Régulo Stabilito to conduct concert Aug. 28
EDITOR'S NOTE: Régulo Stabilito is one of four final candidates, out of 53 applicants, for music director of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association. Each finalist will conduct a concert with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra & Chorus during the 2022–23 season. Stabilito will conduct the season opening concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, at First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge.
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It was my recent pleasure to spend interview time with Maestro Stabilito. He is a handsome, vivacious man in his 40s, with a great smile that fills his broad face as he speaks of his love for his profession. It is immediately obvious that he is a passionate believer in the effect of music on the soul of the listener.
Stabilito has music degrees from the University of Michigan and Simón Bolívar University, Colombia, South America, and a degree in law from Santa Maria University in Venezuela. He most recently served as conductor of the Ann Arbor, Michigan Camerata, and several other orchestras at the University of Michigan. He has become a popular and busy “guest” conductor both in the U.S. and South America.
He was born in Venezuela, where he was strongly influenced by his musician grandfather who lived nearby. He was encouraged to learn the violin at a young age. Even as a small child he felt compelled to raise his hands to conduct music. He could read notes before he could read words. As a teenager, he attended a program for promising musicians called “El Sistema,” which, he says “changed my life.” He began his conducting career at the age of 20. Before long he became well established as a youthful guest conductor.
Stabilito is a devoted supporter of the early music education provided by “El Sistema” (the System), a publicly financed music education program founded in Venezuela. Its motto is “Music for Social Change." The program requires intense study and has included as many as 700,000 young musicians. He feels that he owes “everything I am” to this teaching method. He is eager to reach out to students in this region with some of the concepts of El Sistema. When I asked him about his dreams for a future in our community, he responded, “building a Youth Orchestra in Oak Ridge. I am so committed to early musical training and experience for children.”
Because of his South American origins, he hopes to introduce future audiences to the Latin Music so dear to his heart.
“I am an advocate for Latin music. The mission of my organization Latin American Music Initiative (LAMI) is 'to change the anonymity of the Latin American composers and the invisibility of their works. In my professional career as conductor, I always try to give a space in my programming to include Latin works. I have found fascinating how audiences enjoy the richness of the Latin American works every time we perform them. In this concert we include a piece by Astor Piazzolla. I hope to have many other opportunities to present diverse repertoire to the Oak Ridge community.”
Building a coherent, crowd-pleasing concert program is certainly tricky, so I asked Stabilito about his selections for the Aug. 28 Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra concert. I asked how music by French, Russian, American, and Argentinian composers are connected.
His answer, “Nadia Boulanger.”
Boulanger was a revered and influential teacher, composer, conductor, and performer in Paris and around the musical world. She was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in America and Europe. Stabilito continued, “One way or another, every piece on the program is connected to Nadia. I call it the Six Degrees of Boulanger.”
He describes his role as a conductor as “providing a conduit from the composer, through the orchestra to the heart of the audience. When I am rehearsing, I feel most anxious because I have a great responsibility to the music. I engage in an imaginary conversation with the composer before each rehearsal. I am a server.”
Stabilito and his wife Dr. Maria Fernanda Castillo live in Knoxville, where she is the assistant professor of flute at the University of Tennessee. He says, “I love the beauty of this region and the musical connections; it seems a very fine fit for our future. I look forward to conducting the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra in August.
Joan-Ellen Zucker is a lifetime member of ORCMA who writes articles for The Oak Ridger.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Régulo Stabilito to conduct concert Aug. 28
