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Symphony Brings Back Familiar Face for Concert: Past Orchestra Director Louis Lane to Conduct

Posted on: Friday, 24 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Elaine Guregian, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Mar. 24--This week, Akron marks the changing of the guard with a new music director appointed to lead the Akron Symphony Orchestra beginning in September. Even as conductor Christopher Wilkins begins his plans to set the orchestra's artistic path, the orchestra is getting a visit from a conductor who led the group back in its formative years. Saturday night, the orchestra will be guest-conducted by Louis Lane, who was the first long-term director of the orchestra, serving from 1959 until 1982. Lane, 82, will lead a program of Weber's Oberon Overture, Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition at E.J. Thomas Hall.

Since February 2004, Lane has lived in Bratenahl, a village just east of downtown Cleveland. He moved back to the area from Atlanta, where he had been conductor and principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony from 1977-88.

Lane also served as music director of the Canton Symphony from 1948-1960.

In a phone conversation, Lane sounded concerned about the difficulties of running an orchestra in Northeast Ohio's sluggish economy. Asked why orchestras have trouble attracting listeners to their concerts, he had a quick answer.

"Because music in the schools has basically faded, except in favorite locations," said the conductor. "People don't learn about it, for the most part. They go home and listen to the television and whatever the latest thing is." In this climate of classical music on the margins of everyday life, conductors in the early stages of the profession have a different road ahead than he did, Lane said.

He believes that as the Akron Symphony moves forward, it needs to have a vision that goes beyond standard subscription concerts. "There's no doubt that community outreach is needed in all areas" to expand on work that has been done, he said. Former music director Alan Balter did a good job in that regard, said Lane, particularly with his Gospel Meets Symphony initiative.

Musically, the Akron Symphony has much to be proud of, Lane said. "I think the Akron Symphony Orchestra has improved vastly since the days I started with it, back in '59," he said.

Lane doesn't do much guest conducting anymore. He does still appear occasionally with the Tupelo (Mississippi) Symphony, which he believes is the smallest community in the country that has a paid orchestra. Lane also teaches conducting at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

The last time Lane conducted the Akron Symphony was in 1998. Now as ever, he approaches the podium with a sense of responsibility, he said. "Pleasure is not the thing I look for in it. I look for trying to oversee a general sense of commitment in the orchestra. That's what leads to a great performance."

Elaine Guregian can be reached at 330-996-3574 or eguregian@thebeaconjournal.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

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Source: Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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