As a conductor who can often be found in the pit of an opera house, many hours of Kazem Abdullah’s life are spent in a magical, alchemical position: being the final siphon through which the printed score flows before coming to life through the musicians and cascading out to the audience. In Kazem’s case, the stakes are often quite high: many of these productions are brought to life for the very first time under his care. And as music listeners, music makers, and music administrators increasingly seek to be immersed in the stories of their fellow humans currently traipsing planet Earth, Kazem is also a channel for powerful social commentary and artistic messaging.
Trained as a clarinetist, Kazem’s membership with the New World Symphony was followed by an assistant conductor position at the MET. Since then, he has been on the podium for more than 30 operas, including the American premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain, Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Omar, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago world premiere of Proximity: an evening-length triptych of newly-commissioned operas by Daniel Bernard Roumain, Caroline Shaw, and John Luther Adams.
Perhaps the most recent and largest example of his effective and thoughtful leadership in bringing these new and potent stories to life was the dazzling and poignant MET premiere of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. Autumn 2023 saw Kazem guiding the MET musicians through composer Anthony Davis’ incredibly intricate and tricky score, and he immediately followed that this past spring in a run of X with the Seattle Opera. Before the start of the 2024-25 season, we caught up with Kazem to ask about his life as an artist and what he’s seeing right now in the world of new opera.
Kazem Abdullah — Courtesy of artist
You have your finger firmly on the pulse of new opera. What trends are you seeing as your encounters with these massive pieces of art stack up?
One huge advance of the past five years has been the emergence of systems for bringing new works to life. Before an opera is presented to the public, it goes through a thoughtful development process, often the result of the commissioners investing time and resources to bring the piece into final form.
Over the past decade, the landscape for new work has changed so radically that it has become unrecognizable. Companies large and small regularly program world premieres and revivals of the American operas of our time.
X is a powerful opera that prompts strong opinions among its viewers. Do you have any stories of a particularly memorable audience reaction, either during the performance or in speaking with you afterwards?
The most memorable experience of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X was at the dress rehearsal of the piece when it was first performed in Detroit in 2022. Detroit Opera invited 2,000 school kids to the dress rehearsal, and when we started playing the overture, it still sounded like a school cafeteria in the audience! However, by the time we started the opera proper, the kids quieted down, and when the first scene, “Africa for Africans,” ended, there was an immense reaction of applause and enthusiasm that I was not expecting. The kids stayed quiet, focused, and concentrated throughout the rest of the evening. It was interesting to hear how spontaneously kids reacted to contemporary opera.
What are three contemporary operas you would tell people to prioritize experiencing as a foundation for understanding this new wave of storytelling?
Three operas that I saw over the last year that I did not conduct (but would like to) and think audiences should see are:
The Righteous, by Gregory Spears and librettist Tracy K. Smith. This original story encapsulates America in the 1980s and has all the grand elements of opera — large choruses, soaring arias, comedic moments, love, jealousy, and death. There is still a chance to see The Righteous at Santa Fe Opera, where it premiered last month; the last performance is on August 13.
American Apollo, composed by Damien Geter to a libretto by Lila Palmer, and recently presented by Des Moines Metro Opera. It is about Thomas Eugene McKeller, a Black model who posed for the famous portraitist John Singer Sargent. Geter’s music is tuneful and dramatic; he understands musical form and operatic structure profoundly. It makes me really excited to see the premiere of his next opera, Loving vs. Virginia, with a libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo. It will premiere at Virginia Opera in April 2025.
Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners, which is being presented at Opera Philadelphia in September and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in spring 2025. Royce Vavrek’s libretto is about a woman in a southern suburb who starts hearing a strange, maddening hum — an environmental noise that only some people can hear. The Listeners will be headlined by the amazing soprano Nicole Heaston in both runs. Mazzoli and Vavrek have created wonderful operas together; I saw Breaking the Waves and came away transformed by the experience!
Is there a completely non-musical aspect of your life that has ended up being a boon to your work as a conductor?
That is hard to pinpoint because all aspects of my life have been helpful to my being a conductor. I used to have a severe stutter and worked with a very good speech pathologist to overcome it. I think that because of that experience I now have a particular kind of empathy, and I also bring a conciseness to how I rehearse with and address the orchestra.
Studying, memorizing, and absorbing a score is a gargantuan task that’s part of your daily existence! What advice would you give to young conductors and other musicians about the structure of that process, or any aspects of score study that are not often talked about?
When I was starting my journey, a couple of conductors gave me advice. The most valuable was: content (musical content) is everything; and the study and quality of study you do will last for your whole life’s musical journey. An inspiring living example of this is Herbert Blomstedt. I saw him conduct again last season in Chicago when I performed the opera Proximity, with Chicago Lyric Opera. Having studied with Blomstedt one summer at Tanglewood, I could relate to the advice above while watching him work, then and recently. What a lifelong musical journey!
I see a difference between score study and score preparation. Both are equally important elements of a conductor’s musical work. I make sure I give attention to both.
Kazem Abdullah — Courtesy of artist
For me, score study aims to develop my understanding and sympathies with a piece of music. This might include a motivic analysis of the work, an in-depth examination of a particular section, or passages in a piece. Research into the work’s genesis and reception; reading books, essays and articles that analyze the piece. Reading a biography of the composer, studying what music, or other things that might have influenced the composer while writing. The influence of folk music or vernacular music on the work; studying performance practice. When literary texts are involved, learning about the poetry, developing my understanding of the language, and interpretation.
This kind of work can happen in many ways and must not be applied to an upcoming performance. In and of itself, the above may not help you to perform a work well but it will influence your understanding of the musical content and the concept of a particular work. That leads to a stronger interpretation, infusing all elements of how you rehearse and how you conduct.
Score preparation is a more specific and goal-oriented process. It is closer to instrumental practice than score study, and can include singing through the piece in character and in time (either silently or out loud); working out beating strategies, thinking about gesture; conducting in silence; working with a metronome; playing things at the piano; working on memorization; figuring out when, how, and whom to cue; working on the reliability of tempi. If there is a literary text, practicing speaking/singing it, and working on pronunciation; practicing singing/conducting transitions; and practicing tempo fluctuations (like ritardando or accelerando).
There is so much that goes into learning the music that you conduct. It is a constant process of learning new unfamiliar works and also restudying works that are more well known. Every conductor has to find their own process to learning works and that is an evolving process as one acquires more experience and extends their repertoire.
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