Photo courtesy of Frank Almond
After 25 years as the much-admired concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Frank Almond is leaving that position. He plays the 305-year-old “Lipinski” Stradivarius violin, which was famously stolen and recovered in 2014. We spoke with him recently about his time at MSO.
Who hired you to be concertmaster at MSO?
Zdeněk Mácal, who had started as music director of the orchestra in 1986 and was leaving MSO. The concertmaster opening had been unfilled for about three years. I had played the Tchaikovsky concerto in Texas on the Sunday before I had to be at Uihlein Hall the next day at 8:00 a.m. I then played two trial weeks with the orchestra. It was a rather rudderless time in MSO history. Andreas Delfs wasn’t hired until two years after I started. This dynamic young guy moved here with his family and really became entrenched in the community. The orchestra had a sense that finally things would settle, and Uihlein Hall had just been renovated.
You took the 2001-02 season away from MSO to play concertmaster at the London Philharmonic, and the 2002-03 season to play concertmaster in Rotterdam. Why?
Honestly, at that point I was trying to decide how long I would stay at MSO. But eventually I realized how much I liked the Milwaukee music community and the orchestra here.
You were part of the music director search committee for Edo de Waart.
Yes, I had played several weeks with him in Holland. It turns out he was living in Madison, incredibly. I think he was shocked at how good the orchestra was. MSO had been struggling financially and had to size down. Then we began hiring players again, and as a result Edo hired the majority of players in the orchestra. There was a quantum leap in cohesiveness and musical quality.
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I’m sure many people are wondering why you are stepping down from being concertmaster.
It’s a constellation of things. I have two teenage girls on my own. [Frank’s wife, Kate, passed away from breast cancer in 2017.] For four to five years I had ideas I couldn’t do for either professional reasons or Kate’s illness. Last season it became untenable. Ken-David Masur and I get along great, but I think he should have the opportunity to find someone to take the strings section in a different direction.
I want to build the Frankly Music chamber music series and continue to grow my teaching at Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. I hope to change the chamber music landscape, and get the arts more out into underserved communities, like schools and prisons, on a regular basis.
It’s certainly unfortunate that you couldn’t finish your last season at MSO.
It’s a weird way to go out, but that’s not really what should be the focus of MSO now. They have plenty to deal with. I have close colleagues and a lot of history there, and it would be nice to feel some sort of closure. I hope people won’t immediately forget the work I’ve done there.
What will your future role as Artistic Advisor at MSO entail?
I have no idea. We’ve talked about various things. I’ll do as much or as little as MSO decides. I’d like to be involved. It will develop as it goes along.
Any music in particular you’re especially fond of playing?
The concerto by Samuel Barber. Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium,” which I got to play with Joseph Silverstein, who knew the composer quite well. One of the greatest of concertmasters, Silverstein was such an influence on me as a teenager at the Tanglewood Music Festival. And here we were years later. I had the chance to tell him how much he had taught me.
There are lots of great solos from the orchestra I’ve gotten to play. Scheherazde [Rimsky-Korsakov] evolved over the several times I played it. Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Edo was special because he was such a master at that music.
Any thoughts that stand out from your time with MSO?
A milestone like the Carnegie Hall concert felt recognizable to everyone. Mostly, I’m just proud to have been a part of what this orchestra has become over time.
