Ransom Wilson
Ransom Wilson is a flutist/conductor and professor who was originally from Alabama and now makes his home in the New York tri-state area. Early on in grade school, his teachers noticed he had a natural talent with various flute type instruments and this led to private lessons on the flute. With Tuscaloosa Alabama being a very big football town, the school music program was focused on the marching band. Wanting to pursue the flute further, Ransom auditioned for the North Carolina School of the Arts and was accepted. Having made this big move for a young person, he was now on track for excelling on the flute and receiving a fine, music based education. He would then attend Juilliard in New York City and graduated in 1973.
During his studies at Juilliard, Ransom attended a master class of Jean-Pierre Rampal and he persuaded Ransom to study with him in France. This relationship led to the recording of an Album together and now Ransom's career was under way. He would go on to tour the world as a flute soloist and make countless recordings with world class musicians and orchestras. Three of his albums were nominated for Grammy awards. After excelling as a soloist, Ransom wanted to work in chamber music situations and would eventually become a member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Always a lifetime learner and wanting to try something new, Ransom moved on to conducting. His plan was to learn from top notch teachers before moving to this new area of his career. He studied with Roger Nierenberg , James Dixon, Otto-Werner Mueller and eventually the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein. Ransom now leads various ensembles as well as the Redlands Symphony in California. He has been the Professor of Flute at the Yale School of Music for 26 years. I recently conversed with him about his productive career.
R.V.B. - Hello Mr. Wilson. Robert von Bernewitz from Long Island, New York. How are you?
R.W. - Hi... How are you?
R.V.B. - How was your travel day from California?
R.W. - It was good. Now it's back to teaching at Yale.
R.V.B. - Were you working with the Redlands Symphony?
R.W. - We did a Mendelssohn concert on Saturday night - on the campus of the University of Redlands - in a really nice hall from the turn of the century. We have about six concerts a year, so I'm out there once a month.
R.V.B. - Are they finished with the fires out there? Is everything calming down?
R.W. - Yeah... I think even the mudslides have finished. It's pretty tragic and it gets worse every year.
R.V.B. - It was a terrible season this year. It was heartbreaking to see it on television. Thank you very much for taking this time for me... I appreciate it. I came across an album of yours. I went through a record bin at a local store and there you were. It's the Steve Reich Vermont Counterpoint record. I read the liner notes on the back about you encountering the minimalists. What drew you to perform this music?
R.W. - The first thing I heard of that nature was Einstein on the Beach (Philip Glass). I was at the US premier. I was there by accident, as I went there as someone's guest... who had an extra ticket. That person was Samuel Barber. It's hard for people to imagine Samuel Barber listening to Einstein on the Beach but he did. He left very early but I decided to stay the whole time.
R.V.B. - That must have been a magical night.
R.W. - It was amazing. I've never seen or experienced anything like it. Because it was at the Met, the acoustics were really good... so it was overwhelming. I saw the revival of it at BAM and it didn't have the same overwhelming effect. The acoustics were not that good.
R.V.B. - This is an Angel production, and I understand that you did quite a few records with them.
R.W. - I think I did around ten records for them. Angel doesn't exist as a second company anymore. It was always part of EMI. They were at the Capitol Tower, so I used to record out there. It was fun. There were all different people then and it's a whole different world now.
R.V.B. - Everything is on the internet now and once you produce something, it's all over the place in a month. The flute... why the flute and not the guitar, or the trombone, or the French horn? What sparked you to that instrument?
R.W. - In the third grade I started out playing a little plastic instrument called the Tonette. It was like a Flute-o-Phone, but a different brand. I was really good at it so I was already used to the idea of a wind instrument. Then when I heard the flute, it just turned me on so much. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. So shortly after that, my parents got me a starter instrument.
R.V.B. - Were your parents musically inclined?
R.W. - No... not in the least.
R.V.B. - So you were just drawn to music via the instrument.
R.W. - Yep... don't even know why!
R.V.B. - Sometimes it's just fate. It's just part of you. Some people are musically inclined and some aren't. You took your inclination to a high level. Did you receive lessons with your starter instrument?
R.W. - Yes. A couple of months later, my parents gave me six private lessons for Christmas. As it turned out, we had a wonderful teacher in town (Alabama) who was visiting from the midwest. Her name was Sandra Taylor and she was only there for one semester - my mother knew her - and we ended up being friends later in life. Unfortunately she just passed away... suddenly. She was a really wonderful teacher and I was very lucky.
R.V.B. - Did you also receive musical training in grade school?
R.W. - A little bit. Alabama is all about football, so musically, everything is about band. We had a wind band and there was very little emphasis on orchestra. When I was 14, I was in the band in junior high school. The only thing I thought that could happen to me was to become a band director. That was as far as I could see my musical career going. Luckily, my mom saw an article about the North Carolina school of the Arts in our local paper. At the time it was a brand new concept... they were looking for students to audition. They basically canvassed the entire country with newspaper articles. So my dad drove me up there... it was a long drive. I auditioned and got in. I never went back to Alabama for any length of time since that point. I've lived much longer in the New York area.
R.V.B. - Fate happened again. Your mother spotted the ad and fate led you to the north.
R.W. - Absolutely. Then I heard Rampal play when I was in North Carolina and that blew me away. I knew I had to get to know him. After that I went to Juilliard. Rampal came and gave a flute class there. I played for him and he said "You must come and study with me in Nice, in the summer."... which I did. After going to Nice for two summers, he said "Why don't you get a Fulbright scholarship and come and stay with me for a year?" So I did. He said it was the best thing for me to do. There was so much competition for the Fulbright. The money came from a different source but for all intents and purposes, it was a Fulbright. It changed my life forever. Although he was hardly ever in Paris... he was always on the road. This was 1973 and he was at the very height of his career. At the end of that time - he probably felt guilty - he said "Why don't we make a recording together with I Solisti Veneti. At the time I was young and foolish. I thought "Of course he's being generous to me because I'm wonderful." Now in retrospect, I realize what an incredibly generous person he was. He didn't have to do that. People in our business don't typically do that. They'll be afraid that work will be taken away from them. The fact that he did, endeared me to him to this day. I miss him every day.
R.V.B. - In your time in France - obviously France has a lot of art to offer - whether it's painting, music, sculpting, food. It's a fabulous environment for the arts. Did you get to enjoy these things with your time in France?
R.W. - Yes... as much as I could afford to. Even then, it was a very expensive city. I didn't have a lot of money while I was there as I was on a scholarship. Even in 1973, Paris was very expensive. I couldn't partake in the city the way I would have liked to. I did go to a few museums and performances. The impressionist artists made a strong impression on me - if you will excuse the pun. At the time, they were not in the same museum that they are in now. They were in a much smaller place where you could get much closer to them. It was in a place called It was the Galérienationale du Jeu de Paume... (« the movement of the palm »). A long time ago it was part of the Royal Palace. In 1973 it wasn't so crowded, so you could get really close to these Monet masterpieces. It was amazing.
R.V.B. - That sounds amazing. You have this foundation behind you... you have your Juilliard education and now it's time to go out into the world and make a living. Did you have any kind of plan at first?
R.W. - I knew that I wanted to be a soloist from day one. I would turn down orchestral jobs. I didn't want to be that kind of a player. In retrospect, I'm not sure if it was the right thing to do. I was determined that I wanted to be a solo flutist, just like my idol Jean-Pierre Rampal was. I managed to do it. I didn't have to do any other kind of playing for a long, long time. Right away, I got management from Columbia Artists. They were sending me out on tours around the country all year long... so I got a great amount of experience. But after a while, I began to feel that the life of a soloist was very lonely. Even if I was playing with a big orchestra, I was pretty much by myself all the time... except when I was with the orchestra or had friends in town. I began to feel it would be more fun to do chamber music. I would be interacting with other colleagues. It took me a long time to break into that side of the business. Everybody thought of me as a soloist. I got exactly what I wished for! Eventually David Shifrin - the clarinetist - gave me an opportunity to play in his festival out in Portland Oregon. That was 40 years ago. That's where my chamber music career began. From there, my reputation grew where I got to be the flute player for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. I did that for 20 years. Things are different there now, they don't have artist members any more. We all just play there occasionally. That's another important facet of my career... the chamber music aspect.
R.V.B. - I can see how you can get to bond with your peers in a smaller operation of chamber music.
R.W. - I learned a great deal from the string players that I worked with. They approach their instruments differently and their amount of repertoire is so vast. I considered my time with chamber music string players to be educational. It has broadened and deepened me as a musician, and has made me appreciate the stringed instruments more. Their favorite repertoire ranges from Beethoven to Richard Strauss. In between is all this amazing stuff. But none of the composers basically wrote for the flute. That's what really started my interests in orchestral sounds and repertoire. I've heard a lot of colleagues say "I'm going to be a conductor" and just start waving their arms. Because they were famous, they would be working with wonderful musicians - or orchestras - who really didn't need them there. They had the impression that they were doing a great job, when in fact the orchestra was ignoring them. I knew that I didn't want to be that person, so I went for lessons right away... before I had my first rehearsal. I had six months of lessons.
R.V.B. - Who did you have those lessons with?
R.W. - His name is Roger Nierenberg. He used to be the conductor of the Stamford Symphony as well as the Jacksonville Symphony. At the time he was the conductor of the Juilliard pre-college orchestra. He turned out to be a fantastic teacher - especially for me - who already knew a lot about music. There was a lot that he didn't have to teach me. He was very, very good and we're still close friends. If I'm having a problem with a score, I will call him and ask his advice. He's been a close friend for a long time. From there, my next teacher was a brilliant guy from the mid-west named James Dixon. I had a few lessons with him.
Then I had some lessons from a very famous guy Otto-Werner Mueller. At the time he was the conductor at Yale. I knew he was a genius... I had met him at a conducting seminar. I made a pilgrimage to New Haven several times, to have lessons with him. The lessons would be hours long. I paid by the hour and I never knew how long it would be. I would come with a big wad of cash. He taught me what my brain was capable of. On the very first lesson he said "Next week, let's do Brahms Haydn's variations... the chorale. I want you to memorize it so that you can write it out for me." That's the kind of thing that Toscanini used to do. I thought "I'm ever going to be able to do that!" But at the end of a week, I actually could do it. He made me understand that if you put your mind to something, and you're serious about it, you can accomplish anything. The reason he wanted me to do it was first of all... all the transposing instruments - and also the natural horns, and trumpets - can only play certain pitches. So in memorizing what notes they actually had in each chord, I would never forget them... what notes natural horns and trumpets can, and cannot play. There was a method to his madness.
R.V.B. - You were taking the initiative to learn something that you want to do, to make it happen.
R.W. - I wanted to study with the best people. I wanted to be taken seriously and I wanted to have a good conducting technique. I thought "Who's the toughest teacher of all?" I went to him... and it wasn't easy. As a result of studying with him, I have a clear conducting technique. If the rehearsal time is short and you are not clear, you have a disaster on your hands. Now I can lead a concert with a short amount of rehearsal time. I'm very grateful to Otto for that. A few years after that, I got a call to tour with Leonard Bernstein, as his soloist. He has this flute piece called "Halil." Halil refers to a flute like instrument in the old testament. He was going on tour with the Israel Philharmonic. When they asked me, I was like "Oh course I will!!" We went around the world. We did two tours in the mid 80's. They started in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I remember being in Germany and Japan for three weeks. On another tour we went to Madrid Spain.. from there we went to Mexico... from there to the States. The whole time I was there, he knew I wanted to conduct. So I got lessons from him whenever I could, on that tour. Even the people who studied with him at Tanglewood didn't get more time with him than I did - as far as I can tell - because he was always so busy. He was very generous with his time. He gave me a three hour lesson on a trans-Atlantic flight once.
R.V.B. - What an amazing opportunity.
R.W. - I learned from him to look more deeply into the music than what I was seeing on the page... and to ask good questions about it. On one of the tours they were doing Brahms 1st at the end of the concert. I was always in the first part of the concert, so I was always done for the evening early. I got his permission to sit in the orchestra and watch him... during the Brahms portion every night. It was an incredible education, just watching him. I don't think anybody even noticed that I was there. I was sitting back by the trombones. They don't play for the first three movements for that piece anyway. We were just four guys sitting in a row.
R.V.B. - On that tour, were there any venues that you played that really stood out in your mind that had great acoustics... or had an aura of "what the walls can say" with people who have performed there prior to you?
R.W. The Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv was special because of the location... being in the heart of Israel. Lenny had worked with them so much. There was an incredible vibe around the whole building. We played in the Gasteig hall in Munich, which is incredible. It's an incredibly beautiful place with awesome acoustics. Germany is the most musical country in the world. Some can argue that Austria is but Austria is about its musical past - which is impressive - but Germany is about the musical past and the future. It's always fun to be there for that reason. We played a very unusual hall in Mexico City. It was in a shopping center outside of town. It was purple and pink. When I looked in the audience, the majority of people were blonde and blue eyed. I thought "These are Mexicans?" We turned out to be in the Jewish neighborhood. 99% of the audience was Jewish Mexicans. I knew that Jews were everywhere in the world, but to see a large group in Mexico kinda blew my mind, at the time. Of course, they were there for their hero. He was a huge Jewish icon. I learned so much and had the best time of my life, traveling with that orchestra. It was like traveling with a comedy troupe. Every single person was a standup comedian. It was so much fun and I miss them so much.
R.V.B. - Now that you have this conducting experience, I see that you formed a few of your own ensembles and orchestras.
R.W. - The first one I formed was in 1981. I wanted to conduct, and it's very hard for young conductors to find orchestras to work with. Already having another career as a soloist, made it even harder. I got some friends of mine together and we formed a chamber orchestra. It lasted for a good 25 years. It was called "Solisti New York." We founded a Mozart festival in the unlikely place of Bartlesville Oklahoma, in 1983. It was an amazing town in northeastern Oklahoma, that happened to have a lot of Frank Lloyd architecture. At the time, it was also the headquarters of Phillips 66... so there was a lot of money around and a lot of education around. We went there to do Mozart for 22 years. It was wildly successful and one of the most successful summer events in the state.
R.V.B. - I gather you visited other areas with that ensemble as well?
R/W. - We played in New York a lot and did several recordings. I eventually moved on to other things. Around five years ago I got this idea that I wanted to do be more involved with composers. That had always been a great deal of pleasure for me... knowing Steve Reich, Phil Glass and others. I formed this ensemble "Le Train Bleu." We had a splashy debut at The Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. We did Stravinsky's Soldiers Tale with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and it caught the eye of the press. We're into our fifth season now. Last year we were on a little hiatus. When I got this job in California, I didn't realize how involved I was going to be administratively. I realized that I can't easily take care of my orchestra in California and a small New Music group in New York. We're revamping it so the group in New York is still around. I can no long be the administrator.
R.V.B. - Is that ensemble named after a restaurant in Paris?
R.W. - Not exactly. There was one in Bloomingdale’s in New York also but that just closed. The restaurant is named after a train. It was an overnight train from Paris to the Riviera. At the time - in the 20's and 30's, - it was the most luxurious... fastest... most sophisticated way to travel. I thought that was a great name for a group. It's about the train, not the restaurant.
R.V.B. - You mentioned that you know Steve Reich and Philip Glass?
R.W. - I don't know Phil that well but we know each other and say hi. I've worked on some of his pieces before. Steve, I know very well because he wrote Vermont Counterpoint for me.
R.V.B. - With all of this work that you're doing out in the field, you also are an educator. How do you balance your time with all these things going on?
R.W. - It came about because I wanted to really get serious about conducting. It was hard to do that if I was going to be on the road all of the time, playing recitals. When a job was announced at Yale, I worked very hard to get that job. There were 200 applicants. I did everything I could to think of to get that job and thank God I did. It works out because I'm only teaching six private students. They're all superstars. One of my students just won the Montreal Symphony "Young Artist" grand prize. This gives him the opportunity to play concerts everywhere as well as a receiving a big cash award. It's the most important competition in Canada. That's the level of student I am teaching. This guy's going to be a star. I can be away for a week and they're not going to fall apart. If they were younger, it would be more of an issue. The fact that the faculty is active in the field is a good thing for the students. The hardest thing is when I have a recital and an orchestra concert in the same week. Then it's very hard to find the time to do both. I have to balance practicing, studying scores or whatever administrative work I need to be doing. I really have to manage my time.
R.V.B. - There's a difference between performing live to when the red recording light comes on in the studio. Do you find any additional pressure during a recording session?
R.W. - The only nice part about making a recording is when after its all finished and edited, and you're sitting in your living room, having a glass of wine and listening to it. That's the only fun part. The rest of it is grueling hell. The minute the red light comes on, nobody - I don't care who they are - plays the same as if the red light was off. It's just this terrible psychological burden. The main issue is "How am I going to play as if there was an audience here... and ignore this microphone?" It's a very, very hard to do. I think that's why most recordings are edited because it's hard to stay in the zone when you've got the microphone in your face. Some people tend to do it better than I do. I still love to do it. I'm going back to the studio because I have a deal with Nimbus Records now... in the UK. I don't know why I do it... I'm crazy! (Haha)
R.V.B. - It's always nice to have that product. You can play an absolutely beautiful live performance but it just goes out into the air - people enjoy it - and the next day it's just a memory. At least with a studio recording, it's forever. It's a lot of work but it pays off.
R.W. - It pays off if it's a good recording. (Haha) For example, at the Chamber Music Society, we recorded the Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp . When we heard the final edited product, we all rejected it. None of us wanted this on the market. To our astonishment, Delos Records paid for a new set of sessions. They really wanted this recording because they had a deal with the Chamber Music Society. The second time we did it, it went on to get a Grammy nomination.
R.V.B. - Perseverance pays off.
R.W. - I work very hard to make my recordings sound good... not for anybody else but for myself.
R.V.B. - What are some of the old masters that you like the best?
R.W. - I'm very fond of Beethoven. There are still some pieces I haven't heard.... some piano sonatas and even some string quartets. Every time I hear a new or an old one, I'm just blown away by the genius of it. Every time I have the privilege of doing one of the symphonies, I learn so much about music. I look forward to the next time I do that same piece. Mozart is obviously a very important part of my life. For 23 years I did the Mozart Festival, every summer. I feel very close to the joy of his music... the comedy in his music... and the drama in his music. Moving on, I have learned to like Brahms. I didn't at first. Now he's one of my favorite composers. At first, I didn't understand what he was after. Now I do. I have had the privilege of doing some of his symphonies and concertos. If I had to have one favorite in the 20th century, it's Maurice Ravel. I have conducted most of his music. There are only two big pieces that I haven't done yet. The moment I heard his music for the very first time, I fell in love with it. I've never stopped loving it.
R.V.B. - How do you feel about 12 tone music?
R.W. - It's my least favorite. I remember when I studied it in theory class at Juilliard, I thought it sounded absurd... that you would apply numbers to a piece of music. It's a very unpopular point of view, particularly around New York. There were some very gifted musicians that were beguiled by this number system, that I never understood the need for. I'm happy that very few people are doing it anymore. I'm much more impressed by Stravinsky at the same time - who despite the fact that he was writing a-tonal music, except for a few pieces where he was trying his hand at 12 tone music - He manages to make the most original music in the world without applying any system at all. I'm much more impressed by that.
R.V.B. - I agree with you there. Schoenberg invented it, and I guess in the time period it had to happen. Tonal music was running its course at the time but it all came back full circle. Tonal music is back to being popular.
R.W. - If you think about Schoenberg... if you listen to his tonal pieces, he was obviously a great composer and a great musician... with a great ear. If he hadn't come up with this system, somebody else would have. Somebody needed to do it. I'm very fond of his first chamber symphony, for example. It's a pre-12 tone piece. For me, that kind of advanced tonality and poly-tonality... that's enough for me. Interestingly enough, I love Varese... which is extremely dissonant most of the time. I don't know why but I can't enjoy the 2nd Viennese school as much! I admire it but I don't like it very much.
R.V.B. - What kind of satisfaction do you get now that you're a little older, that you're able to take all this knowledge that you have acquired and transfer it over to your students?
R.W. - I'm very lucky in my teaching because I only teach a very narrow age group. Most of them are over 21 and they're all grad students. They're pretty much at the end of their schooling. Occasionally someone goes on for a PhD or a DMA. They're having to decide what kind of musician they're going to be... what kind of life they want to have. Are they going to be a soloist... are they going to be an orchestral player... are they going to teach? I love helping them make those decisions. They ultimately have to make the decisions themselves but I love working it out with them... showing them what the options might be. I'm proud to say that I'm in my 26th year at Yale, and all of my former students are working in music. That's saying a lot. Some of them have other jobs as well but everybody is still playing. I feel like I did a good job.
R.V.B. - In the total big picture of your career, what accomplishment of yours are you happy about?
R.W. - My teaching is a big part of that. The ability to pass along knowledge. For example, I learned things from Rampal and his colleagues that are dying out... even in France now. I feel like I'm the keeper of the chalice. Passing that knowledge down to people in America, for me, is a big responsibility. I don't want that knowledge to disappear. Even when I'm conducting, I'm still kind of teaching. I don't mean that in any condescending way because I conduct orchestras with wonderful musicians. It's just that when you have a group of people and you are trying to have everybody row the boat in the same direction, there are things they need to understand about that, in relation to each other. I still feel like I'm teaching. I'm proud of having served music all these years... serving the needs of composers all these years. My students can tell you - if they come in and start playing something in a way that's not how the composer wrote it - I will correct them right away. Your job one, is to serve the composer, even if he's been dead 200 years. I have also shown people that it is possible to be some kind of a Renaissance man. I was interested in chamber music, so I decided to develop that part of my career. You're only limited by what your mind tells you.
R.V.B. - What are your current projects? What's coming down the pike?
R.W. - I just recorded an album of French flute concertos with one of the BBC orchestras. First I've got to edit that and that's a huge project. That's coming right up. I have a couple of more recordings coming up with them. I'm trying to take the Redlands Symphony, which was conducted for the past 33 years by Jon Robertson... who was a wonderful musician and a wonderful person. He is now the dean of the Lynn Conservatory in Florida... and take what he gave me and build on it. We're changing the programming and doing more community outreach. That's an ongoing project that will probably take five or ten years to realize. That's about it. I'm trying to live a good life.
R.V.B. - Do you have any other hobbies? Do you like to take walks?
R.W. - Yes. I have three dogs so I take a lot of walks in the woods. I love to cook. I'm a really good cook and I'm always trying to be a better cook. I love plants. That came from my grandmother. She taught me to love plants.
R.V.B. - Do you have a garden?
R.W. - I do but it's always in bad shape. My garden on the inside is fantastic. I've got three 20ft palm trees inside. It looks like a jungle in my house.
R.V.B. - That sounds like a nice atmosphere. I really appreciate you taking this time. I enjoyed the conversation.
R.W. - My pleasure... take care.
Interview conducted by Robert von Bernewitz
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For more information on Ransom Wilson visit his website www.ransomwilson.com
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