Conductor/Composer Teddy Abrams Honors Mentors in Boston Symphony Debut

When Teddy Abrams takes to the podium of the Boston Symphony Orchestra this week, one work on the program is "Whitman Songs" by composer/conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, sung by Grammy winning baritone Dashon Burton. The concert will mark an important milestone for Abrams. It will be the first time he will conduct the Boston Symphony, an orchestra he grew to love while attending a program for high school students in Tanglewood; and also an occasion to honor Thomas, his mentor and friend for some 29 years. That began when Abrams, a precocious nine-year old, reached out to the conductor after attending his first orchestral concert – an all Gershwin one that Thomas conducted with the San Francisco Symphony.

With his shock of curly hair and boyish demeanor, the Grammy Award-winning composer/conductor is approaching 40, but looks a decade younger. And his youthful appearance at Symphony Hall will bring to mind when Thomas led the BSO early in his career when he was Associate Conductor and later Principal Guest Conductor after subbing for an ailing William Sternberg in a Carnegie Hall appearance conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 9. The works of Mahler became central to Thomas's career, which led him from Boston to musical director of the San Francisco Symphony where he crossed paths with the young Abrams.

(Teddy Abrams debut concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra will also feature works by Tchaikovsky and Bernstein. It takes place at Symphony Hall, Boston, on Thursday, March 13 at 7:30pm; Friday, March 14 at 1pm; Saturday, March 15 at 8:00pm; and Sunday, March 16 at 2:00pm. Click here for more information.)

Living with his parents, both lawyers, across the bay in Berkeley, Abrams was already on his way to a career as a serious musician having started playing the piano at five and the clarinet at eight. Realizing that being a serious musician might be career for their son, they thought he needed to see and hear a live symphony concert. "I fell in love with the experience within five minutes of the concert, and I immediately decided that I wanted to be a conductor for the rest of my life," he explained from his home in Louisville, where he has been the conductor of the Louisville Symphony for the past decade.

When he got home from the concert, Abrams wrote a long letter to Thomas asking for conducting lessons. "I figured I'd just go straight to the top," he continued. "Even as a nine year old I thought it's not too soon to be ambitious and see what might happen with a letter such as this. But I really didn't expect to hear back, because I knew that there was probably little chance that somebody like Michael Tilson Thomas would be in correspondence with such a young musician."

He did hear back. "A few days later, I got this wonderful letter that gave me more inspiration to become a conductor. He gave me great advice about what one might do, even at that age, to prepare for a life in the orchestra world. And I think that that act of incredible generosity, and treating me seriously, is so emblematic of Michael's approach to music and his own spirit and the sensibilities, especially around education and thinking about the new generations of musicians and and that set me on this path that I've been following to this day."

In his letter, Thomas advised the nine-year old to seek out 20th century composers, such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Bartok, and to "keep his ears open." He kept his eyes open as well, ambitiously seeking conducting opportunities. "They were few and far between," he recalled with a small laugh. "But there were actually a couple of community orchestras in the San Francisco Bay Area that would let me come up and conduct a movement of a symphony as a part of their kids programs. So even at that age, I was able to conduct a movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony or his Seventh, a couple marches, some waltzes, things like that, thanks to the generosity of these community orchestras. And they saw how serious I was. How I lived for those moments. They remain my favorite moments of music making even to this day. I try and remember the sheer kind of joy that came from standing on a podium and feeling the music become real as I would wave my hand. It's a magical thing, but it's also somewhat easy to forget sometimes. So I make a point to try and remember those early moments when it was just such a pure experience. They convinced me that that was what I wanted to do forever."

A turning point came when he was twelve, Abrams had a crisis involving his musical training and his parents (both lawyers, not musicians) turned to Thomas for advice. "I remember my parents taking me over to his house where I played some piano and clarinet for him," he remembered. "We discussed the issues and what I needed to do to build a strong music education portfolio. From that moment, he arranged for me to have a special piano teacher, clarinet teacher and a music theory teacher. And then I would come to play for him every month or so that he was in town." His parents also didn't see their son as part of a traditional educational structure and they enrolled him in a local community college. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music followed, and the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, where he became one of the youngest conducting students to enroll there.

Throughout his teenage years, he kept in contact with Thomas, who became his mentor. "He invited me to come to Symphony concerts and come backstage, and I did and would have a little conversation with him. So after every concert he conducted, I would come backstage. He always told me that to have an opinion or an idea about what I just heard and to share that with him. It started off that way, and it was clear that he was taking an interest in my own music education."

Thomas saw the teenager's gift at communicating to audiences, telling the New York Times in 2023 his protégé had the ability to create "a very natural space for people to feel comfortable inside of the music. He is extraordinarily devoted to helping people better understand what the music is all about, and what they're all about, I've never really seen anything quite like it, and it fills me with an enormous sense of hope."

To help him grow as a conductor, Thomas invited Abrams to conduct the New World Symphony, the Miami-based training orchestra he co-founded. No doubt some of the orchestra's musicians were flummoxed when a 13-year old stood in the space that Thomas usually occupied, but, Abrams feels, it was just another example of his extraordinary vision and thinking outside the box. "I think that the musicians just thought, 'Oh, well, if this is what Michael wants to do, then this is what Michael wants to do.' But Michael's brilliance came through in the way he set up these sessions. He wanted it to be educational for everybody. So he let me conduct the New World Symphony, but he would use it as an opportunity to teach everyone about the art of conducting. So I think the musicians that while they might have been, you know, slightly cynical at first when a little kid walked out to conduct, but in the end really had a great experience, because it ended up being participatory. He was really brilliant in making it quite inclusive."

And, he added, "this is not a normal thing to have a kid that young conducting a very serious orchestra like that. So I understood that it was a tremendous privilege to have those early experiences with with a group of that quality."

In addition to the "Whitman Songs" and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (with soloist Ray Chen), his BSO debut will feature Leonard Bernstein's "Symphonic Dances from 'West Side Story,'" another composer with whom Abrams has great affinity. "I've been conducting Bernstein's music from the those early days of conducting, and because of my connection to Michael and Michael's own relationship with Bernstein as a student and protege of him, I felt very close to that music... And I think it is important in a moment like this when we are questioning are national identity and what American culture can be to examine how we define ourselves. Bernstein offered some very inspiring and beautiful answers with his approach to pluralistic composition and drawing from all sources of music that he loved. One thing that I love about him is that he was never dogmatic in style."

Another thing Abrams took away from looking at Bernstein's career was his public persona and the way he brought music to larger audiences during his tenure with the New York Philharmonic. For a generation, his "Young Peoples' Concerts" were a gateway for many to relate to classical music. And still are to those who seek them out on YouTube. When Abrams became musical director of the Louisville Symphony in 2014 at the age of 27 – the youngest to achieve the post – he turned to Bernstein for inspiration. At the time, the orchestra was in crisis, having declared bankruptcy a few years before and cutting the size of the orchestra to 55 musicians (from 71).

"I was brought in just to see what wild or exciting or unusual ideas might help re energize the orchestra and build confidence in it from the community. I think at moments like that, when great uncertainty and and instability have taken place, there are opportunities that are quite rare to try things that are dramatic or risky, or just maybe contradict traditional expectations. So my challenge was to get the public to care about an institution that many people had thought actually disappeared."

He did so in a style reminiscent of a political campaign – meeting people, bringing his keyboard to events and playing all kinds of music, commissioning new pieces from Kentucky composers, and building trust and relationships. He danced a hip-hop routine with students that was posted on TikTok and brought the orchestra to Mammoth Caves for a piece he wrote about the tourist site that featured cellist Yo Yo Ma. Another of his works, his piano concerto he wrote for his Curtis classmate Yuja Wang was recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and released as part of the orchestra's "The American Project" in 2023 and won Abrams and the ensemble a Grammy Award. The take away is that his populist approach worked – the orchestra's finances have righted themselves with a budget now of 12 million and donations and public support has risen sharply. He has worked with politicians on both sides of the aisle to bring the orchestra to the most remote parts of Kentucky. For his work with the orchestra Abrams was named Musical America's 2022 Conductor of the Year.

"We're trying to help solve problems together," Abrams explained referring to his work with the state legislature in bringing the orchestra to all corners of Kentucky. "This extends way beyond music. It's all about finding our common sense of being Americans, our common cultural interests, and building a lot more unity in a moment where that is not always being encouraged. So very proud of that, and it's totally bipartisan too. It's a really quite remarkable concept, and we've been doing it now for three years."

One of the unintended aspects of the Boston Symphony program for Abrams debut is that all three works are by gay composers that each reflect the different societal responses to homosexuality at the time. In late 19th century Russia, Tchaikovsky lived in fear of being exposed. Some historians even posit that his death at the age of 53 was deliberate in exchange of his not be outed. In mid 20th century America, Bernstein married actress Felicia Montealegre and they had two children, but she was aware of him being gay. Even before their marriage. She wrote "You are a homosexual and may never change. ... I am willing to accept you as you are." They had a deeply complex relationship, and throughout it Bernstein had a long series of gay relationships that culminated in his coming out at the age of 58 in 1976. Thomas, a Baby Boomer, had a far healthier relationship with his sexuality, which was pretty much an "open secret" in the largely conservative classical musical world. He has successfully navigated his career while being authentic to his own sense of self. He has had a near 50-year relationship with his husband and manager Joshua Mark Robison, whom he married in 2014. The two first met while they were fellow members of North Hollywood's Walter Reed Junior High School orchestra. Thomas played oboe and piano; Robison played cello. But the two didn't get romantically involved until the early 1970s. At the time of their wedding, Thomas referred to Robison as "my brother, my high school sweetheart."

Abrams says the gay subtext to thee programming wasn't intentional. "We didn't set out to do bring that out, but it so happened that in balancing these three wonderful works, it turned out that they had a common background in the fact that that all three composers are are gay and somehow there's a real affinity between the works. I don't know that it says like it's explicit in the Tchaikovsky, but somehow it feels like a solid piece of very familiar music like that balances so beautifully with the wonderful engagement and challenges of Whitman and Tilson Thomas and Bernstein. And by the way, you could throw Whitman in the grouping too. There is something I think that connects them – a searching quality to identity."

Conducting the "Whitman Songs" is bittersweet for Abrams because Thomas will not be attending due to his battle with an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma, which was diagnosed in 2021. After brain surgery, he continued to conduct on a reduced schedule; including a recent 50th year celebration of his relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra with him conducting Mahler's Second Symphony. but last month he announced in a posting on his website that the brain tumor has returned and he is cutting back on his public appearances. He plans on attending two deeply personal events, one later this month with the New World Symphony marking the end of his tenure with the orchestra he co-founded; and on April 26 with a belated 80th birthday concert with the San Francisco Symphony, with which he had a 25-year run as its Music Director (1995 - 2020). After stepping down, he became Music Director Laureate and continued to conduct with the ensemble.

"I actually just saw him a couple days ago in San Francisco, and obviously the the public letter that he released is both incredibly beautiful and also heartbreaking because we know that he's been facing a very difficult illness and one that does not have a long term solution or cure. And so I think we were already, by we, I mean the whole community of people that love music, are already so grateful that we've had years of his music making after the original diagnosis of the glioblastoma. That already has been an incredible gift. And we've had all this time to celebrate him and to and to see his music making, knowing how precious it is.

"And obviously for me, it's a very personal relationship. Michael and his husband, Joshua, have been kind of parents to me, and I've looked up to them as the most important mentors and sources of inspiration for my entire life. So like this is a challenging moment to absorb. But I'm also very grateful that I've had all this what feels is extra time to spend with them and and to celebrate by doing things exactly like this, sharing his music. I think that's one of the best ways that we can celebrate his extraordinary work. So this will be, a real act of honoring and celebrating such a such an exceptional man. And to do it in Boston adds another layer to this. I've heard so many stories about his time in Boston. I think he, I guess he took the whole city by storm and and did so much groundbreaking work there."

Teddy Abrams debut concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra will also feature works by Tchaikovsky and Bernstein. It takes place at Symphony Hall, Boston, on Thursday, March 13 at 7:30pm; Friday, March 14 at 1pm; Saturday, March 15 at 8:00pm; and Sunday, March 16 at 2:00pm. Click here for more information.