Anthony Parnther is the new music director of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Few black conductors lead orchestras. For Anthony Parnther, it’s time to represent
Sep. 11, 2019
Tim Greiving
Anthony Parnther made the sobering comment: Of about 2,000
professional orchestras in the U.S., the number of black conductors
today can be counted on one hand.
Which makes Parnther’s new
appointment as music director of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra
all the more notable. He’ll kick off the 2019–2020 season on Friday with
a performance of “Carmina Burana,” followed by a Nov. 16 concert with
Jennifer Holliday and Lynn Harrell.
“I’ve seen it many times when
I’m conducting, and I see young children of various colors sitting in
the front three or four rows,” Parnther said. “You can just tell, it’s
like: ‘Wow, that’s not what I was expecting to see come around the
corner.’”
San Bernardino Symphony — in its 91st year, among the
oldest professional orchestras in California — hired Parnther because of
his charismatic, captivating conducting. At an audition concert in
2017, he received three standing ovations — “one of them was before the
intermission started,” said Anne Viricel, executive director of the
orchestra. “This is not normal. So he can rile up an audience!”
Parnther, who studied music performance at Northwestern and
orchestral conducting at Yale, chucks out academic program notes and
engages audiences personally, explaining why he programmed each piece
and what it means to him. At intermission, he wades into the hall and
chats with the crowd.
“I take a very personal approach to breaking
down all the formalities that have crept into classical music,” he
said. “I’m really attracted to musicians or styles of music where
there’s a lack of inhibition. Which is why I think gospel music is
possibly one of the greatest art forms that we have, because of the
rawness of the music, because of the emotion.”
Parnther, the son of Jamaican and Samoan immigrants, grew up in a
“conservative, well-to-do black neighborhood” in Virginia where he
attended the Baptist church every Sunday. “If I had my choice, I would
probably be a gospel singer, but I was not blessed with that talent. So I
settled for classical music,” he said, laughing.
He joined band in junior high so he could go on group trips to theme
parks. He was guided by a dictionary into picking the bassoon, but the
instrument stuck. He still plays regularly on Hollywood scoring stages.
He recently performed on Hans Zimmer’s score for the new “The Lion
King.”
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