Conductor honored as ‘World Leader’

Thanks to the World Leaders Forum, most Columbians are by now accustomed to seeing long lines of students in business attire outside Low Library and large black vehicles on College Walk. On Friday, Oct. 7, the black cars were there, but the queue was a bit different from the norm, with a more artsy crowd than usual lining up along 116th Street.

Instead of a president or prime minister, Friday’s world leader was Valery Gergiev, one of the most renowned orchestral conductors alive today. Maestro Gergiev, who hails from Russia, serves as the director of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Among his numerous credentials, Maestro Gergiev is the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and was in town last week conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra at Carnegie Hall’s opening night. He participated in an hour-long discussion in a packed Miller Theatre with music professor Elaine Sisman, followed by a question-and-answer period and a luncheon at Faculty House. A group of students at Saint Petersburg State University also took part in the discussion via video conferencing.

Maestro Gergiev made it clear that he is just as important a global leader in his field as the usual political figures that come to campus are in theirs. He noted that he had been in China three days before coming to the U.S., and had visited several other countries in between.

He spoke a great deal about the importance of performing not just the great classics of the 18th and 19th centuries but also the music of the 20th century, especially Russia’s.

“‘La Traviata’ and ‘Otello’ are great operas … but there are hundreds of operas,” he said, discussing his own work conducting operas such as Prokofiev’s “War and Peace” and “The Gambler.”

He also gave important career advice relevant to anyone pursuing a dream, musical or not, citing the importance of focusing on learning as much as possible rather than trying specifically to achieve success. “I didn’t understand the word ‘career’ before I made a career,” Gergiev said. “You learn and learn, and suddenly you have a career.”

When asked which composer he would add to the Music Humanities syllabus if he had to pick one, Gergiev cited a piano piece by Christoph Willibald Gluck that he recently heard performed as an encore, which mesmerized a London audience. He did not seem to be stating outright that Gluck would be the one composer, but he used this example to show the importance of always pursuing new knowledge. “Learn more,” he repeated. “You will always find another miracle.”