I'm sure we all have some regrets in our lives. Mine is that I never went to Cleveland to study tuba with this man, Ron Bishop. Not only is a great tuba player, but everything I've read has lead to me believe that he's a really wonderful person. I'll post a further interview with him, under his photo. It may be waaaaay more info. than most folks would care to know. However, there are some good insights into Szell, Maazel, Boulez, and others. I got this from tubanews.com. Seriously!
Ron Bishop, 70, took his final bow as principal tubist of the Cleveland Orchestra after a passionate performance of Mahler’s 3rd symphony at the Blossom Music Festival on August 20th, 2005. Finishing a distinguished 38 year career with the orchestra, Bishop was brought to the front of the stage by music director Franz Welser-Möst to receive a warmhearted standing ovation from his family, friends, students, and colleagues. “I was doing alright during the piece, but the bow really got to me.”
Bishop, however, is not quite retired. He has yet to perform on a European concert tour including Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (BBC Proms), where he will have his last performance with the Cleveland Orchestra.
Ron Bishop and I met on August 17th, 2005 at his quaint home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio where we sat on his patio to discuss his career and memories.
Ronald Bishop joined The Cleveland Orchestra as principal tubist in 1967, appointed by George Szell and retired from his position at the end of the 2004-05 season. He appeared as soloist with the Orchestra in the John Williams Tuba Concerto in August 1986 and October 1994, and performed the Ralph Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto with the Orchestra in January 1980. He has also been a featured performer with other members of the Orchestra's brass section, in Family "Key" Concerts, and on Children's "Musical Rainbow" programs.
Born in Rochester, New York, Ronald Bishop earned a bachelor of music degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and a master of science degree from the University of Illinois. He studied with Donald Knaub and Arnold Jacobs, and was a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic, American Wind Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra prior to joining The Cleveland Orchestra.
Ronald Bishop has been a soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Heights Civic Orchestra. He also has participated in numerous recitals and clinics throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. He has performed with the Contemporary Music Ensemble and supports and performs for Performers and Artists for Nuclear Disarmament.
Mr. Bishop is featured on many record labels, including Angel, Columbia, CRI, Erato, London, Telarc, and Teldec. Two of these albums have received Grammy awards, most recently in 1992 (P.D.Q. Bach's Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion).
Ronald Bishop has been published in the tri-lingual Brass Bulletin and Arnold Jacobs: Legacy of a Master and has served as associate editor of T.U.B.A. Journal. He is a member of the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and, in the summer of 1992, was a featured guest artist at the Keystone Brass Fest. In 1988, he received the Alumni Achievement Award from the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Bishop has been an artist/teacher with The Cleveland Orchestra's Learning Through Music program since its inception.
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MR: Was that your first orchestral audition?
RB: That was my first audition and orchestral job. I had already played concert after concert in the field band around the globe. We played in Japan, Korea, Europe, and almost every state in the Union. I was used to performing every night and being on the road. That was good training. I started with Buffalo Philharmonic under Joseph Kripps and played there for three years. He went to San Francisco, and I went with him. I played in the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Ballet, and the San Francisco Pops.
MR: How was it in San Francisco?
RB: Oh, it was lovely. I loved the city - sailing and golf year round. It was great, but the orchestra wasn’t sensational. When Chester Roberts, who was the tubist with the Cleveland Orchestra resigned, Ed Anderson, a bass trombonist that I had know from Eastman and played with for three years in Buffalo, wanted to try to get me to come. Evidently, George Szell had called Arnold Jacobs and asked him for recommendations. Mr. Jacobs recommended me along with some other prominent players who had studied with him. Ed talked me into playing the audition. I did the “Red-Eye Special.” After finishing an Opera in San Francisco, my wife drove me to the airport with my two tubas, a big tuba and a little tuba, unbeknownst to some people, they were both in CC, but one was very small.
soloing with the Cleveland Orchestra with the Vaughan
Williams Tuba Concerto in 1980 MR: Could you tell me a bit about your audition for the Cleveland Orchestra?
RB: Well, Mr. Szell really knew what I could do at the end of that audition. I had filled out a little 3x5 card, and my audition started with him saying “It says here that you began playing tuba when you were seven, why?” I said, “I guess I didn’t know any better.” That is probably what go me the job. It elicited a deep and sinister Szell laugh. “Do you want me to play a solo?” “No.” I guess he had heard enough of the Vaughan Williams. “Play me a three octave major scale in a flat key and play me a three octave melodic minor scale in a sharp key.” Eyeyeye! I am trying to think, “Ok, where do you want to start? How low do I want to start? How high do I want to go?” I picked Eb major. He said, “as you have played Eb major, why don’t you play E melodic minor? Eyeyeye! I think I made one little mistake coming back down. Then he let me play the excerpts. It was a good list that was published many years ago in the T.U.B.A. journal or the Brass Bulletin.
The first thing I played was Ein Faust Overture by Wagner. Then you name the usual suspects. After playing alone on stage, he sent Mr. Anderson, the bass trombonist, up to play with me. We played the B Major section of the Promenade to check octaves and how the sounds match. We played the little thing from the last movement of Prokofiev’s 5th symphony to check my low register. Then the whole section came up. We played the last section in Brahms’s 2nd symphony and the ending of Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony. I could not believe how softly they could play. It was just amazing. It is fairly easy to play soft on tuba in that register, but even the first trombone played really soft. That was how it happened, and I won the audition. 38 years later...
MR: Do you remember your first rehearsal?
RB: I can’t remember what we played, but I remember that it was very unsettling. The horn section played way ahead of the beat, and the trombones were definitely on the top of the beat. When you listen to those recordings with Szell, it was together. It was very unsettling sitting in it until I got used to firing a little bit early. You know that we are always being accused of being behind. There is distance, but sound travels very fast -700 miles per hour. The lower instruments will sound late to the conductor, so we certainly didn’t sound late. That is why it sounded so together out front.
MR: What was George Szell like with the orchestra?
RB: Extremely strict, unbelievably demanding, but he hired me. I was one of his boys if you will. I was in a good place. If you weren’t doing your part, you’d better be prepared to take some heat. It’s like they say “if you don’t like the heat, don’t work in the kitchen.” There was a lot of heat, but he demanded no less of himself. I think that it is one of the conductor responsibilities to get the orchestra to play at its maximum. My standards have to be high, and his are probably higher than mine to push me to my ultimate. That is how we got good results.
MR: How has the orchestra changed over the years with different conductors?
RB: Someone pointed out to me that I am the last of the Szell hires in the brass section. There are still some other “Szell-ites” but not many. I think there are only one or two of them left, but there are people who were hired by Szell before 1967. An orchestra is a living organism. In the 38 years I’ve been here, there have been big changes, and it is still a great orchestra which is amazing. It is nowhere near the same orchestra as far as personnel. 38 years is a generation, so there are bound to be changes. Conductors, of course, even a guest conductor, can sometimes make a difference in the way an orchestra sounds in one week...if he is really good. I have worked with Szell, Boulez, Maazel, Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst. Those are my five music directors. Boulez was an interim, but he is a regular guest. He is one of “the real maestros” of the day right now.
MR: Who has been your favorite conductor to work with?
RB: I really enjoy working with Mr. Boulez. He started conducting orchestras just before I came to Cleveland. I had three years with Szell, and he had the audacity to die. Boulez came and was the interim. We made a recording of Stravinsky’s masterpiece, The Rite of Spring, with Mr. Boulez in 1968. That was sensational. Playing and recording that is still a very memorable experience. I have recorded that piece 4 times, twice with Boulez. They all have their differences and strengths.
Most of them would be fairly literal interpreters of the score. If you took Szell, Boulez, Dohnányi, and Welser-Möst, you get what you see in the score. If it says faster, it is going to be faster. Lorin Maazel was the exception. The score was just a starting point for him. It was very exciting especially after Szell where everything seemed so strained and controlled. With Maazel our dynamic range went much louder. We probably did not play as softly as we did for Szell. It was much more expansive and expressive. A lot of people liked it. His talents are almost unparalleled. His memory is flawless. His technique is incredible. He has a great ear, and he is 75 and still going strong in New York. He was wonderful. When he left the orchestra, it was a changed orchestra but still very good.
MR: So, you are recording with the Cleveland Orchestra under Boulez, one of the top conductors, and you are about to record a huge piece like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The pressure is high. How do you deal with anxiety or nerves especially when you are recording?
RB: The most stressful was recording direct-to-disc with Lorin Maazel. It was when digital was first coming on to the scene, and there was actually a traffic signal - a red, green, and a yellow light. When the red light was on, you had to be quiet. That was when you were going to record. The green light meant you could change instruments, let out the “condensation,” change the music on the stand, change instruments if you had to, or get a mute ready. This was all real time. It was a disc that you cut a little band on the outside and record. Then you cut another little band in the middle. Then you start. That was when we recorded Le Corsaire Overture. We finished one take, and they said, “Bravo, Bravo! We need another one!” over the loud speaker from the recording booth. You go through the same thing. “Bravo, Bravo! We need another one.” We did three different takes, because they could only press so many CDs off of a master. They had to have three originals and all three were different performances. As a tubist yourself, you know that it goes up to the high register of the tuba. That was very exciting.
How do you cope with it? Well, I have been doing it for a long time, and even at that point I had been playing the tuba for a long time. You just get used to it. There is no substitute for being really prepared. If you are really prepared and can trust yourself, there should not be unmanageable problems. As I say to my students, if meditation works, if running and getting yourself in good physical shape, prayer, do whatever allows you to do your best and trust what you have prepared to do. Just really know what you are doing.
MR: What are some of your favorite memories with the orchestra?
RB: Well, there have been a lot of them as you can imagine. I can take one piece from each of these five conductors. I have already talked about The Rite of Spring with Pierre. That was a highlight. With Szell, I had been in the orchestra 2 months, and we did Mahler’s 6th. That is a recording taken from a live broadcast. That was very exciting. Not necessarily terrifying but very exciting. With Maazel we did a concert version of Elektra which we took to Carnegie Hall. Those were very memorable concerts. Most anything of the Second Viennese School with Dohnányi was well prepared, good, and enjoyable. With Franz Welser-Möst something that stands out was a piece by Franz Schmidt. It is called The Book of the Seven Seals. That was very well done. Playing in all the great halls of the world. My favorites are, of course, the two places that I work. Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center have been an absolute delight. They are two places that are very different but wonderful places to play. I have always enjoyed Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall. It is great to play in the Musikverein in Vienna. It is great to play in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. That is one of the best. Disney Hall was very interesting. We played that on our last tour. Acoustically, I do not think that it is as good as Severance, but it is a spectacular building inside and out. Those are some positive memories (chuckle)...the best ones to remember.
MR: What is your most embarrassing on stage story?
RB: I would rather be remembered by my tuba playing rather than food poisoning on the stage at Usher Hall in Scotland in Edinburgh. A few years back we were doing the Berg Violin Concerto, and I had had a meal comprised of venison and haggis, a Scottish delicacy according to some Scots. It did not rest well with me. Partway through the Berg Violin Concerto it did not want to stay in my stomach anymore. There was a rather embarrassing sound and odors which should probably be left for the imagination (vomit). I finished the piece. We had intermission, and I had to come back and play Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 --which I did! That is a triumph of some kind. Unfortunately, Usher Hall is round which made it doubly embarrassing because there were people behind me as well as in front of me.
MR: You have probably lead one of the healthiest careers both physically and musically as a tubist, 70 years old and still going, and you played a pretty tough season this year. Do you attribute that to having other non-musical outlets? Being a diver?
RB: I did a lot of homework when I was young. I took good care of myself physically, and I was very fit for quite a long time. I wouldn’t call myself super fit now, but for a 70 and ½ year old, I am probably fit. I think playing the tuba helps. Carrying the thing helps, and I have always enjoyed my work. I think that I have a good attitude. I enjoy going to work. It will be very interesting to see what this retirement is going to be like, because I have never been there before. I am sure it will be a big adjustment. But it is time for somebody else to do it.
in Reinberger Hall using conch shell to demonstrate how
his instrument works at a "Musical Rainbow" concert
MR: What do you plan to do in your first few years of retirement?
RB: For the next few years I will probably continue teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Maybe when they hire my replacement he or she will be interested in teaching, and at that point I might be interested in having even more free time. But I am not going to stop playing. I am going to do a premiere in Cleveland on November 13th with an amateur orchestra - the Heights Chamber Symphony Orchestra. The piece was written by a bandmaster from Grafton Ohio, Clarence Barber. He wrote the piece for me and the least I can do is play it. Also, we have a tuba quartet called the Neo Tuba Quartet - Neo Standing for North East Ohio. We’ve played a few gigs already, and we are hoping to play some more.
MR: You have been teaching at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music for quite some time, and a lot of your students have pretty big careers now. We were talking earlier about Alan Baer, who was a student of yours. What was it like teaching students like him? Did you have an idea of who was going to “make it” or not?
RB: Yes, it was pretty obvious with Alan. It is a little hard to tell exactly who will “make it.” As a teacher you know who has the potential, but it is the player that has to go out and win the audition. As Mr. Anderson, former Bass Trombonist and still a great friend, said, “You have to have the fire in the belly.” Mr. Baer had that...has it. He played an awful lot of auditions before he finally got a major job. Some of my other students have been good tubists but they have gone to do other things while still playing the tuba. One is a graduate from Oberlin, who played a lot with me in the Boulez days just after Szell’s death. He is now head of the Brass Department and head of the Composition Department at San Diego State University, Brent Dutton. He is still very active with a brass quintet, the West Wind Brass. They have done some recordings, and he sounds great. Another student on the other coast in Florida studied with me at Baldwin Wallace. John Olah is the teacher at the University of Miami and has been for years and years. They are two players on both coasts who are still playing, but their main trust is teaching. There are others around that have done very well. The current Dean at the Oberlin Conservatory is a former student who is now basically my boss, just about half my age.
MR: What do you look for in a prospective student?
RB: Well, I think the main thing is that you’re hoping that they may be employable as a tuba player. That’s why they are studying with you. As a teacher, I hope they get something more than just which buttons to push down and how to play a particular excerpt. I want to teach my students how to become a tuba player that could maybe replace me in the Cleveland Orchestra. That is what I am trying to do for them.
MR: Are you glad you did it? Gone this far? Do you regret anything about it?
RB: I would say no regrets other than the repertoire of the instrument. It is a little limited. But, we can borrow other music, which I have done. The tuba is only limited by the player. Granted, I do think the cello is a great instrument. Maybe if I’d played the cello... I really don’t think I have any regrets about it. I have done the best I can with the tuba. I certainly enjoyed the livelihood that I have been able to have playing tuba.
Topic: Ron Bishop; retiring tuba player of the Cleveland Orchestra (Read 13788 times)