Summer 2024
Ming Luke
By Jesse Hamlin
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It’s been a particularly busy season for Ming Luke, the esteemed Bay Area conductor and educator whose ability to move gracefully among ballet, opera, and symphonic settings has enriched his music-making in all those spheres.
This spring, the peripatetic maestro went from conducting Swan Lake and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at San Francisco Ballet — where he’s Principal Guest Conductor — to presenting Debussy’s La Mer at New Mexico’s Las Cruces Symphony — where he serves as Music Director. Then it was off to Nashville Ballet, where he also holds the role of Music Director, to conduct Romeo and Juliet. He returned to the West Coast to lead the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Earlier in the season he’d led the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra (another of his regular engagements) in Michael Tippett’s pacifist oratorio A Child of Our Time, and conducted a whimsical, circus-style Nutcracker production with the San Francisco Symphony.
“I enjoy the variety. Composers like Tchaikovsky wrote great ballets, operas, and symphonies, so just focusing on one area is a lost opportunity for conductors,” Luke says.
“To know the ballets gives me extra insight into the symphonies, and knowing the symphonies gives me insight into the operas.”
A New Jersey-bred piano prodigy who played Carnegie Hall in his late teens, Luke soon discovered his métier was conducting. “I really liked the collaborative aspect. Working with 70 or 80 musicians at once was thrilling.” He continued playing piano recitals and concertos after moving to San Francisco in 2003, “but eventually conducting took over everything about 20 years ago.”
“Ming has been associated with Festival Napa Valley since our first season in 2006,” says Charles Letourneau, the Festival’s Director of Artistic Planning and Co-Founder. “He has worked with us on a wide variety of initiatives, including young artists, chamber music and orchestral programs, and the Festival’s summer academies for preprofessional musicians.”
“Festival Napa Valley is the best of the best all coming together — a wonderful place that connects food, wine and music,” Luke raves. He reels off names of major artists performing this summer: pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Ray Chen – and the prominent musicians mentoring participants in the Festival’s summer academies. They include the distinguished faculty from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music at Festival Napa Valley led by flutist and Artistic Administrator Jennifer Grim, Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra clarinetist Jessica Phillips, and pianist and vocal coach Noah Lindquist from Lyric Opera of Chicago.
“We have all these amazing artists, and seeing their commitment to nurturing the next generation of performers is inspiring,” says Luke, noting that many Festival alumni now play in major American and international orchestras. “It’s wonderful to see that knowledge passed down.” Luke will be conducting several Festival programs this summer including opera scenes with the Manetti Shrem Opera Fellows, and Volti Chorale in Gordon Getty’s Old Man Trilogy on July 18, and a performance of Stravinsky’s enthralling masterpiece, The Firebird, on July 21.
Luke has conducted the ballet and concert versions of Firebird many times. “It’s always exciting,” he added. “It’s such a fantastically powerful and colorful work. The orchestration is so innovative. I never get tired of conducting it.”