On Saturday, November 21, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra was conducted by the three DMA candidates of the Faculty of Music’s conducting area: Chad Heltzel, François Koh and Samuel Tam.
Samuel Tam
Samuel Tam has dreamt of conducting since he was 18. As a young bachelor’s student at McGill studying the organ, Tam found the long hours in the organ lofts quite lonely. To counteract the feeling, he started singing with the university’s undergraduate chorus.
At the time, the chorus was under the baton of the choral director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM), Iwan Edwards. The chorus received the opportunity to sing Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé with the OSM. Tam was under the direction of the world-class conductor Charles Dutoit for the first time, and he found he loved working with other people as opposed to a solo instrument.
“My dream is to continue to make music with my colleagues,” he says. “One of my life mantras is that when people come together to create music, everyone’s life is enriched, not just the listener.”
Tam was selected to be a conducting apprentice with the Canadian Opera Company in 2007 upon the completion of his master’s in conducting from McGill University. Tam has also been to São Paolo, Brazil to assist on a production of Der Rosenkavalier.
Tam was inspired by an array of conductors and repertoire in his early days as a student. Sergiu Celibidache’s approach of synthesizing philosophical dialogue with making music has inspired Tam to write his own dissertations on pieces prior to engaging with an ensemble. Other conductors who have heavily influenced Tam’s style include his first teacher Alexis Hauser, Carlos Kleiber and Charles Dutoit. Furthermore, in Tam’s early years at McGill, he recounts being dazzled by an OSM performance of a program exclusively comprising Stravinsky’s works.
All of Tam’s inspirations have led him to discover that regardless of the conductor, there must be an adherence to and respect for musical style and taste of any given piece. This is, Tam believes, to be the ultimate influence on man’s perception and enjoyment of music.
Now as an established conductor and DMA candidate, Tam assists with many projects at the University of Toronto.
“Assisting Uri Mayer with the UTSO as well as on opera productions at the Royal Conservatory of Music has proved to be a wonderful and enriching experience,” Tam says.
On Saturday, Tam will conduct George Gershwin’s American in Paris.
Jacob Feldman
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