IN CONVERSATION WITH CONDUCTOR JAIME MARTÍN
Credit: Jamie Pham
Jaime Martín has been conducting full-time for only about six years but his charisma, finesse and enthusiasm have captivated audiences and earned him posts as artistic director of the Gävle Symphony (Sweden), chief conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués (Spain) and beginning this Fall chief conductor of the RTE National Symphony (Ireland) and music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO). His impressive career began in Santander, Spain - Martín has been artistic director of his hometown Santander International Festival – where early studies in flute there, Madrid and The Hague blossomed into highly successful and rewarding stints as principal flute with many prestigious orchestras including Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Martín also shared his expertise as a flute professor of the Royal College of Music in London and recorded works such as Mozart’s flute concertos under Sir Neville Marriner, who was LACO’s first music director. Throughout Martín’s years of valuable orchestral experience as principal player a desire to conduct was brewing so in 2013 he starting working with a variety of high-profile orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
His conducting appearances led to appointments with the RTE National Symphony and LACO, having been chosen as their new music director to succeed Jeffrey Kahane’s 20-year run. LACO’s exciting 2019-2020 orchestral season continues on November 16 and 17 with Martín conducting the west coast premiere of Grammy-nominated composer Missy Mazzoli’s Dark with Excessive Bright concerto for double bass and string orchestra (2018) and Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin, among others.
Jaime Martín discusses his amazing journey from world-class flute player to world-class conductor with Editor Leonne Lewis.
Has being principal flute of fine orchestras motivated your interest in conducting?
I wanted to be a conductor since I was a young music student, but thankfully my professional life was steered towards playing in orchestras. As a student I had the opportunity to become a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra in 1987. Prior to that I played in other student orchestras but suddenly I had on the podium in front of me Claudio Abbado conducting Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with Jessye Norman as one of the soloists. The next tour was in Europe and India with Zubin Mehta. It is not a bad way to start playing in orchestras.
I became hooked on the excitement of sharing the stage with many friends in extremely powerful concerts. I decided to stop the conducting studies I began in Holland and became a keen observer of conductors from the vantage point of the principal flute chair, just in front of the conductor. The orchestra has been for me the best conducting class I can imagine.
I have been principal flute in numerous orchestras and have had the opportunity to work with the most amazing conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Jurowsky and many more. I have played in orchestras for many years before I decided to start conducting. If I had the opportunity to go back twenty years in time I would take the same path again.
While there are some conductors who have been string players, others come from the piano or wind instruments and some were singers or composers. I don’t think there are advantages or disadvantages to any of these backgrounds. In the end the important thing is music.
This Fall you begin posts as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and chief conductor of the RTE National Symphony. What is your vision for these orchestras?
It is very important for me not to try to be different. I can only try to be myself but of course with the influences I receive from each orchestra, each city. Every orchestra has its own traditions, relationships with artists and audience and different ways of playing. In the case of LACO, I have found an orchestra that celebrates each rehearsal as if is the first one they’ve ever done and plays each concert as if it’s going to be the last one ever.
My intention is to try to focus this energy into programs that energize our audience and satisfy our musicians. This season, my first with LACO, I’m exploring music of all styles from Handel to Andrew Norman – passing through Beethoven, Berlioz, Dvorak, Ravel, Strauss, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and many others without forgetting new works by some of the most imaginative composers of our generation. During the season we will perform new pieces by Missy Mazzoli, Albert Schnelzer, Derrick Spiva, Juan Pablo Contreras and Ellen Reid who is LACO’s new Composer-in-Residence. We want to find a balance between the well-known and much loved music from the past with the most vibrant and exciting music from today.
Is it a responsibility of the conductor to program music by composers of our time?
It is not only a responsibility, it is a pleasure.
LACO’s concert on February 7-9, 2020 will feature the US premiere of Albert Schnelzer’s Burn my letters, in addition to Christian Tetzlaff playing Beethoven’s violin concerto. Could you describe Schnelzer’s work?
Clara Schumann didn’t write many orchestral pieces so to celebrate her 200th birthday I wanted to commission an orchestration of one of her many piano works. In conversations with composer Albert Schnelzer, what started as an orchestration project became a major new work inspired by the relationship between Clara Schumann and Brahms. Burn my letters is an instruction from Clara to her children about what to do with her correspondence with Brahms. Luckily for us they didn’t follow her instructions, at least in part. Albert is a fantastic composer and his musical language is full of colors and always connects with the audience. He is part of a generation of composers that write music having the audience in mind. In the end, music doesn’t make sense without the public.
Describe your relationship as artistic director of the Santander Festival?
The Santander Festival has been a great experience. It has made me realize the huge amount of work that happens behind the scenes before an artist or an orchestra ever appears on the stage. It starts with fundraising and includes travel arrangements, venue logistics, office personnel, etc. In the end, programming the festival is the easiest part. I just have to close my eyes and dream. In a way, this is the same as programming an orchestra season – it’s all about dreams, hopefully good ones.
Two weeks ago I went to Santander to let the Festival board know that I am concluding my relationship with the Festival as artistic director because I need more time for my conducting life. When I began there eight years ago the Festival had a debt of almost three million dollars. No longer in debt, the Festival is now in a strong financial position ready for the future. It is the right time for me to go.
The Festival is a big event in a relatively small city of about 200,000 inhabitants. Last year we presented a total of fifty concerts in four weeks which included orchestras, chamber and modern music, family programming and three ballets in programs that featured the London Symphony led by Simon Rattle, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra conducted by Tom Koopman, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and pianist Maria Joao Pires. I will miss it but my family will thank me for having a bit more time for myself.
What keeps you focused and inspired?
My inspiration is my love for music and my fear of routine.