Jorge Soto takes the baton for Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra as principal guest conductor

There are a couple of recollections of when Jorge Soto, at the time a violinist with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, asked the orchestra's executive director, Paul Levenson, if he could perhaps pick up the baton and conduct.

One recollection is Soto's, the other Levenson's.

But they are not dissonant remembrances, and the end result has been a very harmonious one — a sort of symphonic synthesis for Worcester's homegrown Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra with Soto as its principal guest conductor.

"I asked many times," Soto said. "I said, 'Hey Paul, I'm a conductor now. Give me a chance.' He's like, 'Hmm.'"

Added Levenson: "Not that many years back Jorge asked if he could conduct the orchestra — in just one selection, Anderson's 'Sleigh Ride.' We had no idea how he would do, but we said 'yes.'"

Soto had joined the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra as a violinist. Originally from Venezuela, he studied in the country's El Sistema program, which gives classical music training to students such as Soto who often come from economically poor communities.

Later, Soto came to Massachusetts to study violin as an undergraduate at the former Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster. He became very familiar with the Worcester area and retained his ties after graduating from Atlantic Union and going on to study for a master's degree in conducting at New England Conservatory in Boston, which he received in 2013.

"When I first started (with the MSO) I spoke very little English. So he (Levenson) saw me grow. He finally gave in (about conducting)," Soto said.

The work was Anderson's "Sleigh Ride." Soto had been playing violin as usual in the concert until "Sleigh Ride" was next up on the program.

"I put my violin on the chair, went up to the podium, and conducted. And it went well," Soto said.

Levenson certainly agreed. "From the downbeat we saw that this was like a duck to water — very natural and composed," Levenson said.

'I do a lot of conducting'

Soto subsequently conducted other segments, and at MSO's traditional Worcester Fourth of July concert at Institute Park, Levenson "gave me half it," Soto said. "And now I do a lot of conducting … The orchestra has given me many opportunities I wouldn't be able to do anywhere else."

Soto's official title with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra remains principal guest conductor, with longtime Principal Conductor Myron Romanul still at the helm. However, Romanul is based in Germany and he hasn't been able to make it states since the pandemic.

So Soto, who now lives in Brighton, has been regularly driving to Worcester and picking up the baton, most recently at the MSO's Holiday Pops concert at Worcester's Mechanics Hall last December.

Meanwhile, he is the Principal Conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Newton, and has been increasingly making himself known with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Soto has twice conducted the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and served as assistant or cover conductor on several occasions throughout the BSO’s 2020-21 online season.

"Jorge serving as a cover conductor for the Boston Symphony recently (an amazing accomplishment in itself!) has affirmed our initial impressions — he is a conductor on the move and has a stellar career ahead of him," Levenson said. "No one deserves this more, and we are incredibly lucky to have both him and Mr. Romanul in our employ."

Soto was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. "I grew up in a very humble family. We didn't have the means to buy an instrument," he said. Not even the means to buy a white T-shirt which he was required to wear after being selected as a violinist at a concert.

He said he considers himself a product of of El Sistema, which uses classical music as a vehicle for social change. He began his musical studies in Venezuela at the Vicente Emilio Sojo State Conservatory, later studying violin at the Latin American Academy of Violin and playing with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.

"It's an amazing program. Monday to Saturday 2 to 7 p.m. All for free. A world-class music education. It saved my life. Not only my life but my family. Before me very few family members went to college. I was able to go to college," Soto said.

"It's tough there," he said of the current social situation in Venezuela. "I help out a lot. I go there every year."

Teaches violin in Venezuela

He remains very active in El Sistema in Venezuela, where he teaches violin, coaches chamber music and conducts orchestras around the country, including serving as a guest conductor with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra.

A scholarship took Soto to Atlantic Union College, where he met violist, violinist, teacher and conductor Peter Sulski, who is also one of the founders of the Worcester Chamber Music Society.

Sulski conducted the Atlantic Union College Orchestra.

"Peter Sulski introduced me to all of the colleges (in the Worcester area)," Soto said. He also got to know the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra.

"I feel I lived there (Worcester) because I was there so much. He (Sulski) helped me a lot," Soto said.

Soto was also a conductor with the Worcester Youth Orchestras as artistic executive director Jonathan Brennand began to lead the way in reviving WYO's fortunes.

"At the time we were rebuilding the orchestra. The first meeting there were 15 students, and I've heard it's doing great now. By the time I left, there were two orchestras."

Soto got to to know the Boston Symphony Orchestra — and vice versa — by literally showing up.

An introduction by way of Soto's friend Gustavo Dudamel — music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Opéra national de Paris — enabled Soto to sit in on BSO's rehearsals and observe, particularly the conducting.

"I was learning what to do," Soto.

The Boston Symphony Chamber Players is a chamber group of some of BSO's principal instrumentalists. The group usually performs without a conductor, but for an upcoming performance of Stravinsky’s Octet at Jordan Hall in Boston, the members decided they needed one.

"I don't know why," Soto said, but the BSO sent him an email three days before the performance asking if he could do the piece.

Soto said "Yes."

"Of course I didn't sleep those few nights. But it went well. They asked if I could conduct again."

In December 2020, he led the BSO Chamber Players ensemble in Elena Langer’s "Five Reflections on Water." The performance was filmed and released as part of a BSO streaming concert in January 2021.

As COVID took its course a lot of BSO's assistant conductors were in different countries. "I was assisting a lot," Soto said. "I've been covering for a lot of amazing conductors. It's been great."

Also keeping Soto busy is serving as music director of the Sistema Side-by-Side Orchestra at Longy School of Music in Cambridge and freelancing as a violinist. He unwinds by reading music scores. "I can study scores all day long."

Music knowledge key

Knowing the music well is part of what it takes to be a good conductor, Soto said.

"Knowing the music is the most important thing. Also trying to inspire people. Besides knowing the music so well is the connection you make with the orchestra. It's all about the connections you make with the musicians."

Sometimes a famous conductor can come in to an orchestra for a program, "and they don't get along," Soto noted. "At the highest level, it comes through chemistry."

Levenson has seen the formula working with Soto.

"At the top of the list is the fact that he is a first-rate musician. He comes exceptionally prepared to every engagement, and you can see he has truly done his homework and all the preparation necessary for a marvelously successful concert. Next, our musicians love him, as he has come as a violinist from their ranks and now he is in a position of leadership with our orchestra," Levenson said.

"Very humble, he has a cool-as-a-cucumber demeanor and is unflappable. Like our principal conductor, Myron Romanul, Jorge is up for any musical challenge. We can throw any assignment at him — a classical concert, a pops concert, a jazz performance, a world music presentation — and he will make that event shine."

Last summer the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra presented "Jazz in the Park: Celebrating Great African-American Composers" at Institute Park.

The special guest artists included drummer Yoron Israel, head of the percussion department at Berklee College of Music in Boston; trombonist Angel Subero, assistant professor of trombone and brass studies at the Boston Conservatory and Berklee; and Rich Kelley, first call trumpeter with the Boston Pops. A formidable lineup for a conductor, in other words.

As the conductor, Soto wasn't initially familiar with some of the jazz numbers. There was a lot of score studying. "I didn't know how I was going to do," Soto said.

But characteristically, "It went well," he said.

Soto is anticipating that the MSO will be back for more outdoor concerts this summer.

"I hope it happens. We're talking about a program inspired by Latin composers."

Soto recalled something a member of the MSO said to him at last December's Holiday Pops concert.

"The gentleman has played (with MSO) 25 years. He said 'Jorge, when you conduct I feel young again. Energized,'"

The words were music to his ears.

"That for me is conducting," Soto said. "Trying to bring something fresh so people feel excited again. I wish I could achieve that every time. That's the goal."

For more information about Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, go to masymphony.org

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Jorge Soto takes turn at conducting Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra