His Love of Music becomes His Life’s Work By Margaret Dieringer As Stephen Osmond took the final bow as the lead of his high school musical comedy, he caught a glimpse of his music teacher conducting down in the orchestra pit. At that moment, he knew what he wanted to do for a living. He was ready to give up the spotlight for the baton. This year, Osmond celebrates his 20th year as conductor and music director for the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. Inspiration and Determination In addition to that high school teacher, Dr. William J. Peterman, Osmond also gained inspiration from his uncle, Richard Condie, then conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Osmond, now 52, recalls the interest in music and conducting which was stirred while watching his uncle conduct the choir at a Chicago performance. During his teenage years, he spent several summers working at gas stations and other odd jobs in Utah in order to live and study with his uncle. Weekends and evenings were spent in singing lessons. "It didn’t have as much to do with singing though as with music and interpretation," Osmond says. "He was not just a conducting teacher, he taught me how to listen to music, the emotional content of music." Despite the lessons, Condie tried to persuade Osmond to stay out of the demanding, competitive and challenging world of music. He felt that it was too late for Osmond to succeed . . . that if you were not a child prodigy it would be too difficult. "I listened to everything he said, and didn’t take his advice," Osmond reflects. As a young child, Osmond began a fleeting relationship with the piano. But quickly, he became discouraged that his playing did not sound as good as the recordings he was accustomed to listening to with his family. Sports and other activities replaced piano lessons, and music would have to wait until junior high school before Osmond pursued it again. Involvement in band, chorus and musicals at the New Trier High School in suburban Chicago led him to enroll at the University of Utah, where he sang in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and took classes to "check into the technical part of the music business." As the youngest member of the choir, he performed on tour for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson at the White House, and at Carnegie Hall. Osmond’s determination for becoming a conductor became stronger, so he transferred to Northwestern University to earn a bachelor’s in music education, following that with a master’s in conducting from Yale University. At Yale, Osmond performed leading roles with the Yale Repertory Theatre at the same time that Sigorney Weaver sang with the chorus. He also conducted Meryl Streep in her operatic debut. Welcome to Jackson It was 21 years ago when Osmond was teaching music at the University of Michigan and received and accepted a job offer as the assistant conductor of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. With sketchy directions, Osmond wandered through and around Jackson, in a helter-skelter tour, and finally arrived at his first rehearsal at Frost School. At the end of the season, he conducted his first symphony with the orchestra, Beethoven’s 5th, and was offered the job as music director and conductor beginning with the 1977 season. The 32-year-old, single with no children, lived in an apartment in Ann Arbor with "none of the responsibilities that I have today." At best, he expected to stay with the JSO for two years, and then move on to a bigger, more prestigious orchestra. In the middle of his fourth season with the symphony, however, he hesitatingly moved his new family, wife Melissa and baby daughter Ashley, into a house in Jackson. "Forty-five minutes after the moving van pulled into the driveway, I knew it was the smartest thing I’d ever done." Community Collaboration Initial support and warmth, from neighbors bringing cookies and bread, to orchestra members and supporters coming to welcome the Osmonds to Jackson, grew into community involvement for Osmond, allowing him to get more in tune with the orchestra board, share ideas and foster reciprocal trust. "That’s when I thought this may have more future than I originally had been thinking." The new found relationships that Osmond developed with the audience, performers and symphony board aided him in gaining "support and acceptance of wild and strange ideas." From 1983 to 1988, the orchestra supported a summer opera company, doing fully-staged operas. One of Osmond’s motivations for starting this, besides his own love and history with opera, was for his wife. Before "dragging her to Michigan," Melissa performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater and DesMoines Metro Opera. She also has sung with the Lansing Opera and Saginaw Symphony, and teaches voice at Hillsdale College. Two years ago, the Osmonds had the opportunity to perform together in an opera, when Stephen resurrected his opera career as one of the leads of Diefledermaus with the Saginaw Symphony. "I hadn’t been on stage in 20 years," Osmond says. "I was terrified. I couldn’t memorize the words." With his best friend conducting, another friend involved in production, and his wife in the opposite role, both performances went "pretty well." His wife helped with "clues, dirty looks, elbows in the ribs. She was not going to be embarrassed by her husband." From Baroque to Broadway Routinely, Osmond finds little time for casual music apart from the symphony. "I don’t sit around and listen to music," Osmond explains. "I always have a pile to get ready for the next concert." Even in the car, music selection is out of his control. Typically, his children, Ashley, 15, and Erik, 11, tune the radio to a rap station, and he lets them. "I like to be aware of what they’re being exposed to," Osmond says. Although he claims to have heard of some redeeming qualities in rap, Osmond has strong doubts. "Rock and roll got rid of harmony until people like the Beatles brought it back. Rap has gotten rid of melody, so all that is left is rhythm. So all you’re left with is chant without tune. I think it’s not very interesting but I try to keep my mouth shut." In truth, Osmond enjoys a wide variety of musical venues from all different eras and styles of composers. Reluctantly, he admits to enjoying works by Andrew Lloyd Weber, however, he quickly grimaces at mention of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Sound of Music, and says they are "too syrupy." A strong advocate of contemporary works, Osmond introduced a new approach to the 1989-1990 season. All of the music featured during the "Music of our Times" season was written during the 20th Century. It is very unusual for an orchestra to perform only works written in a particular century for an entire season. The season of music was very well received; another vote of community confidence in Osmond’s abilities. Building the future Another important idea that Osmond pushed was the community music school, which opened in 1992. Just two years later, it moved to the new facility at 215 W. Michigan Ave. The school offers private music instruction to at least 300 students and adults. It also offers other music education programs, including group instruction, such as a children’s choir, and early music enrichment courses for children 6 months to 8 years old. Dealing with the people of Jackson on all levels, and having their trust to try new and unusual things, has been most enjoyable to Osmond. "The trust displayed has been really one of the most rewarding things about the twenty years," Osmond reflects. "The community, audience, board of directors and the orchestra players themselves . . . a conductor is lucky if he gets along with two of those groups. I’ve felt like I’ve enjoyed working with all of those segments. There’s very little friction." Osmond feels he has earned an added element of trust from the community, as he begins serving his newly elected term on the Jackson Public School Board. "I’ve lived in New York, New Haven, Chicago, San Francisco, Ann Arbor . . . and if I had to list 10 of the most interesting people I’ve met in my life, half of them would be from Jackson, Michigan," Osmond expresses. "The warmth, the focus they have. They’re not distracted by the baggage of stress." Bigger cities get bogged down by the stress of dealing with traffic and crime, Osmond says. "This is a very safe community and very stimulating." Developing relationships is another perk for Osmond and his 20 years with the JSO. He admits he enjoys his time with the JSO much more than guest conducting with more prestigious symphonies, such as the Baltimore Symphony and Toledo Symphony. "Guest conducting is fun, but it doesn’t compare with being with people who you’ve been with for over a thousand rehearsals. That’s really where you find your excitement." The lack of relationship-building also was missing in Osmond’s eleven years of teaching, including five at Chicago public schools, three at State University of New York at Albany, and three at the University of Michigan. "In an academic situation, you only have (the performers) one, two or very rarely three years. There is no continuity and nothing to build on." At the JSO, there has been 20 years of building relationships. In particular, Osmond mentions Concert Master Philip Mason, who has 35 years invested in the JSO. "He comes into every rehearsal or performance with incredible enthusiasm, patience and understanding. You think of the Maestro as the teacher, but I’ve learned a lot more from him than he has from me. That’s a very special kind of relationship." As the concert master, Mason leads the string section, playing the part of first violin, commenting on sound quality, and coordinating articulation among the section. Another highlight in Osmond’s JSO career has been working with guest soloists, such as Ed Asner, Dizzy Gillespie and personal friends. "That’s really a special opportunity to make music with friends." The Family Tree Looking at Osmond’s history, it is not surprising that he chose music as a career instead of other possibilities, such as his father’s and older brother’s profession: attorney. His mother, Melba Osmond, was a regionally well known singer, once performing at the White House for President Franklin Roosevelt. Although his father, Harvard Osmond, was not a performing musician, his roots offer a connection to the famous Osmond family of Donnie and Marie. When Osmond attended a production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, Donnie invited him backstage and pulled out his laptop computer, where he keeps a copy of the family history, to determine exactly how they were related. "We have the same great-grandfather, and like so many Mormons back then, he was a polygamist," Osmond explains. "I came from wife number one and they came from wife number two." Osmond’s children also have developed strong interests in music. Ashley performs in local theater productions and has long played the violin. Erik plays the cello with the JSO’s summer music day camp. Although neither have expressed interest in a career of music, Osmond says he would not discourage them. "But I would have a lot of serious talks with them." Finding activities unrelated to music in Osmond’s life is not easy. When he is not reading about the history and background of composers, he might read an occasional best-selling novel by Grisham or other such author. He enjoys seeing movies, and saw Shine twice, liking it better the first time than the second (which does not pass his test for a great movie). He visits other orchestra’s home pages on the Internet at work, but refuses to have it at home, claiming that it can be a "real time sink" for kids and adults. The Osmonds enjoy frequent entertaining with a neighborhood group. "A group of us with dissimilar backgrounds but similar interests . . . it’s part of the people factor that makes the job and life as rich as it is." With an offer to live anywhere in the world, Osmond pauses thoughtfully. "I guess it would be Jackson . . . I just can’t think of where else." Osmond does enjoy traveling in and out of the country. In June, he traveled to Italy and France for 12 days on a tour "organized by someone who must not have liked music." Most of what he saw were museums and churches. New York ranks high on his favorite places to visit, as do the mountains of Utah or Colorado, where he and his family go to ski once a year. Although Osmond lived in Japan when very young -- sleeping through an earthquake as his family gathered on the front lawn and frantically worried where he was -- he does not have a strong interest to go back. He prefers to visit European cities, such as Vienna, Rome and Paris. "It gives me the cultural backgrounds of composers. It’s neat to walk down the same sidewalks that Mozart and Beethoven did, and see the same architecture that they saw . . . and wonder how that inspired them." It’s impossible to pin Osmond down to a favorite composer. "Of course the giants are out there, but to say that one is a favorite over another is difficult." Ultimately, he finds the perfect answer. His favorite composer? "Whoever’s on the next concert." |
