All eyes are on Jacob Schnitzer as he lifts his baton in the air, readying himself to guide students as they practice for an upcoming performance.
“Going into every first rehearsal, I do get nervous, because I know that I'm going to pick up my hands and drop them and some sound is going to come out,” Schnitzer said. “But, once we get going, it's like I know what to do. I've been there before and I know how to get us there and the nerves sort of go away.”
Schnitzer is 5X’s new interim director of orchestras for the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. Schnitzer comes to Kent State with numerous accolades, including conducting the world premieres of more than 45 pieces for living composers. He said the feelings one gets from each of those is indescribable.
“Composers are hearing their piece for the first time in the world, so there's still just a little bit of room for discovery. Being there in the moment as that discovery is happening, it’s an exhilarating feeling,” Schnitzer said.
Schnitzer has always had a love and appreciation for music.
Schnitzer's father was a band director in his hometown in Texas. His father’s profession made music part of Schnitzer’s life from the day he was born, and he knew growing up that band and music would be a big part of his life.
Schnitzer’s first experience playing in an orchestra was playing the French horn in high school.
“It was an exciting thing to hear the string instruments with winds and percussion and how that all goes together,” Schnitzer said.
After Schnitzer graduated from high school, he went on to the University of Texas to study music.
There, Schnitzer not only expanded his knowledge of music, but he also helped start an orchestra chamber group called Density512.
The group focused on playing music written in the 20th century. Composers started approaching the group to ask Density512 to play pieces they had composed. The group soon realized that they had tapped into a niche, and the work they were doing gave a platform to composers who wouldn’t have otherwise received one.
“We set ourselves up to amplify their voices and to really connect with audiences,” Schnitzer said.
More than Music
Density512 is still in existence today and through this group, Schnitzer has been able to grow his conducting and also dip into other creative art forms like directing, sound mixing, film and lighting design.
“These look like totally different things on the surface, but at their core they're really all interrelated. You're still doing whatever you can to tell a story to the audience,” Schnitzer said.
These different skills have not only helped Schnitzer grow as a creative, but also grow in his conducting ability.
“I think that my filmmaking work makes me a better conductor and my conducting work makes me a better lighting designer, and my lighting design work makes me a better audio mixer,” Schnitzer said.
Aside from being a co-founder of Density512, Schnitzer’s career has taken him all over the country.
“The career path for conductors means that you're often hopping around from place to place,” Schnitzer said.
Schnitzer's many roles included serving as the assistant conductor to Bramwell Tovey and the Boston University Symphony and Chamber Orchestras and assistant conductor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory Orchestra and Opera.
Ohio Calling
When Schnitzer saw that a position was open at Kent State he was ready to pack his bags again and move.
“I heard about the opportunity and for a while I had been told about what a great music program Kent State had from some friends. So, it just seemed like an exciting place to be,” Schnitzer said.
Now at Kent State, Schnitzer has great hopes for what he wants to give the students while he is serving in the position as interim director of orchestra.
Schnitzer is setting his sights on expanding the orchestra program, particularly the strings, with hopes to grow the numbers and the standard of excellence and activity of the orchestra.
“I’m hoping to give the students who are in the orchestra a great experience, and one where they truly get to experience the joy of making music together, learn and grow as musicians and as people and also have the opportunity to make the university a better place by sharing all of that with their colleagues,” Schnitzer said.
Schnitzer is also taking a page from his own book and hoping to have the 5X Orchestra connect the old with the new to fully embrace and admire the entire spectrum of music.
“The hope is that the Kent State Orchestra can be a model for what it looks like when an orchestra fully embraces the old and fully embraces the new side by side to make a connection between the two,” he said.
With the school year in full swing, orchestra rehearsals have started in preparation for their first concert, which will take place on Oct. 1 and is titled “Freedom and Dance.”
“The program takes these dances and folk tunes and uses them as a platform for building this sense of freedom and expression into this joyous release of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which I'm excited to send the audience home with,” Schnitzer said.
In this performance, the Kent State Orchestra also will be hosting visiting composer Wang Leyou and giving the U.S. premiere of his "Guangdong Rhapsody."
“In this concert, we have this fresh new piece of music, but we also have these old warhorse staples and are exploring the relationships and the connections across time because orchestra is something that is both a traditional form but also a living and breathing form,” Schnitzer said.
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All photos by Jack Kloecker