Phoenix Symphony’s new music director says he's 'nobody without an orchestra'

The Phoenix Symphony has a new music director.

Paolo Bortolameolli will become the symphony’s 12th music director. He takes over for Tito Muñoz, who left in 2024 after a decade leading the orchestra.

Bortolameolli has worked with the Phoenix Symphony before, as well as those in his native Chile and elsewhere. The Show talked with him about appeals to him about the job.

Full conversation

PAOLO BORTOLAMEOLLI: That's a good question. But, you know, my honest answer is that I clicked with this orchestra from the very beginning. I felt at home two years ago when I came for the very first time and we did our first program together. Something happened in the very first rehearsal that felt correct and felt good.

So when I came for the second time to open the season, obviously I knew that I was part of a search, obviously, but I never felt the pressure, but actually just the enjoyment of reconnect with this group of remarkable musicians and such warmth as a group.

MARK BRODIE: How would you describe your artistic vision?

PAOLO BORTOLAMEOLLI: I am very, how to say, interested in connecting with the audiences in engaging level. What does it mean? I am really enthusiastic about music. I'm really passionate about it. So I always want to connect through my own enthusiasm. You know what I mean? I think you can bring that enthusiasm of, the joy of the music making.

So one of my first goals always is try to get to the audience in that energetic level. Also try to make them feel that we are part of the same experience. You know, this is a collective experience, being in a concert hall. It always drives me to the image that we are kind of like a big tribe, that we are sitting around a fire. You know, that music, art, performing art, it's like this fire that we are contemplating.

And I never like the idea that the people that are on stage, it's separated by the people, that it's in the audience. You know, we're just part of this making something together in the here in the now. And the other thing that I really enjoy in my looking for a purpose of what we do, it's that I think we can impact lives from very little and how we can cultivate new audiences by a very honest connection with their souls, with their minds, with your imagination.

MARK BRODIE: Well, so how do you try to, as a conductor, as a music director, try to get your level of enthusiasm to the audience? I mean, you mentioned you see the concert halls, everybody, a big tribe sitting around a fire. I would imagine one of your jobs is to make it so the tribe is bigger and there are more people sitting around that fire in the concert hall, right.

PAOLO BORTOLAMEOLLI: Yeah, we hope. We hope with every concert. I don't know. I don't try hard. I think it comes with me, you know, I really enjoy what I do. So I think that enthusiasm kind of like projects itself. But at the same time, I always feel so lucky because I am the first one that I acknowledge that I am not nobody without an orchestra.

And just like this, this disturbing guy with a stick, you know, I mean, who is this guy? I'm not producing any sound, so I owe everything to, to the musicians that are willing to play, you know, and I am trying to dance with them. That's the concept, you know, this is a dancing.

This is a dancing between the musicians, you and well, of course a composer through the, that it's printed in a score.

MARK BRODIE: I'm curious about your programming philosophy in terms of, you know, playing the hits, playing the classics, getting, you know, contemporary composers on the program. How do you see that? How do you try to put your your season together?

PAOLO BORTOLAMEOLLI: Well, putting a season together is one of the most challenging aspects of an orchestra organization because there's so many factors. Now I feel so privileged to be part of such a great team.

Obviously, now that I officially the next music director, we are starting soon to work in the next season. And then it's when you try to again, to try to connect your thoughts about what you might think about what could be an arc, a narrative arc for a season.

But at the same time, other aspects of it, like what the audience wants, even obviously economic aspects. We have to consider how much it cost one particular symphony or when do we want to have soloists, when do we want to participate with a choir? How can we also address the imagination of the musicians?

Because musicians also has desires of a particular repertoire and you know, and try to put it all together. It's very challenging. I am a big fan of the choral repertoire, but also big fan of music that it's less known, you know, like for instance, Latin American composers or new music. But at the same time, I understand that we have to read the taste of your community.

So I think the answer is you will learn by trying, you know, like trying to mix in things, trying to always keep the attention of the audience by at least one of the pieces that it's recognizable. But at the same time trying to bring something that it might, you know, entice them or even if it's, they don't know it at the end, they will love it even more, you know, because it was unexpected gift.

And of course also for me, it's very important to always keep in mind that music in general, it's an exercise that depends on the performance. I mean, the music has to be played to exist. So from that point of view, it's equally important to have, like a Beethoven 5 alive, but also, you know, premiering a piece from a composer that just wrote a symphony or a concerto.

MARK BRODIE: Well, so you alluded to, you know, understanding the tastes of the community and sort of engaging with the community. I'm curious, you know, you are not brand new to this community, but new to this community in the context in which you're now joining it. How do you go about trying to learn the taste and sort of get yourself out there and engage with the community and find out what it is that people really want to hear?

PAOLO BORTOLAMEOLLI: That's a good question. Well, first of all, obviously, I will do my homework and I will go through the last, you know, many seasons to see what it's been programmed first. Also, obviously, I can tell from my two concerts what I think the audience is reacting to when you put together from that.

How do you say, like, how you curate a program and you present it in a logical way and there is a narrative inside of it, people will follow you, will trust you, and will be engaged.

MARK BRODIE: So, I mean, does that sort of maybe set a template for you that, yes, obviously you have to play the Beethoven's Fifth, you have to play New World Symphony. You have to play the ones that everybody knows, but then you can maybe pair those with maybe older pieces that people don't know and contemporary pieces that people don't know?

PAOLO BORTOLAMEOLLI: Absolutely. And I can guarantee you that when you have this reaction with the audience, you create a trust bond, you know, between the orchestra and the audience. And that makes the whole kind of like experience, 360 degrees, alive, you know, because what is going on on stage, it's a message that will be, how to say, like, happily embraced by the audience.

MARK BRODIE: All right, well, Paolo, thank you so much. Congratulations on the new gig and really appreciate your time.

PAOLO BORTOLAMEOLLI: Thank you so much.

MARK BRODIE: Paolo Bortolameolli is the new music director of the Phoenix Symphony.