If you ask the bustling conductor Kent Nagano whether at the age of 70 he is not thinking more carefully about how to divide his energies, he answers with the words of rock and jazz musician Frank Zappa: It is a privilege to make music. “I actually have holidays all the time and do exactly what I would most like to do,” said Nagano in an interview with Deutsche Welle. Of course, he has to set stronger priorities than when he was young, but he still has many dreams and ideas and, above all, numerous orchestral projects ahead of him. “Not everyone is in the wonderful position of being able to turn their passion into a profession. In this sense, I feel very happy.”
Kent Nagano enjoys conducting in the Elbphilharmonie
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Surrounded by classical music
Kent Nagano, an American with Japanese roots, comes from the small Californian fishing village of Morro Bay. His mother was a microbiologist and pianist. He grew up at home with classical music. When Nagano later studied classical music and sociology at the University of California in Santa Cruz, he had little ears for the rock and pop music of his generation.
Frank Zappa’s music was alien to him and yet the rock and jazz musician Kent Nagano personally accompanied part of his musical path. He is one of the 10 people Kent Nagano spoke about in his book “10 Lessons of my Life. What really matters” with the author Inge Kloepfer.
Kent Nagano and Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa musically inspired Kent Nagano
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“Rock and pop music were downright forbidden at home,” Nagano said in an interview with DW. “My mother thought it was the wrong direction and she was my first piano teacher”. It was only when the French conductor and composer Pierre Boulez Zappas wanted to conduct music that Nagano became aware of the musician and attended one of his rock concerts.
Nagano had studied with Pierre Boulez for a while. “You can hardly imagine that when I was 28 or 29 I had never been to a rock concert and thus never had that experience in my life”. Nagano was delighted and recorded three records with Frank Zappa and the London Symphony Orchestra. Kent Nagano was a close friend of Frank Zappa’s death.
The pursuit of perfection
Nagano learned to strive for perfection from Frank Zappa. When all sounds and the technical environment were perfect, Zappa felt free. Free to put your energy into musical expression. In this way, Zappa achieved a higher level of quality in the performance than in the preparations, explains Nagano. “This is something that helps you not only in the music world, but also in life: You shouldn’t be satisfied with the ordinary, but insist on exceptional quality.”
Kent Nagano discovered the voice of the Icelandic singer Björk in a video clip
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Kent Nagano has met many strong personalities in his life. Some have left lasting marks. From the Icelandic singer Björk he learned that perfection is not everything, but that it depends on what an artist has to say to his audience. Pierre Boulez aroused Nagano’s interest in new music and Leonard Bernstein kept asking him questions that made him think.
Learning from Leonard Bernstein
From his teacher Leonard Bernstein he learned lessons that would have had their effects many years later, says Nagano. “Even today I still do things that make me think: ‘Ah, that’s what Leonard Bernstein talked about’.”
Kent Nagano learned more than just conducting from Leonard Bernstein
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Leonard Bernstein was not only a conductor and composer, but also a humanities scholar and humanist. He looked at music from different perspectives. In one lesson, instead of conducting with Kent Nagano, he went to the Guggenheim Museum. They looked at works of art together and talked about them. “When we make music, we see and feel a picture in our imagination. We paint pictures in an infinite variety of colors and articulations,” says Kent Nagano. Leonard Bernstein sharpened his senses for it at the time.
The time in Germany
After studying with Pierre Boulez and Leonard Bernstein, Kent Nagano joined in 2000 as chief conductor German Symphony Orchestra Berlin. From 2006 onwards, he was general music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and also worked as music director of the Orchester symphonique de Montréal. Since 2015 he has been general music director of the Hamburg State Opera and chief conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and also conducts the best orchestras in the world.
The Concerto Köln has appointed Kent Nagano as honorary conductor
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Kent Nagano is valued by many for his openness and willingness to explore. Just as he has opened up to popular music, he is also interested in historical performance practice. With the well-known original sound ensemble “Concerto Köln” he has been working on Richard Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen” with historical instruments since 2017.
He is still associated with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra – and not only musically: “The fact that I speak German today is primarily due to the symphony orchestra. At least 85 percent of my vocabulary comes from my colleagues in the orchestra.”
Nagano still has many plans and long-term musical projects for the future. He gets the energy for this while windsurfing in his Californian homeland. This is an ideal sport to keep fit, he says – even at 70.
The interview from which the quotations come was conducted by Hans von Bock.
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