Like any baseball team, every orchestra has the equivalent of a pinch hitter.
For the Sacramento Philharmonic, that role belongs to assistant conductor Ming Luke.
The 30-year-old New Jersey native is the orchestral understudy for conductor Michael Morgan. Luke has been assistant conductor with the orchestra since 2003. In that role he must be ready to take over for Morgan should Morgan be unable to take the stage.
In the orchestral world it's called "covering," and it's almost always done at a moment's notice.
But it's not just about pinch- hitting. Conductors often give assistant conductors podium time each concert season.
Luke will share conducting duties with Morgan and Sacramento Opera conductor Timm Rolek in next Sunday's "Arias, Overtures and Arabesques."
The concert, performed at the Community Center Theater, will be a collaborative effort with the Philharmonic, the Sacramento Opera and Sacramento Ballet. The evening will feature music by Verdi, Puccini, Tchaikovsky and local composer William MacSems, with performances by mezzo-soprano Dana Beth Miller and baritone Nicolai Janitzky, among a long list of others.
Luke will conduct the Sacramento Opera Chorus in the "Pilgrims' Hymn" from "The Three Hermits" by Stephen Paulus and a choral passage from "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by MacSems.
"These two pieces couldn't be more different," said Luke. Indeed, the two works will allow audiences to see Luke's conducting style, which is deeply rooted in being sensitive to how singers phrase their music.
"With the 'Poker Flat,' I'm using a baton and will be using very clear crisp gestures – the work is very energetic and lively," he said. "With the Paulus, I won't be using a baton and will focus more on conducting the phrasing. There will be much bigger gestures for the expansive phrases."
Local audiences might think that Luke's music career begins and ends with the Sacramento Philharmonic. But he wears many orchestral hats while crisscrossing Northern California in an effort to build his conducting career. He's the general director and conductor of the Napa Valley Youth Symphony, chorus master with the Sacramento Opera, music director for the Modesto Symphony Youth Orchestra and director and conductor of the education programs for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra.
On the way, his enthusiastic and no-nonsense conducting style has endeared him to musicians.
"Ming is an energetic, talented musician who's fun to work with," said Berkeley Symphony percussionist Ward Spangler. "Many conductors have talent, but few can brush aside their egos and just have fun making music. In the few times that I have worked with him, Ming has that quality."
No doubt, those are qualities he has solidified under his tenure with Michael Morgan.
"Conducting is an apprenticing field," Morgan said. "You learn much of what you learn by observation."
Morgan knows whereof he speaks, having served as assistant conductor under the legendary Sir George Solti at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1980s.
"Ming sees things about the organization that I might miss and is very diligent about reporting them to me," said Morgan.
"No one can be everywhere and see everything, and Ming has gotten more and more discerning about what needs to be pointed out to me," Morgan said. "He's also developed the ability to connect to our audience both as a conductor and as speaker."
For Luke, observing Morgan in action has taught him how to interact with orchestral musicians.
"Michael embodies the idea that musicians should be respected, and that you shouldn't get in their way," said Luke. It is this approach more than any other that he has learned as Morgan's assistant conductor.
Luke grew up in rural New Jersey, a stone's throw from Princeton. By all accounts he was a precocious music student, having taken up the piano at 3 years old and the violin at 8.
But it wasn't until seventh grade that Luke started taking music seriously.
"That was when I heard a fellow student play the 'Pathetique' sonata. It was the first movement, which is very fast and virtuosic," he said. "I got inspired by that, and that's when I got serious by practicing a few hours a day."
Call arts critic Edward Ortiz, (916) 321-1071.
