Quest begins for new conductor

On Friday night, the Richmond Symphony begins its quest for a new music director under the baton of Mikhail Agrest. He is the first of nine candidates in line for maestro Mark Russell Smith’s position beginning with the 2010-11 season.

Agrest, 33, a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, is an established conductor who has mounted international podiums to lead orchestras, operas and ballets from his directorial position at St. Petersburg’s historic Mariisky Theater, which just completed its 225th season.

Although St. Petersburg is his base of operation, Agrest is a naturalized American citizen, having immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 14.

“My parents, sister and I came to New York, and it was a very difficult time,” Agrest said. “We were part of a large influx of Russian immigrants and were pretty much on our own.

“We were put in a ‘hotel’ that resembled a homeless shelter. They handed out mouse traps at the front desk. We spent many days walking the streets of Brooklyn looking for an apartment and other necessities.

“We finally found an apartment in a small building owned by a Polish family that came to the U.S. after World War II,” Agrest said.

“One day two ladies from a Catholic church saw us carrying home mattresses that we had found on the street. They took us to their church, and two days later my sister and I had new beds.

“It was a difficult time . . . total uncertainty. Furniture from the streets, picking up aluminum cans to recycle for money, learning the language. But these things make one stronger,” Agrest said. “Whenever I feel I have reached a great height in my career, I remember how it all started. What my family went through so I could do this. It helps keep things in perspective.”

He studied violin at Indiana University but realized that conducting was his calling.

After returning to study at St. Petersburg’s conservatory with Ilya Musin, Agrest’s talent was soon recognized by the legendary Valery Gergiev, artistic and general director of the Mariisky, and he was offered a position there. Agrest worked with Mariisky conducting the Kirov orchestra, opera and ballet in residence at the famous artistic venue.

“It was a baptism by fire,” Agrest said recently by phone from St. Petersburg. “Maestro Gergiev has the entire staff on the go all the time. Yet he is infectious in his enthusiasm.

“Many’s the time after I’ve finished a long day’s work and just want to go home and rest, and on the way out I’ll encounter him. After even the briefest of conversations with him, I’m ready to go again,” Agrest said. “He is such an energizing personality.”

In the past seven years, Agrest has conducted throughout Europe, East Asia and the United States. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2003 and London’s Covent Garden in 2005-06.

He quickly refers to America as his home country. His extended family lives in South Carolina while he resides in St. Petersburg with his wife, Ella, 2-year-old daughter and their beagle.

“The arts in Europe and other countries are almost fully sustained by their governments,” said Agrest, suggesting that is the reason there have been so many opportunities for him outside the United States.

“I finally decided it’s not right as an American citizen to be sitting in an Italian cafe sipping cappuccino and thinking that back in what I now call my home country, musicians are continually struggling with finances to continue their work,” Agrest said. “I felt it was time to concentrate on making music in the United States.

“And not just make music, but to really try and do something on the local level where orchestras — and the arts in general — are not simply supported by people ‘investing’ in their communities. They are not doing this just to throw money away. They’re doing it because they realize that the cultural well-being and cultural spirituality of the community is important, not just for them but for generations to come,” Agrest said.

Agrest’s next step was appearing at a national conductors’ preview sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra League in Jacksonville, Fla.

“They gathered eight conductors and had us conduct an orchestra where people from many other orchestras could observe,” Agrest said. “I met and talked with two representatives from the Richmond Symphony — Ann Choomack and Jared Davis.

“While I made contacts with members of other orchestras, I felt a great synergy with Ann and Jared. Just hearing them talk about their orchestra with such energy and the light in their eyes when they spoke made me really interested and helped me realize that there was really something special about the Richmond Symphony,” Agrest said.

“I told my agent the next day that I hoped something came out of the Richmond contact because it really seemed exceptional.”

Friday night’s Masterworks Series concert will be at Second Baptist Church, where Agrest will conduct the overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “La Forza del Destino,” American composer Christopher Rouse’s Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.