Brahms Symphony No. 2: Tonu Kalam conducts the UNC Symphony - A Christmas offering from the Berkshire Review
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We thought this extraordinarily sensitive and intelligent performance of Brahms' Second Symphony from Chapel Hill, North Carolina would be an appropriate seasonal treat for our readers. Listen for the accents which add tension and enliven the broad tempo of an approach which is basically lyrical and analytical, as well as the pointing of the harmonies and the expressive transitional passages. You can easily understand what inspired DvoÅák in this symphony.
Tonu Kalam, Music Director and Conductor of the UNC Symphony Orchestra, was mentioned recently in our Marlboro retrospective article. His outstanding work should really be more widely known, and it is a privilege to make it available in the Review. An excerpt from his biography is not out of place here:
Prof. Kalam was born of Estonian parents and has lived in the United States since the age of two. Trained as a conductor, pianist and composer, he studied with conductor Max Rudolf and composers Leon Kirchner and Andrew Imbrie. His summer credits include fellowships at Tanglewood and Aspen as well as many years at the Marlboro Music Festival, where he conducted the Beethoven Choral Fantasy on five occasions at the invitation of legendary pianist Rudolf Serkin.
He has appeared as guest conductor with the North Carolina Symphony, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, and the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, among others, and has served as Music Director of the New England Chamber Orchestra in Boston. He was a prizewinner in the first Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Young Conductor's Competition and was also a finalist in the prestigious Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program.
In 1994 Prof. Kalam made his European debut conducting the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in Tallinn and he was immediately reengaged for festival appearances the following year. He returned to Europe in 1997 to guest conduct Finland's Oulu Symphony Orchestra and in 2004 he made his fourth Estonian appearance in the "Tubin and His Time" festival.
Tonu Kalam has conducted over 135 opera performances for companies such as the Shreveport Opera, the Lake George Opera Festival and the Nevada Opera. For seven years he was Music Director of the Illinois Opera Theatre at the University of Illinois and he has also filled short-term appointments as visiting associate professor and director of the orchestra programs at the University of Miami in Florida and St. Olaf College in Minnesota. As an educator, he has conducted all-state, all-region and all-county orchestras in New York, North Carolina, Texas and Montana, as well as the Mallarmé Youth Chamber Orchestra in North Carolina.
In 1984 Prof. Kalam began a long-term association with the renowned Kneisel Hall summer chamber music festival in Blue Hill, Maine, where he spent 13 years in various administrative and musical capacities, as Executive Director, Summer Program Director, Artist-Faculty pianist, and chamber music coach. In addition to his conducting activities, he performs regularly as a pianist and chamber musician.
Thanks to our West Coast Editor, Steven Kruger, for bringing this to my attention, and to Christian Brown for making it available.
