Reviews

Conductor Jayce Ogren is a multi-talented guy. He's an accomplished musician, composer and athlete – running marathons and competing in the Ironman Lake Placid triathlon. Indeed, it was his athleticism that provided the first spark of interest in conducting when he was a 15-year-old playing French horn in his high school band.

"I was watching my teacher use body language and hand and arm movements to help the orchestra give shape to the music," Ogren recalls. "There was something about the physicality of his conducting. I thought: I would really like to do that someday."

That someday came sooner than later, at St. Olaf College in Minnesota just a few years later, working with the highly regarded Steven Amundson.

"Watching the way he worked with the orchestra and the way he worked with me, I suddenly felt confident that I could indeed do it," Ogren says.

The program Ogren has chosen for this weekend displays lyricism and passion, but also restraint and drama. The concerts open with Claude Debussy's beloved overture Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, which many conductors claim is difficult to lead, in spite of its accessible simplicity.

"What's hard are the passages in mixed meters, like 9/8 and 11/8, because they are often soft in volume and slow in tempo," Ogren says. "The work becomes to see past those challenges to find the amorphous beauty and pure sensuality lurking just beneath all of that."

Audience – and orchestra-favorite pianist Philippe Bianconi will solo, making his fifth local appearance. He will begin with Robert Schumann's Introduction and Allegro Appassionato in G major, Op. 92, followed by 20th-century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's rambunctious Paganini Variations.

Ogren is the fourth and final candidate up for the position of Monterey Symphony's next music director. After the concert, a 14-member selection committee will convene. Executive Director Nicola Reilly uses jury duty-like language to explain: "We will sequester for as long as it takes to determine which one of our finalists we will recommend to the board," she says. "I'll be glad that we can finally make our choice."