When Hal France smiles, deep grooves dimple his cheeks. His eyebrows are broad and mobile, his hair black and curly. No mistaking: His roots (despite his surname) are Italian. His voice, cultivated but slightly nasal, hints at his New Jersey upbringing.
If anyone can make classical music accessible and entertaining, it's the charismatic France. Brimming with information, enthusiasm and humor, France communicates masterfully with both his orchestra and his audience.
It's just that "whatever people's conceptions of what a conductor might be, I don't seem to match those conceptions," he says.
Consider: He attended college, in part, on a football scholarship. His favorite drive music includes Diana Krall and Linda Ronstadt. He'd rather ride his bike through Orlando's downtown neighborhoods than jet off to Europe. He's more comfortable with a Habitat for Humanity hammer in his hand than a flute of champagne. And in his fantasies, he is not at Lincoln Center conducting the New York Philharmonic, but in a club playing jazz piano.
Grab your tickets, guys and gals. We're off to a symphony concert, and . . . Wait! Stop! Come back! Trust us: no need to shy away. There's nothing scary, dreary or highfalutin about this concert.
If you don't trust us, trust Hal France. He is the music director of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and will be conducting the concert. If anyone can make classical music accessible and entertaining, it's the charismatic France. Brimming with information, enthusiasm and humor, France communicates masterfully with both his orchestra and his audience.
"My favorite thing, really, is talking to people," says France, 51. "Talking about music."
At a Mendelssohn concert in late September, he has plenty of opportunity to talk. It will be neither boring nor intimidating. Guaranteed.
"For many people, classical music is too `caviar,' " says Mark Fischer, the orchestra's general manager and principal French horn player, after a concert rehearsal. "But Hal has the knack of making it seem less like caviar and more like barbecued chicken."
"He's a first-class musician," Fischer adds. "And very much a people person."
But, shhhhhh! Here comes the maestro.
Hal France strides into the orchestra pit.
Actually, it's just the floor of Orlando's small Margeson Theater at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center. Seats crowd in on three sides. A web of wires and spotlights spans the low, black ceiling.
It feels comfortable, intimate. Better than a grand concert hall, in fact, for this particular concert -- the first in the 2004-05 season's Focus Series.
Each program focuses on the life and works of a single composer. Throughout the program, the conductor comments briefly on the music, its composition and inspiration.
Applause greets the maestro. He bows slightly, smiles broadly.
"He smiles a lot," concertmaster Tamas Kocsis confides earlier, "which is rare in a conductor."
When France smiles, deep grooves dimple his cheeks. His eyebrows are broad and mobile, his hair black and curly. No mistaking: His roots (despite his surname) are Italian. His voice, cultivated but slightly nasal, hints at his New Jersey upbringing.
"Tonight," he says, "we're going to build the orchestra little by little."
He introduces the members of a string quartet, "the core of the orchestra." They play a short, sprightly tune. He brings out four more violinists, then the rest of the strings, touching on their roles before they play.
"Now we add a huge component," he announces. "The wind family -- which I'm sure, if they could, they would change their name."
Finally, the brass section enters.
"OK," says France, launching into a lively dissection of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. "So now the fun begins."
He invites Fischer to sound a three-note horn call, then imitates the cadence: "I hear you. I hear you."
That simple horn call is expanded into a whole theme, then sped up: "Yum pa-pa-pa pum!"
"It's like being in one of those massage chairs -- very stimulating," cracks France.
He explains how the symphony switches between major and minor keys, "to create drama, intrigue." The players demonstrate.
"We'll play one more theme," he says, "and then I'll shut up."
Up goes his baton, and the orchestra launches into a playful selection from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
There are purists who don't like the conductor to talk at concerts, says David Schillhammer, the Philharmonic's executive director. "But the Focus Series is billed as a chance for the conductor to speak. The people who come enjoy the added value."
For Rita Lowndes, a prominent Orlando arts patron and a first-timer at a Focus concert, France's commentary "enriches the experience."
"His manner, his message, his music -- all are delightful," says Lowndes, during intermission.
"He makes it fun," says Nancy Matteson of Winter Park. "It's almost one-on-one."
"You feel his excitement," adds Don Crowell of Maitland.
After intermission, as promised, there is no more talking. Just the four glorious, uninterrupted movements of Mendelssohn's famous Italian Symphony.
GLAMOUR ISN'T HIS STYLE
If there's one thing that might surprise people about Hal France, "I guess it's that I don't take myself that seriously as a conductor," he says.
Which is not to say he doesn't care about his role as maestro. He does. Passionately.
It's just that "whatever people's conceptions of what a conductor might be, I don't seem to match those conceptions," he says.
Consider: He attended college, in part, on a football scholarship. His favorite drive music includes Diana Krall and Linda Ronstadt. He'd rather ride his bike through Orlando's downtown neighborhoods than jet off to Europe. He's more comfortable with a Habitat for Humanity hammer in his hand than a flute of champagne. And in his fantasies, he is not at Lincoln Center conducting the New York Philharmonic, but in a club playing jazz piano.
"If I could be anything in music, it would be a jazz musician," he says. Instead, he plays classical piano.
This is France's fifth year as music director of the Orlando Philharmonic. It's also his 10th and final season as artistic director and principal conductor of Opera Omaha in Nebraska, which is his home base. Like many classical musicians, France works in two cities -- and racks up plenty of frequent-flier miles commuting between them.
As for the aura of glamour that supposedly surrounds a conductor, France shrugs it off.
"I guess it really depends on how many hours of the day you want to perform," he says. "If you want to perform every time you walk out the door, if that's your act, you can make it look pretty glamorous.
"I couldn't pull it off," he adds with a wry smile. "I'd be shot down in a second."
Then he turns serious: "But when you start talking about almost anything we do in this country, or at least in parts of this country, and you compare it to how 90 percent of the world lives, we are living in some sort of weird, glamorous, protected bubble of luxury. I feel like it's important to get out of that."
Which is why, back home in Omaha, he immerses himself in volunteer efforts that battle decidedly unglamorous problems such as hunger and homelessness.
MUSIC MAN, PEOPLE PERSON
Becoming a conductor, "just sort of happened," says France, a graduate of Northwestern University, the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard Opera Center.
Pressed for details, he's reluctant to toot his own horn. Instead, he gives a brief run-down:
He started playing the piano in opera houses, then conducting the chorus. Finally he went back to school, got into opera companies and made his conducting debut.
That was in 1981, at Washington's Kennedy Center. Since then, he has conducted opera performances in cities from New York to Seattle to Stockholm, Sweden. And he has been guest conductor for the National Symphony and the Royal Philharmonic.
France "oozes music," says Schillhammer. "He has a great belief in the power of music and a passion for communicating it. He makes music accessible without dumbing it down."
As a programmer, he has "a wonderful sense of what's good for the audience, the orchestra and the program," Schillhammer says.
France can be a taskmaster, Schillhammer adds. "As maestro, you are, by definition, an authority figure. You have to exert leadership and power. But he's also very engaging."
His pre-concert conversations, held backstage an hour before orchestral performances at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, are a hit with concert-goers. And his "informances" -- informal performances presented by the maestro and a few musicians, often in private homes -- "have done more for building patrons than almost anything else," says Schillhammer.
The Darden Family Series, designed to demystify classical music for children, presents France in his element. "Kids are my favorite thing," says the maestro -- although he and his wife, soprano Sylvia McNair, have no children.
There is no formula to his presentations. "I just share the experience of the music. I make it personal," he says.
In Orlando, his home-away-from-home is a suite at the Downtown Marriott.
"I love the people over at the Marriott dearly, but I'm really pretty tired of living in hotels," he says. "Still, I have a nice routine when I come here. I have lots of places I eat. I go to the Y every day. I keep a bike over at the Philharmonic offices. And I'm pretty busy with the orchestra, so a week goes by pretty quickly."
A favorite haunt is Christo's, a cafe on Edgewater Drive, where the servers say he is relaxed and unassuming.
"He comes in once or twice a week," says Kane Cockrell, 40. "He usually has some music with him, sheet music. He drinks his tea, looks over his sheets. He's a really nice guy, very friendly."
A DANCE IN HIS HEART
In a lot of orchestras, the conductor is the dictator, says Joni Hanze Bjella, Orlando Philharmonic's associate concertmaster.
"Hal's not like that. You can have a conversation about music with him."
After a recent rehearsal with the orchestra in Celebration, France settles into a booth at the Market Street Cafe to sip mango iced tea and talk music.
"Music, the arts, are about expressing the most profound things that we experience as human beings," he says.
"It's interesting that during difficult times, people want to go to concerts, maybe in the same way they would go to church. They want to go someplace where they can experience something that will connect with what they're feeling."
But, he says, "The pace of our life is so fast right now, we've become so technological, it's easy not to have the time or impulse to connect with the arts.
"We need to slow down, sit someplace, listen. It really is a remedy to modern living."
Music can sound more perfect on CD than in a concert hall, he says, but there's more dimension to live music. "It's communal, it's of the moment, it's human -- which means it's not perfect. But that's OK."
Music is also a visual experience, he says. "Seeing the performers is a huge part of it. One way orchestras are trying to adapt and change in today's culture is to become more multimedia."
The contact with people is what France enjoys most about conducting.
"I'm a pretty inhibited person. But music is a liberating force for me. I get to be a little outside of myself" when I'm conducting, he says.
On the podium, France is graceful one moment, electric the next. "I think he must have been a great dancer in another life," comments Hanze Bjella.
"I really try not to dance, but that's what they say, so it must be true," says France, adding: "I would love to be a good dancer. I would love to dance the tango."
No matter what a conductor's style, he says, "You're going to have to be very strong."
For now, he's content with his roles as music director and conductor in Orlando and Omaha. But some day, France would like to quit performing and become a full-time advocate for the arts. Or a show producer.
"I like putting shows together," he says. "Like the Emmy Awards. Those kind of big extravaganzas. That's one of my favorite things -- to get all the different kinds of people together. Yeah!"
Jean Patteson can be reached at jpatteson@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5158.
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