Under his baton and his wing

By Kyle MacMillan, Denver Post Fine Arts Critic

The National Repertory Orchestra celebrates conductor Carl Topilow's 30th anniversary as music director with a special concert tonight in Breckenridge's Riverwalk Center. (the Post )

To grasp the scope of Carl Topilow's success as a conductor and music educator, just take look at America's symphony orchestras.

Many, and probably most, have at least one alumnus in their ranks from the National Repertory Orchestra, a Breckenridge-based summer training ensemble the Ohio maestro has headed for three decades.

Among the 2,700 or so musicians who have enjoyed the fruits of Topilow's mentoring is Catherine Shipley, a Spokane Symphony violinist who also serves as the orchestra's music librarian.

"He has a gift for working with young people," said Shipley, who played in the NRO in 1999-2001. "He's adept at really getting across the concepts that you need as a developing orchestral player."

The NRO celebrates Topilow's 30th anniversary with a special concert tonight in Breckenridge's Riverwalk Center. The event will look back over his tenure and feature orchestra alumni and other guests, including conductor Joann Falletta.

Topilow, 60, grew up in Bayonne, N.J., and took up the clarinet. But he found his musical interests growing in scope, and he turned to conducting.

"As I was studying the clarinet, I was always interested in scores and in music and the big picture," Topilow said. "I would play along with all the LPs that I had of all these scores, and I learned these pieces from my teenage years."

In 1972, after studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, he became at age 25 the assistant conductor of the Colorado Philharmonic, the name of the NRO when it was based in Evergreen. He remained there until 1976, when he was named Exxon Arts Endowment Conductor of the Denver Symphony, the predecessor to the Colorado Symphony.

Like most aspiring maestros, he envisioned working his way up from that post to music director of a major orchestra, but his career took a different path.

"Somehow, it never works out how you think it is going to work out," he said.

Although Topilow has led some 80 academic and professional orchestras around the world, he is hardly a major figure in the conducting world. Rather than making a name for himself, he has directed his energy toward building other musicians' careers, becoming director of the orchestral program at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1981.

"I started working with college-age musicians and I really enjoy it a lot, and I think I can impart something very special to them in a special way, which you just can't do with a professional orchestra," he said.

Topilow devised a way, for example, to break down the complicated phrases in "The Rite of Spring" and make them easier to play. He recalls a former NRO member telling him that such aids worked wonders when she eventually played the work as a substitute in the Chicago Symphony.

"Stuff like that really gets your juices going," Topilow said. "What I'm able to do for people is really so much more important than any particular self glory."

Each year, 750-800 of the top music students across the country audition for the 89 slots in the National Repertory Orchestra. They range in age from 18 through 28, with the average falling around 23 or 24.

"I remember my first summer there," Shipley said. "I was blown away by how incredible my colleagues in the orchestra were. I'm a fine violin player but I certainly wasn't anywhere near the superstars that were in most of the sections, so it was really inspiring for me."

While half dozen or more other music festivals have significant training orchestras as well, what sets the NRO apart is the extensive amount of repertoire it performs each summer.

Besides standard classical program, the orchestra tackles family, educational and pops concerts. The conductor co-founded the Cleveland Pops Orchestra in 1995.

Topilow said the intensive atmosphere is intended to prepare the young musicians for what they will encounter in professional orchestras, which often perform multiple programs in one week.

"The sheer amount of repertoire that we did with Maestro Topilow was incredible," said Caroline M. Johnston, a graduate of the Juilliard School who served as the NRO's principal violist in 2003. "I've done other summer music festivals, but we just did not do anywhere near as much orchestral repertoire as we did with NRO.

"You're playing improves so much, because you're playing all the time."

While his basic approach has remained the same, what has changed during Topilow's tenure is increased coaching for each orchestra section and the addition of workshops on everything from music therapy to job hunting.

Orchestra alumni describe Topilow as an affable person with a good sense of humor. In fact, he seemed so nice at first that Johnston was concerned that he might not take a serious enough approach to conducting.

But the violist quickly learned he could be tough and utterly focused when necessary.

"He demands a lot at a high level," she said.

Topilow, who says he remains as enthusiastic as ever, just signed a five-year contract extension. He hopes to be around for his 50th anniversary with the orchestra.

"I feel a very close affinity to this," he said. "Wherever I guest conduct or wherever I go to a concert, there are always musicians I know who have played in this program."