Baton's lure alters career of conductor

Jon W. Sparks

Ken Lam, winner of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra's International Conducting Competition, will lead the MSO in two weekend concerts.

Jon W. Sparks

Ken Lam, winner of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra's International Conducting Competition, will lead the MSO in two weekend concerts.

Last May, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra brought some fresh conducting talent to town in a battle of the podium.

This weekend, three winners of the MSO's International Conducting Competition will lead the orchestra in Masterworks concerts of works by Dvorak, Ravel and Hindemith.

For Ken Lam, the first-place winner, it was an especially sweet victory that has had continuing effects. "People are finding out about the competition," he says, "and I'm getting noticed because of it."

Lam, who will conduct Dvorak's New World Symphony, is orchestra director at Montclair State University in New Jersey, artistic director of the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestras and resident conductor of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.

Also conducting this weekend at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts and the Germantown Performing Arts Centre are second-place winner Roger Kalia, music director of the Columbus, Ind., Symphony, and third-place winner Aram Demirjian who conducts with the Boston Pops. Kalia will lead the MSO in Paul Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber. Demirjian will conduct Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, featuring guest solist Jura Margulis.

Getting to conduct the MSO was -- in addition to cash prizes -- part of the award for the competition winners. And the competition itself, a first for the symphony organization, was unusual in this part of the world. Conducting contests are common in Europe and usually limited to competitors under 35. Lam, at 40, took advantage of the more open rules of the Memphis challenge and showed the world that giving up his career as an asset finance attorney to pick up the baton was a shrewd move.

And being able to lead the MSO in the hugely popular Dvorak piece is particularly gratifying. "The New World Symphony is one I know from the competition," he says, "but I also grew up with it as a teenaged violinist in youth orchestra. It's a wonderful piece that never gets old."

The Hong Kong-born Lam is also looking forward to his parents attending the concert. They encouraged his love of music, but when it came time for college, they weren't convinced it would be as solid a career track as going into the law. In the '90s, Lam got a master's degree in economics at Cambridge University and later became a solicitor. But his conducting passion continued to burn and he finally decided to put down the briefcase and pick up the baton.

It's been paying off. As a result of winning the competition, he's already guest conducted the Meridian, Miss., Symphony Orchestra and is hoping for more engagements. He recently finished his contract as assistant conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and is continuing his duties as artistic director of the Hong Kong Voices.

And as for his parents, Lam says, "they're very happy."

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Memphis Symphony Orchestra Masterworks Concerts

8 p.m. Saturday at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, 255 North Main. Tickets: $15-$78.

2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre, 1801 Exeter. Tickets: $45.

A concert preview will be presented 45 minutes before each concert. For more information or tickets: memphissymphony.org/home or call (901) 537-2525.

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