WSO maestro Alexander Mickelthwate praises Winnipeg, sets sights on Oklahoma
'This is our home. We love it. It was literally the best 12 years of my life, of my family's life'
Alexander Mickelthwate might be leaving Winnipeg but he will forever love the city where he's spent "the best 12 years of my life," he says.
When he moved from California in 2006 to take the reins of Winnipeg's Symphony Orchestra, the German-born conductor was only expecting to stay four years — five at the most.
Instead, he'll complete a 12-year residency after the 2017-18 season, leaving a firm imprint in the soil and on the community.
"It's very bittersweet, of course. This is our home. We love it. It was literally the best 12 years of my life, of my family's life," Mickelthwate, who was once featured in a Tourism Winnipeg booster video, said Wednesday.
"It's Winnipeg. Everybody knows, you kind of fall in love with the city, and the people are all wonderful."
He and his wife, Abigail Camp, will take two Winnipeg-born, hockey-playing sons when they move to Oklahoma, where Mickelthwate, 46, has been hired as music director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, starting with the 2018-19 season.
It'll be his third stint in the United States, where he was assistant conductor in Atlanta before working with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
The worldly maestro has also spent time in Austria and France, where he took conducting courses.
So why Oklahoma? Well, you can partly blame Winnipeg for that, Mickelthwate said.
"It's still the prairies, right?"
Located on the Great Plains, it satisfies his yearning to stay connected to a landscape he fell in love with, he said.
He applied to several locations over the past two years and was interviewed for a number of them, but he and Camp liked Oklahoma best.
"It's really an upcoming place and very energetic," he said. "There's lots of possibilities, so I'm very excited."
Plus, "I like the musical," he joked.
While in Winnipeg, Mickelthwate led the development and growth of the WSO's renowned New Music Festival, was instrumental in the creation and growth of the Sistema Winnipeg music education program, and was at the helm of the WSO's 2014 performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
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Aimed at students in some of Winnipeg's lowest-income areas, Sistema brings musical training to children after school for three hours a day, five days a week, at no cost to their families. The kids play and learn about classical instruments in a youth orchestra setting.
"They're being fed, they do yoga, they do dance, they're singing. It's absolutely beautiful," Mickelthwate said.
"That we started this is amazing. That we have now 150 kids in two schools that form a full symphony orchestra is unheard of."
He tipped his hat to the WSO for being willing to do it, along with organizations like the Poverty Reduction Council, which helped make it possible.
Mickelthwate also injected Indigenous programming into the WSO and developed strong ties with Indigenous composers and musicians.
Since his arrival, single ticket sales for the WSO have risen 63 per cent and season subscriptions have gone up 42 per cent.
"When I came, I wanted to connect, connect, connect with everybody in the city — the Icelandic, the Filipino, all the communities and the arts organizations and business council — and that's what I did," Mickelthwate said.
"That is a big part of the whole story."
But it wasn't all his doing, Mickelthwate was quick to say. He gave big credit to the team around him and the musicians of the orchestra.
"It was just golden times."
His last year is also the orchestra's 70th anniversary season. Throughout the final season, the WSO will celebrate Mickelthwate's years with the symphony, highlighting many of his contributions to the orchestra and the community, said WSO board president Terry Sargeant.
Mickelthwate's departure was announced at a special meeting of board members, staff and musicians on Monday.
Plans to find a successor are now underway.