For more than three decades, Carl St.Clair has given his energy and passion to building the Pacific Symphony into one of the nation’s first-rate orchestras; tonight, Sept. 26, he will open his final season before stepping back as music director.
While the idea that this will be his last season at the helm of the 84-musician symphony is met with mixed emotions, he said he will leave in June with the satisfaction of knowing his 35-year tenure is also his most significant life achievement. He will stay on as music director laureate for the symphony.
During his time at the podium, St.Clair not only accomplished his “secret goal” of the symphony being named a top-tier orchestra in the United States, now considered in the same class as the likes of the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and the Chicago Symphony, but also called his work building the symphony with help from the board, musicians and the community a “great gift.”
“It’s been a gift that’s never been taken for granted and I’ve always tried to make it better and to really give of myself to the work the orchestra requires and deserves,” he said. “This has meant so much to me; it’s been my whole life for over three decades.”
Since St.Clair came aboard – a time when the symphony’s musicians still rehearsed in an old Santa Ana church and took lunch breaks at the nearby Jack-in-the-box – the orchestra has gone from a $2 million undertaking to a $24 million operation that rehearses and plays its concerts at the more-than-1,700-seat Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.
The Pacific Symphony is the largest budgeted orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 50 years. It is recognized for its national and international successes, with more than 90 concerts and community engagement programs annually.
In 2018, the Pacific Symphony debuted at Carnegie Hall, where it performed as part of a celebration of composer Philip Glass’ 80th birthday. That same year, it toured in China. The ensemble has received recognition with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers’ Award for Adventurous Programming and a nod from the League of American Orchestras as one of the country’s five most innovative orchestras.
In 2006, the Pacific Symphony toured Europe and played concerts in Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Lucerne and Vienna, where St.Clair said it received standing ovations and critical acclaim. St.Clair still remains an honorary guest conductor for life at the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal in Germany.
John Forsyte, who has been the symphony’s CEO for 26 years, said St.Clair’s final season will be extra special and he commended the conductor for his guidance and for enriching the “cultural fabric” of Orange County.
“Carl has poured his heart, imagination, and passionate commitment into building one of the most revered orchestras of our time,” Forsyte said.
That passion will be on display again tonight, when St.Clair opens the symphony’s 2024-25 season with selections from Rachmaninoff and Beethoven, pieces he first conducted when he came aboard in 1990.
Among those will be Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, which is among his most cherished works.
The selection also pays homage to the great composer Leonard Bernstein, one of St.Clair’s mentors and the first American composer to achieve international acclaim. Bernstein directed that piece in 1990 at Tanglewood, a famous music festival and the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and St.Clair, then a conducting fellow, was at his side.
“I knew from past experiences with Mr. B that I would be fully inspired. So knowing that, I programmed the 7th on the very first concert of my tenure as the musical director of the Pacific Symphony,” St.Clair said. “No one could have ever imagined that his performance of Beethoven’s Symphony 7 would be the final of his career.”
St.Clair, from a small town in Texas, studied with the renowned Bernstein for six years and still recalls Bernstein’s comments when they first met.
“Where the hell is my cowboy from Texas?” St.Clair remembers him asking. “I said, ‘Mr. B, I’m from Texas.’ And he said, ‘I’ve never met a conductor from Texas.’”
That afternoon, St.Clair said he and others worked with Bernstein on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. In three hours, they had only done a few measures of the composition.
“For the first time, I got to see music through the eyes of a real genius,” St.Clair said, speaking of Bernstein’s intense attention to detail. “It was a life-altering experience.”
That experience helped to shape his career, St.Clair said. Just a few days before Bernstein died in October 1990, St.Clair said his mentor told him, “It’s your time to fly the flag.”
And, he understood what that meant.
“It wasn’t about having a career or ‘look at me,’ it was more about giving back,” he said. “It was about flying a flag for education, for sharing, for love, respect for music and caring for children. It was about what the power of music could do for society.”
Bringing that power to the Pacific Symphony was exactly what St.Clair set out to do, no matter how long it would take.
St.Clair said he didn’t take the coveted position in 1990 thinking, “How long can this go?” Instead, it was, “How can I do my best every day?”
“Every time I step on the podium, in front of an orchestra, step in front of my community or the board, I just do the best I can in the most honest and sincere way possible,” he said. “Wherever that leads me becomes the journey, but I don’t predict the journey. So the fact that I’ve been here for 35 years is just an incredible gift.”
Violinist Linda Owen is the last original musician from the symphony’s founding in 1978, then a mix of music students and community members, with a few professionals thrown in.
“In the beginning, you’re playing the notes, and it isn’t so exciting,” she said, recalling how things became different when St.Clair picked up the baton. “Now, every piece we play is super exciting. Carl has such great vision for what he wants from the orchestra. It’s amazing to think we’ve come this far and knowing we are now part of a group that includes New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.”
She credits St.Clair with uniting the musicians into a family.
That feeling of family is also what St.Clair said has made it so hard to say goodbye.
Over the years, he said he considered when might be the right time to give up his day-to-day role. Somehow, though, he never saw a ceiling to what the symphony could do. There was always more to accomplish.
St.Clair said that in many of the most respected symphonies in the world, there is often “a single musical conscience or personality, who spends a long time during the early makeup molding and shaping the orchestra’s traits, characteristics, soul, spirit and the way the music is played.”
St.Clair has been that person at the Pacific Symphony.
“I’ve been given this opportunity and just kept working,” he said. “Now, the orchestra is primed and ready to take flight, take new ideas and go into the direction of the middle of the 21st century, to our 50th anniversary season.”
The symphony board continues the search for St.Clair’s successor, which started soon after he announced in 2022 he intended to soon step down.
“There are people who can take us into the middle of the 21st century better than I can do,” he said. “I think I may have too big of a foot planted in the 19th century; I really think there are people looking forward and doing things that are more fitting the changing times that orchestras are living in today than I can do.”
He said the symphony’s greatest challenge will be what the future means and how it will continue to draw new and younger audiences. To him, staying in close contact with the community is among the most important goals.
For years, the symphony’s musicians have left the confines of the concert hall, heading out into the community with programs such as Symphony in the Cities, the free concerts in the park it offers each summer; Class Act, where the musicians visit local schools; and Heartstrings, in which the symphony has partnered with the Center for Autism, Agewell Senior Services and the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Ana to provide free violin classes.
St.Clair said his musicians seem to sense the importance of this season.
“The level and depth of how we approached some of the pieces, including Beethoven’s 7th,” he said. “The depth of what we’re discussing and experiencing, we wouldn’t have done at dress rehearsals in years past. The atmosphere, how dedicated they still are to revisiting all these chestnuts with fresh eyes, new ears and energy. This is a great sense of happiness for me.”
Among those musicians is Dennis Kim, a first-chair violinist who is also the symphony’s concertmaster. In his six seasons with the symphony, Kim said St.Clair’s passion has influenced how he interprets some of the music he plays.
“He’s 100% committed,” Kim said of St.Clair. “Starting at the first rehearsal, there’s not one time I feel he’s dialing it in. I think that’s what the orchestra sees and why the people come.”
Kim said he has also come to appreciate pieces that haven’t been favorites because of St.Clair’s interpretation.
“Every piece he performs seems like his favorite,” Kim said. “It shows me maybe I’m missing something. A lot of pieces I’ve liked less are favorites now.”
While St.Clair plans a full schedule of meaningful music for his final season, his ultimate goal is to ensure that the musicians and the community understand how thankful he is for the chance he was given to transform the symphony and create a legacy, he said.
“I would hope that, in this final season, I would have had an opportunity to say to Orange County, to the Pacific Symphony musicians, both those on stage and those that played in the orchestra for my 35 years, ‘Thank you,’ and also to have been able to clearly articulate how appreciative I am and how much this has meant to me.”
