductors, she longed for the other side of the podium. "Making music is such a satisfying thing," Hsu said. "Making music, you have great emotion that you want to express, and physically you can produce all those sounds and project that emotion to your listeners. But for conductors, it is one step further than that.

"I can remember being mesmerized by my conductor, my teacher, and I thought, how wonderful that he could draw music out of us--these 12- to 13-year-olds--and we were so into it," she recalled. "You have this wonderful bond with your friends in the orchestra and your conductor. And that brought me into music as a wonderful means of human communication and human emotion sharing." That was an important lesson in self-awareness for Hsu, who up until that point had never really learned how to express her feelings--a trait she picked up from her family.

Even to this day, her mother, whose love of music first influenced Hsu to get into the field, has not expressed with words that she is proud of her daughter's accomplishments. Instead, she shows her.

"My mother was truly the force behind my success," said Hsu, who remembers fondly that when she was a child, her family used to gather around the piano after dinner to sing and dance. "She would attend every little recital, every little concert tour. And now when I go back, she is as proud as can be. She won't say it verbally, but she will round up everybody--aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and friends--and make sure that everyone knows about and comes to my concerts.

"She is the best PR person in the world," Hsu continued about her mother. "My family is not very verbal. We don't really say how we really feel, but I can see it in her eyes, her gestures, her body language--and she doesn't say the words, 'I'm really proud.' I just feel it."

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