Kimo Furumoto Conducts CSUF Symphony Orchestra
Creating Musical Flow for Audiences
story by John Kroll / image by Tony Freeman

Professional symphony orchestras are being hit hard by cutbacks in music programs in the public schools, changing popular tastes in music and aging subscribers. Undaunted by those trends, Cal State Fullerton revived its symphony orchestra,a blossom in the snow,in 2001 after a several-year hiatus. Now, a growing number of student musicians, currently about 55, present two or three classical programs each semester under the direction of James "Kimo" Furumoto.

The orchestra is one of the groups that moved into the new Performing Arts Center in January. At the dedication ceremony, the woodwind section performed the world premiere of a new work by William Kraft, one of the foremost American composers of the past several decades. The entire orchestra performed at the sold-out inaugural concert, "Deborah Voigt and Friends," featuring the alumna, who is one of the foremost singers of Wagner and Richard Strauss today, in her first on-campus performance since her graduation.

Furumoto expects that the new concert hall will enhance the orchestra's sound in crucial ways. "The overall instrument for the orchestra and all ensembles is the concert hall," he says, noting that the audience is part of that instrument. "Because the concert hall was designed for music only, it omits the fly space that allows music to escape. Its high ceilings will make for excellent acoustics."

Most orchestra members are music majors with several years of private lessons behind them. They rehearse under Furumoto as an ensemble twice a week for about two hours or in sections led by faculty members or musicians from the Pacific Symphony or the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Rehearsals teach them to function within an ensemble, focusing on technical issues such as intonation, balance between sections, and coordinating rhythmic patterns "so the artistic elements come through," Furumoto says.

"The orchestra has been called a hundred-headed dragon..."

Furumoto came to Fullerton in 2001. He sees his position as completing a circle: After growing up in Honolulu, he became a music major at Chapman University in Orange. Initially, he planned to special- ize in composition, but when he was a sophomore, Chapman introduced a conducting program and he became its first student.

After graduation, he went to the University of Cincinnati, one of the nation's best music schools, where he studied with Gerhard Samuel, the former conductor of the Oakland Symphony and an associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Interning with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under the direction of Erich Kunzel, he then became the interim conductor at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and was the orchestra director at Ohio University for eight years. Besides his work at Fullerton, he is the music director and conductor at the Huntington Symphony Orchestra in West Virginia,a year-round position that entails some hefty commuting.

Asked how he envisions the role of conductor, Furumoto looks to the word itself. "A 'conductor' is an electrical term, a way to connect things. For an orchestra, that means bringing about a unified approach to the music. The word in Italian is 'maestro,' meaning 'master,' which emphasizes the teaching role. In French it's 'chef,' meaning 'the boss,' which reminds me that an orchestra has been called a hundred-headed dragon. You have to tame it from the most breathless pianissimo to the most crushing fortissimo."

Besides taming the dragon, Furumoto needs to feed it-- that is, create satisfying programs for the orchestra to perform. "It's a major challenge. I think about it constantly," he says. "I search for a balance of pieces that exposes students to the greatest variety of style as well as teaches them the standard orchestral repertoire. For the audience, I want to create a musical flow, as if they are watching a movie with their ears."

Jeanne Blum, president of Music Associates, the university's music support group, is one who appreciates the accomplishment. She says, "Kimo has done wonders with the orchestra. We've watched it blossom not only in sound, but in numbers. The whole community is excited about the caliber of these student musicians."