CAPE MAY POINT – When not at home in Zurich, Switzerland, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich conductor David Zinman and his wife Mary spend time at their beach-front home in Cape May Point.
They discovered the area 16 years ago while Zinman was music director for the Baltimore Symphony. At the suggestion of a friend, Zinman and his wife came to Cape May while looking for a vacation spot that was both beautiful and centrally located on the mid-Atlantic coast.
“We took my friend’s advice and rented a house for a month on Harvard Avenue,” Zinman said. “It was so close to the beach. We really enjoyed our time here. When it came time for me to leave my position in Baltimore, I knew I’d be working in Switzerland and we were looking for a vacation home that would be on the East Coast so we could travel easily. We thought this was a great spot.”
Zinman, a native of Brooklyn, New York, rose to notoriety at a young age. Shortly after studying music theory and composition at the University of Minnesota, he served as assistant to the late conductor Pierre Monteaux until his death in 1964.
In the United States, Zinman’s first major role as a conductor came in 1974 when he was appointed music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held until 1985 when he joined The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In 1998, three years after being appointed music director for Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Zinman also became music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School where he founded its American Academy of Conducting.
Of his many recordings, which include the 1993 soundtrack for the film version of “The Nutcracker,” it was his 1992 landmark recording with the London Sinfonietta of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony no. 3 which became an international bestseller.
When asked if he takes part in any of Cape May’s musical offerings as either spectator or participant, Zinman is quick to mention that he and his wife’s time at Cape May Point is “down time.”
“I’m not here to go to concerts,” Zinman said. “This is my vacation. When I am here I am not working. Although I may be preparing for an upcoming performance, I’m here to enjoy the beach and time with my wife and family.”
Even away from work, the 75-year-old conductor is passionate about discussing the current issues in classical music, one of which is the survival of orchestras in a poor economy.
“They are surviving with much difficulty,” he said. “We are seeing more and more cuts in music education in the schools which means our audiences are not getting younger, but older and older. And of course, most of the government subsidies of the arts are disappearing. And people who would usually be giving, from corporations right down the line to individual donors, just don’t have the money. It’s getting harder and harder.”
Making classical music appeal to the masses without compromising artistic integrity is a challenge of which Zinman is well aware.
“It all begins with education,” Zinman said. “As a young person, if you play baseball, you’ll tend to want to go see a professional baseball game. And if you play in a school orchestra or band you’ll want to go hear the professionals play. We all want to emulate our heroes. Sadly, if a school budget has to be cut and you have a football team and an arts program, guess which program gets cut.”
With many recent crossover artists such as tenor Andrea Bocelli, whose wide appeal has clouded the line between classical and popular music, Zinman once again cites the lack of education as the problem.
“Making classical music popular really works against it,” Zinman said. “Classical music has to do with the emotions and the soul.”
Zinman responded to soprano Barbara Quintiliani’s disapproving observation of such popular singers as Bocelli and Katherine Jenkins. Quintiliani, who is currently performing the title role in Chautauqua Opera’s production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller, was quoted as saying: “We now compete with scantly-clad pretenders who use microphones and call themselves ‘opera singers.’”
“She’s absolutely right,” responded Zinman. “[Those singers] are just not the real thing. People just don’t know the difference and it all comes back to education.”
Zinman also cites many positive changes he has seen in classical music, one of which is the increasing role of women in what for years was a male-dominated art form.
“There’s Marin Alsip conducting in Baltimore and JoAnn Falletta with the Buffalo Philharmonic,” Zinman said. “More and more women are being given the opportunity and succeeding in this business.”
Even though he estimates females to make up about only 10 percent of all students currently being trained as conductors, Zinman sees women making great strides in the classical field. “Traditionally orchestras were all male,” Zinman said, “now many orchestras are 50 percent and sometimes 60 percent women.”
Zinman and his wife return to Switzerland in July. Zinman will conduct the orchestra in its summer performances which include symphonies by Brahms and Beethoven. Zinman said that their remaining vacation time will be spent enjoying the beach as well as their porch, from where they often enjoy the sun setting on the Delaware Bay.
