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Baton Dreams

Colin Ogg will be the conductor extraordinaire at the Sing-It-Yourself-Messiah in San Francisco. Photo by Suzanne Suwanda.

Chinese American conducts Handel’s Hallelujah chorus

By Yafonne

As he was driving one day, Colin Ogg, 25, of Santa Rosa, Calif., heard a KDFC radio announcement that the San Francisco Conservatory of Music holding an online auction, and a coveted item on the block was the conductor’s rights for the Hallelujah chorus of Handel’s Messiah at their annual Sing-It-Yourself-Messiah concert. Turning to his wife Kim, 21, he said jokingly, “Wouldn’t it be great if I got to do that?” Ogg had no idea his momentary wish would set in motion such a chain of events. Kim wanted to surprise her husband with the gift of a wish come true. She contacted her sister-in-law Kathryn and made arrangements to enter the bid.

There’s nothing quite like waking up at 4:30 am to beat prospective bidders online at www.kdfc.com for the same prize. That’s exactly what Kathryn did last month, finally taking home the bid at $1,530 after 10 days of auctioning.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BATON

People often wonder what a conductor really does and how hard it is. Ogg found out first-hand last Tuesday, when he took the stage at Davies Symphony Hall to lead the orchestra and some 3,000 singers in the reprise of Handel’s most famous chorus.

“It was exhilarating, absolutely amazing! I loved it!” he exclaimed at an interview afterward. “It was a lot of fun. Being a conductor was just perfect. Actually, I am a natural ‘ham’. Leading [the audience] is what I love to do.”

A LIFE LONG MUSIC LOVER

The Conservatory couldn’t have chanced upon a more avid fan of classical music. Ever fascinated by the flute as a boy, Ogg got his start in music at 5 playing piano and flute under Nancy Moon, and violin at 8 under church choir director Fred Lucies. Before long, Ogg joined the SF Conservatory of Music and studied violin with Serban Rusu and later Davis Law. He has since played with the San Francisco Youth Symphony, the Stanford Summer Symphony, and the El Camino Youth Symphony in Palo Alto, Calif., — where he won a viola soloist competition in 1993. Today, Ogg has spread his musical talents over six instruments — the piano, violin, viola, flute, harp and more recently, the electric bass.

“I am lucky to have a family to play music with,” he pointed out. “ I can’t thank enough people who let me do music, my teachers and Bill my choir director.”

Out of the four 20th century god-fathers of the violin — Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Itzak Perkman, and Pinchas Zucherman — Ogg’s favorite conductor was Menuhin, who started his first lessons at the Conservatory in 1928. “He was my biggest inspiration, the most influential musician. He’s very human. I attended a couple of his master classes,” recalls Ogg. “I also find Itzak Perlman very appealing. He was stricken with polio...Yet he can be successful in adverse conditions. That to me is truly inspiring.”

A CRASH COURSE IN CONDUCTING

On the day of his conducting debut, Ogg received a one-hour conducting lesson with the highly authoritative Barbara Day Turner, Conductor of Opera San Jose and the San Jose Symphony Orchestra, as well as a specialist in harpsichord. “The most important thing about conducting is facilitating communication of the composer’s intentions to an audience,” explained Turner. “This requires determining intentions, interpreting them, bringing to bear the requisite technical skills to coordinate and shape the musician’s expression [playing], and presenting them in a way that the audience can be drawn in.”

“For Mr. Ogg’s big lesson, I attempted to distill the three or four most important technical things that would help him give a good performance.” she said. “He is a very quick study. It was lot’s of fun, and he did great!”

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” admits Ogg later. During the dress rehearsal, Ogg recalled tips such as keeping his arms horizontally straight when waving the baton, and being careful to not slow down or dip too quickly. “I didn’t realize how much intestinal fortitude I needed to do that. I didn’t expect that kind of reception. It was a great response. I found out very quickly how subtly that orchestra could follow me.”

“I thought he did a good job,” said his mother Mary, who plays the harp. “He’s always had the ability to organize musicians and arouse enthusiasm from a group.”

“I’m just really happy to see him up there.” said his 27-year old sister, Kathryn, who plays the cello. His wife Kim gave a “mission accomplished” smile.

“We’ve had a huge community of support, and a wonderful turn out,” said Suwanda, attributing the auction idea to Katherine E. Akos, vice president for advancement at the Conservatory. “We were very pleased with the response to the auction and may repeat it next year.” Auction proceeds and concert revenues support the Conservatory’s Scholarship Fund, where 24 percent of the 260 collegiate class are Asian, and where about 65 percent of the students receive scholarship assistance from the Conservatory this year.