It’s just after noon, at Lincoln Elementary School in Ventura and 150 pairs of young eyes are fixed on Ventura Music Festival’s Artistic Director Nuvi Mehta.
The slender conductor and violinist is going full tilt at the task of sharing his passion for music-making to local kids through the Festival’s Education Outreach program, which will take him, on this occasion, to some dozen schools in Ventura County to entertain and enlighten hundreds of students and send them out whistling and inspired.
At this particular session, he has the children pick out notes at random and then, using his computer, he helps them compose a piece using those notes. Then he talks about Beethoven’s hearing loss while he was composing his Fifth Symphony and moves on to the movies graphically illustrating how a film’s score is vital in evoking the mood and atmosphere of a movie. Mehta, who took over as Artistic Director in 2004 from Festival founder Burns Taft, very much enjoys these regular sessions with the youngsters.
The lean, intense Navroj “Nuvi” Mehta grew up with music as his life’s blood. (“Nuvi” rhymes with “Luvvie” and is what everyone calls him.) His father, Dady, studied piano at the Vienna academy and his mother, Martha, was a singer. His brother Bejun is one of the world’s few countertenors and his father’s cousin is internationally famed conductor and former maestro of the Los Angeles and the New York Philharmonic orchestras, Zubin Mehta. Born in New York, reared in Laurenberg, North Carolina, and now living in San Diego, Mehta has been responsible for bringing world class artists to Ventura. This year, the Festival’s 13th season, is no exception.
From May 3 to 13, a series of concerts built around the theme of “Impressions — A Celebration of French Art and Music,” will stretch over 10 days, featuring an eclectic mix of music from jazz legend Diane Schuur to Pearl Django to Quartetto Gelato. The festival will also feature the evergreen traditional Festival sell out “Tea and Trumpets” and the Festival orchestra, conducted by Mehta and featuring guest violinist Corey Cerovsek, who has himself become something of a tradition in these parts. The rich feast of music culminates with a May 13, Mother’s Day concert featuring the brilliant, young Croatian Guitarist Ana Vidovic.
Mehta, who was handed his first violin when he was just 6 years old — he preferred it to the piano — graduated from Indiana University with a B.A. in music, and from Juilliard with a Masters in Music. He studied conducting with Charles Bruck and Leonard Bernstein. Cousin Zubin, he says, gave him great encouragement as he pursued the musical career that ultimately brought him to Ventura.
The other day, Mehta sat down with Ventana to talk about his passion for music and his continuing role with the Ventura Music Festival.
Ventana: What’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like Ventura?
Nuvi Mehta: (Laughs) Having the time of his life.
Ventana: In what way?
NM: My first love is music, and having the opportunity to do new things in Ventura is very special because the Festival is exactly that kind of organization that allows me to do some experimenting. Some places, you wouldn’t want to do that. I am the first artistic director after the founder and we can build on that. People here are open to new ideas, and since I very much like jumping between genres and niches and trying new things, it makes for me having the time of my life.
Ventana: What excites you about this year’s festival?
NM: I love our French theme. There’s such a wealth of music to choose from because that culture stands out in music history. What excites me are some of the artists we have coming. Diane Schuur is the best in the world; Pearl Django are reviving the jazz of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, who were members of the famous ’30s jazz group La Quintette du Hot Club de France. The orchestra program features a French repertoire of show tunes for the violin which are very close to my heart.
Ventana: You obviously enjoy doing the school programs. How can we teach youngsters to appreciate good music?
NM: The question is how do you teach people to appreciate fine art in general — not just young people. Music unfolds over time, and so you have to get people to listen to stories in music and that’s how I get all people to love music as much as I do. Bring those stories to life. It’s no different educating adults or children.
Ventana: Your wife, Karen, is a former horn player. How would she describe you?
NM: Hmm. (long pause) Distracted and single-minded, I think. Both of those.
Ventana: How would you describe you?
NM: Distracted and single-minded. (Laughs)
Ventana: Can you elaborate?
NM: Sometimes I have a life with plenty of time and nothing pressing. And then suddenly I have four concerts in three weeks. It all comes at the same time and I go from calm to frenetic.
Ventana: How do you cope with that?
NM: I haven’t quite figured out how to balance it all. It sometimes pulls me very thin at times, but I do enjoy the adrenaline rush when working, although I don’t handle the downtimes as well.
Ventana: Is it like an athlete preparing for a big race?
NM: In a way, yes. At concert time, you’re operating at 100 percent — but during the calmer times, part of my brain shuts. I need to learn to balance that better.
Ventana: So how do you wind down?
NM: I hike and bike. There’s a tiny mountain not far behind our house, and I struggle up and down that on fairly regular basis. I read a lot. I don’t live near the water anymore. I used to swim in the ocean.
Ventana: Any other hobbies?
NM: I love baking bread. I went through phases where I also dabbled in desserts. In my college days, I cooked Chinese food so I could eat cheaply and quickly. So I cook Szechwan and Italian food. My French food is not at a high level. I wasn’t a very good cook in college but now I am.
Ventana: What dessert could you make me?
NM: A family carrot cake. That’s special. My mother and brother do it well — it’s one of the best.
Ventana: Do you sing in the shower?
NM: No, but my brother Bejun probably does. He’s a countertenor under contract to the Metropolitan Opera. He did a concert in Ventura last year.
Ventana: Are you encouraged by all the support you receive from local businesses and individual donors?
NM: Absoluely. It shows that we are exciting the local community. We always welcome more sponsors along with the great people who already support us. One example is Kipp Brant Drummond and Associates, who are my sponsor here. Their sponsorship and that of our other great donors is a great example of giving back to provide world class music to our community.
Ventana: If you had not gone into music, what would you have done?
NM: I’d like to have acted — or played baseball. Up to high school, I played the sport but I had to take care of my hands and practice the violin. I was very coordinated and played infield through my first year at high school. I was fast but not powerful, but I was able to get to first base one way or another 40 percent of the time.
Ventana: How does it feel to be up there in white tie and tails, waving the baton in front of a sellout crowd?
NM: Exhilarating at first, but then you worry about the orchestra. If there’s someone not feeling well or who the soloist is and what their problems may be. There’s that moment before you begin a piece of music that is so full of potential. You have to collect your thoughts and tell a story. You want to see if you can become all that Beethoven had to say. And you want all that epic story to be there in your head. From the first note. It’s the purest moment. Wonderful.
Ventana: What do you consider the greatest piece of music in the world?
NM: If I had to pick one, the answer would be whatever piece I’m working on at the time when I’m making new discoveries. Or every single piece that has held the world stage for 50 to 400 years. But I would have to say in the end it would be something by Mozart, the single composer who can create beautiful songs and messages, painful or glorious at every moment. There is never a moment when you are not carried forward. You’re never just in the middle of a transition with Mozart.
Ventana: Are television programs like American Idol good for music?
NM: I’ve not watched the show but I know what it’s about and have mixed emotions. It doesn’t focus on a wide range of music; it’s a two-or three-minute pop song appealing to instant emotion, a quick fix. But on the other hand the singers have to get it right; they have to make a good artistic judgment and have to be good at doing that. To be a pop star takes a certain amount of work.
05-01-2007
