photo by Olaf Growald
Miguel Harth-Bedoya at the Bass Hall
The yawn of awakening instruments as they are pulled from their cases blends with the low din of conversation and shuffling about as musicians settle down to practice. Warm light beams into the lower level of the Maddox Muse Center through street-level windows and falls onto sheet music glowing against black stands. Open cases display photographs, stickers, and keepsakes — symbols of individuality in an industry that prizes cohesiveness and unity.
The session — a conductor lab with newly appointed conducting fellows Alex Amsel and Stephanie Rhodes Russell — is something like a peek into the future for Miguel Harth-Bedoya, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s outgoing music director. Though he may be in his final season, his legacy is far from complete. Sure, he’s savoring the culmination of his 20-year tenure with the esteemed musical powerhouse he helped shape, but he’s also shifting focus to education and civic engagement in Fort Worth.
“I get to become a citizen of Fort Worth,” Harth-Bedoya says. “Everywhere I go, I have been the music director of the Fort Worth Symphony, but now I’ll get to be nobody.”
The lab session has Harth-Bedoya directing Amsel and Rhodes Russell through scores of Tchaikovsky and others — at times, physically correcting technique or asking questions about the emotional content of the score. He stands behind them as their metronome, tapping against their spines as if creating a second heartbeat so the fellows instinctively feel the music.
“This one is a bulldog that runs and jumps and bites!” says Harth-Bedoya, waving his hands in the air.
Harth-Bedoya has always been a teacher, so say the musicians who’ve worked under his direction. They describe him as a “visionary” with “natural talent” and comment on his high expectations and willingness to push boundaries.
“I was playing flute in the orchestra, and then he decided to designate me the piccolo player, which I had never done before — I didn’t even have a piccolo,” says Pam Adams, who has been with the orchestra since 1991. “But as long as I was as committed as he was to the overall artistic growth and improving, he gave me time to learn.”
Veteran bass trombone player Dennis Bubert has watched Harth-Bedoya mature over the 20 years they have worked together and now considers him one of his greatest teachers.
“I find him very easy to work with,” Bubert says. “He is demanding but never harsh. I would describe him as ‘laid-back intense.’”
But the orchestra has grown more than just musically during Harth-Bedoya’s leadership. Over the past 20 years, the symphony’s budget has increased by around $4 million, and the number of full-time positions in the orchestra has increased by 25 percent, according to a FWSO press release. The orchestra has performed shows at Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center and released 13 recordings. Even during the symphony’s stickier moments — like the strike over musicians’ wages in 2016 — Harth-Bedoya stuck through it with an unwavering commitment to Fort Worth.
“We have gone from being a good chamber orchestra to being a world-class orchestra with incredible players,” Adams says.
Harth-Bedoya proves that to perform at an elite level, one doesn’t need to be a child prodigy. He grew up in Peru with a single mom who happened to be a music teacher and choral conductor, but Harth-Bedoya says he didn’t become interested in music and performance art until his first job working as a stagehand in a local theatre.
“That’s how I got hooked with not only music but also drama, words, libretto, acting,” Harth-Bedoya says. “I found it fascinating. So, I would do homework in the theatre.”
From there, passion, grit, and help from his future wife, Maritza, fast-tracked Harth-Bedoya to the Curtis Institute of Music and The Julliard School to study orchestral conducting. At age 19, he made his debut with the national orchestra of Peru, just four years after choosing to pursue conducting professionally.
Reflecting on his leadership at the FWSO, the retiring music director says that he has “grown as an artist and a person.” His programming stems from his curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. Regarding the broad range of new music Harth-Bedoya has brought to Fort Worth, he says that the value of the work defies classification.
“I still believe that every artist is unique despite gender, citizenship, age, because art is that,” Harth-Bedoya says. “It’s ageless; it’s void of everything. The piece of art stands for itself.”
Stepping down as music director doesn’t mean Harth-Bedoya is leaving the Fort, however. Despite being seasoned world-travelers, Harth-Bedoya and his wife found an unexpected connection to Fort Worth and want to continue raising their three children here. After the initial shock of moving to Texas wore off, Harth-Bedoya says, “You cannot get my wife out of Fort Worth.”
“The backbone of our life will be our family,” he says.
He’s not quite leaving the symphony either. After an impressive career of musical exploration, expansion of the symphony’s repertoire, two Grammy nominations, and an Emmy, Harth-Bedoya will not only continue conducting in the U.S., Europe, and around the world — he’ll also become Conductor Laureate with the FWSO and focus on training the next generation of conductors.
“We are lacking that dramatically in this country,” Harth-Bedoya says. “The early stages of orchestral conducting have pretty much disappeared in the country in the last century.”
Harth-Bedoya’s teaching is as dynamic and sophisticated as his conducting. The lines on his face reveal a lifetime of intent listening and furrowed brows of concentration, while his mouth and eyes are a roadmap of smiles.
During the conductor lab, he catches the fellows off guard by an exercise in conducting to a silent orchestra and gives Amsel a playful swat on the belly after telling him to relax.
“What the conductor does is really an illusion because we don’t really do anything,” Harth-Bedoya says. “The musicians are the ones playing the piece of music that somebody else wrote. So, we are just there — a little bit like a coach that puts all the dots together and connects all the musicians, the work of the composition, and the audiences.”
Harth-Bedoya says he’s grateful for his time with the FWSO and the relationships he has developed. He feels a sense of accomplishment yet embraces imperfection as a natural part of the human experience.
“I can’t conduct every piece of music; I am not capable of it,” Harth-Bedoya says. “I hope nobody is capable of playing every piece of music because that would make us machines.”
Harth-Bedoya Bids Farewell
Miguel Harth-Bedoya’s final shows as conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony. Ticket information is available at fwsymphony.org
The Music of Selena
Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m., Bass Performance Hall
Home for the Holidays
Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 1 at 2 p.m., Bass Performance Hall
New Year’s Eve: A Gershwin Celebration
Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m., Bass Performance Hall
Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert
Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Greig’s Piano Concerto
Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 12 at 2 p.m., Bass Performance Hall
Immortal Beloved at 250: A Very Special Gala with Midori and Beethoven 5
Feb. 8 at 7:00 p.m., Bass Performance Hall
Beethoven’s 9th
Apr. 3 at 7:30 p.m., Apr. 4 at 7:30 p.m., Apr. 5 at 2 p.m., Bass Performance Hall
J.S. Bach’s St. John’s Passion
Apr. 11 at 5 p.m., Arborlawn United Methodist Church
Harth-Bedoya and Hadelich: A Grand Finale
May 15 at 7:30 p.m., May 16 at 7:30 p.m., May 17 at 2 p.m., Bass Performance Hall
