Black conductor with Dayton roots on the rise

“The Met is one of the world’s best opera houses and one of America’s largest and most prestigious classical music institutions so having the chance to work there is an honor,” Abdullah says. “I’m particularly excited because Malcolm X is such an iconic figure. This opera is also musically rich with jazz idioms interwoven with operatic idioms, making it a quintessential American opera. To be able to conduct this opera at America’s greatest opera house is one of the highest honors. And to be able to go to the Met with this particular opera at this particular time is a wonderful opportunity. I’m glad to be able to do it.”

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Peabody Conservatory, Abdullah, a trained clarinetist, has programmed and conducted a wide range of symphonic music and opera in renowned venues around the world. From 2012 to 2017 he served as general music and artistic director of Aachen, Germany, where he reached new and more diverse audiences through innovative programming and experimentation with styles in non-traditional concert formats.

He currently resides in both Nürnberg, Germany and Harlem, and debuted over the past year with Atlanta Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Los Angeles Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

“I’ve always been attracted to music because it’s an art form that can express things that cannot be expressed in words,” Abdullah says. “It’s an undefinable thing that can express human emotion. For example, when you hear a Mozart symphony, you are transported on an aural journey. Even though it doesn’t have words, it’s music that can speak to people’s emotions.”

‘Representation matters’

From the ages of 6 to 16, Abdullah lived in Dayton, notably attending middle school at Stivers School for the Arts and his freshman and sophomore years at Colonel White High School. In 1997 he graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, but fondly looks back on his education in Dayton.

“I spent my formative years in Dayton, and I was very lucky because the quality of the public schools was different in the ‘80s and ‘90s,” he says. “Dayton Public Schools used to sponsor a summer music program at Colonel White High School, which is where I got my start the summer after fourth-grade playing clarinet and the piano.”

He credits his grade school band directors Joyce Mitchell and Claude Thomas for recognizing and encouraging his musical gifts. Thomas in particular told him about Interlochen, a decision that significantly impacted his educational and professional journey.

“I met students from all over the world at Interlochen who were great musicians and also my age,” Abdullah says. “My time in Dayton was very fruitful because, regionally, there was a tremendous amount of civic pride in the education of all the students — not just suburban students but the city students. Being a very young person soaking up music like a sponge, I was fortunate to have two teachers who put in the extra time and extra care to make sure my talent could continue to thrive. So often I think young people just need people to point them in the right direction.”

During his formative years, Abdullah also recalls attending many Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra youth concerts at Memorial Hall, which were led by Isaiah Jackson, the DPO’s first Black music director who served from 1987 to 1994.

“Representation matters,” Abdullah says. “I remember seeing Isaiah Jackson conduct. On some level I’m sure seeing him conduct subconsciously planted a seed. If he was doing it, I could do it. Also, when I was growing up, there were a lot of wonderful Black opera singers working on the international stage, which made me realize classical music was something I could also do internationally and be involved in.”

Inside ‘X’

The groundbreaking “X” first debuted in 1985 at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia and was revised and expanded for a New York City Opera production in 1986. But even after nearly 40 years, the opera remains relevant especially for younger audiences as political polarization as well as demands for racial equality and expanded social justice are still top of mind.

“Opera has always been an art form that allows political expression and critique,” Abdullah says. “Composers have always taken the temperature of their times, using figures of their time and the past to represent something. Opera has also documented how the world has progressed, and each era has its own heroes and villains.”

“X” will star Grammy Award-winning baritone Will Liverman, acclaimed for his performance in the 2021 Metropolitan Opera premiere of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” Liverman will deliver the Dayton Opera Star Recital on June 2, 2024 at the Schuster Center. In addition, “X” will be staged by Robert O’Hara, who received a Tony Award nomination for directing “Slave Play” and whose outlandish racial comedy “Barbecue” had its area premiere in April courtesy of the Human Race Theatre Company.

Abdullah, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009 conducting Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice,” says his chief responsibility as conductor is to ensure musical cohesion among the over 150 artists involved in the production from the stage to the orchestra pit.

“My job is to bring everyone together in one unified conception of expression,” he says. “It’s important that everyone is on the same page throughout the trajectory of the piece.”

Assessing the future

A 2023 League of American Orchestras Report concerning Diversity in the Orchestra Field states that inequities persist in overall representation and also between orchestra roles. Specifically, the proportion of Blacks, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian and Alaska Native people remains significantly low in every orchestra role than in the U.S. population, as does the proportion of women and nonbinary people working in conductor and music director roles.

Abdullah hopes more work will be done to help broaden classical music’s outreach to more diverse audiences, which is why he values being the first Black conductor at the Metropolitan Opera since the 1980s and the third in the Met’s history.

“Classical music has historically been positioned for a very select and often privileged, white audience, but I think many composers, as they were writing pieces, didn’t necessarily have that in mind,” he says. “In order for classical music to survive going forward, it is going to have to be accessible to a lot of different people, which is why productions like ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ and ‘X’ are so important. And that’s also why it’s important for me to be in the orchestra pit and for Blacks to be on the stage. It really gives an entry point for more Black people to be able to see themselves in this art form.”