STORY AND LINK: Kimo Furumoto debut with Rio Hondo Symphony today

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
This article was first published today in the above papers.
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What: Rio Hondo Symphony; Kimo Furumoto, conductor
When: Today (Oct. 4) at 4 p.m.
Where: Whittier High School; 12417 Philadelphia St, Whittier
FREE ADMISSION
Info: (562) 698-8626; www.riohondosymphony.org
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He’s not nearly as well known (or hyped) as Gustavo Dudamel (who begins his tenure this week as the 11th music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) and Whittier High School’s Vic Lopez Auditorium will never be mistaken for Walt Disney Concert Hall, but for Kimo Furumoto this afternoon’s opening concert of the Rio Hondo Symphony’s 77th season will have its own level of anticipation and excitement as the 49-year-old Honolulu native begins his tenure as the orchestra’s new music director.

Using a theme of New Horizons, Furumoto will lead his new orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, the Mussorgsky-Ravel version of Pictures at an Exhibition, and three shorter works: the opening fanfare from Richard Strauss’s tone poem, Also Sprach Zarathustra; Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and John Williams theme music from Star Wars.

That’s a sort-of road map of Furumoto’s programming concepts for the RHS during the four concerts that will comprise the 2009-2010 season. “My idea, and that of the orchestra’s board, is to feature a couple of major works for those people who have been regular patrons of the orchestra,” says Furumoto, who will continue as conductor and music director of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra in West Virginia in its upcoming season.

“At the same time,” he explains, “we want to program smaller works to entice people who might be relatively new to the orchestra, works or composers they might have heard in other contexts, such as movies or TV commercials. The Strauss fanfare, for example, is the opening music of the movie ‘2010: A Space Odyssey.’ You might not know that fact but you’ll undoubtedly recognize the music and begin to draw a connection.”

The Beethoven symphony is Episode I of what Furumoto is calling The Beethoven Project. Since the German composer wrote nine symphonies, expect this cycle to last quite awhile. “We might group a couple of them in one concert down the road,” allows Furumoto, who expects to program the symphonies in chronological order. “However, since we only have four concerts each season, in most years it will be just one symphony.”

It’s not enough, from the conductor’s perspective, to just play the pieces. “I want audiences to see these works through the composers eyes,” he explains. “For example, we’re calling this concert The Early Years: Imitator or Innovator? because Beethoven’s first symphony is about a young buck in Vienna, someone clearly influenced by Haydn and Mozart but already moving beyond those masters.”

In addition to his West Virginia duties, Furumoto continues as an associate professor at Cal State Fullerton, where he is music director of the University Symphony Orchestra. A violinist and pianist, he has worked with orchestras and at universities across the country, as well as ensembles in Europe. Furumoto holds degrees in conducting from Chapman University and the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music.

He was one of four conductors who led the RHS during the last season, each seeking to succeed Wayne Reinecke who led the orchestra for 22 years. In his RHS “audition” concert last spring, Furumoto came across as a personable podium personality. Expect that to continue this season; to help explain pieces Furumoto will talk to the audience during the concert.

He’s also energetic on the podium and in rehearsals, which begin with the string sections and add the winds, brass and percussion in subsequent sessions. “I’m thrilled to death to be leading this orchestra,” he says. “It’s going to be an exciting season.”
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(c) Copyright 2009, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.