Star-Ledger interviews this weekend’s conductor

The Star-Ledger’s Ronni Reich speaks with conductor Marcelo Lehninger, who leads the NJSO in performances of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony this weekend in Trenton, Red Bank and Englewood.

Reich writes:

Lehninger’s unusual aptitude quickly emerged. By the time he was 5 or 6, he was playing piano and violin. Before he was 14, he knew he wanted to become a conductor. His father was concertmaster of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and watching music director Eleazar de Carvalho, Lehninger became inspired.
“I was fascinated how someone could work with an orchestra and change the sound without playing any instrument, how someone could speak with his hands,” Lehninger says.
Now 33, Lehninger has worked with some of the most renowned musicians in the world. He is currently music director of the Los Angeles-based New West Symphony Orchestra and was chosen by James Levine to be assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
This weekend, he debuts with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in a program that centers on Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 “Italian” and also features guest soprano Joanna Mongiardo in arias from Verdi’s “La Traviata” and “Rigoletto,” Bellini’s “La Sonnambula” and Donizetti’s “Linda di Chamounix.”
…
Mendelssohn holds a special place in Lehninger’s career. Kurt Masur, former music director of the New York Philharmonic, chose Lehninger to be the first recipient of the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Scholarship. Lehninger traveled to Germany to study the composer’s life and work.
“He has a lot to say and he was a very talented man with other art forms as well,” Lehninger says. “He painted and wrote poetry, so he was a very interesting and complete human being. I think his music is perfect — beautiful, so well written and so effective.”

Read the full article at nj.com.