Alvin Mills was 13 years old when he first heard the L.A. Philharmonic perform in downtown Los Angeles. Maestro Pierre Monteux was conducting. ‘I couldn’t believe that one person making motions could produce all this sound,’ Mills says. ‘I saw this little man’Monteux was 5’ 4” ‘ hardly moving. He had a small beat and, all of a sudden, big sounds were coming out.’ Mills, who’s also a short, compact man with a warm openness, knew then that he wanted to conduct. Years later, when he was in his mid-20s, he had the opportunity to study under Monteux at the Ecole Monteux in Hancock, Maine. ‘One hour with Monteux was like a lifetime,’ says Mills, who took four trains and a bus to get there from California. Mills made his debut as a conductor with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony Orchestra, which he founded in 1953 with the late Robert Turner. He had been a pupil of Turner’s at UCLA, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in music. The community orchestra began with about 15 or 20 members who performed in a tiny dance studio on San Vicente near 26th St. ‘We rented chairs and had to buy light bulbs because the studio only operated during the day,’ Mills says. Over the years, the orchestra moved around to various venues, including University High School, before settling at Paul Revere Middle School Auditorium. They have been offering their free Sunday afternoon concerts there for over 35 years. Each season, the ensemble presents four free concerts, depending on budget. The Brentwood-Westwood Symphony is supported by fundraising, with donations from various organizations and some help from the city or county. Mills, 84, is fascinated by the diverse group of musicians, ranging in age from 17 to 75. ‘I look around and I see a psychiatrist and he’s sitting next to someone who’s only 24,’ he says. A Midwesterner, Mills began studying the violin with Julian Brodetsky at age eight, when he moved with his family from Chicago to Southern California. ‘I loved the violin right away,’ he says. ‘I became the classical [musician] of the family.’ His mother, Lillian Heuring, was a jazz pianist who played for the silent movies, and his father, Harry Mills, was a jazz drummer. Even Mills’s stepfather became a musician later in life, taking up the viola when he was in his 80s. Mills also studied under Peter Meremblum at USC , and in his early 20s, he was a performing member of the Kansas City Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony, playing under the direction of Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, Efrem Kurtz, Eugene Ormandy and others. ‘Stokowski was tough but I learned a lot from him,’ says Mills, who earned his master’s degree in music from Mount St. Mary’s College in 1961. His sensitivity as a conductor comes from both his early experiences as a musician and from Monteux’s instruction. ‘Musicians in an orchestra are very fragile people and their feelings are what make them play,’ Mills says. ‘I try to follow Monteux’s advice about respecting a musician’s feelings.’ For example, Monteux taught him ‘when you stop an orchestra, be sure to tell them why.’ So Mills will often tell his musicians to start the piece again or try playing it differently ‘for my sake.’ ‘A good teacher has a great deal of respect for his students and knows what they can and can’t do,’ Mills says. ‘I’ll get them to work in such a way that they’ll do more [than they thought they could].’ The number of performers at each concert depends on the program. About 50 to 60 people will play in this Sunday’s performance, which includes pieces by Dvorak, Schubert and Bach. Mills has arranged the Bach piece for his orchestra. In addition, soloist Dennis Trembly, the first bassist of the Hollywood Bowl Symphony, will perform Nino Rota’s ‘Divertimento Concertante.’ Tiong-Kiat Yeo will be assistant conductor. Other great artists who have played with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony under the direction of Maestro Mills are: Martin Chalifour, concertmaster of the L.A. Philharmonic; Mark Baranov, assistant concertmaster of the L.A. Philharmonic; Evan Wilson, principal violist of the L.A. Philharmonic; Gary Gray, principal clarinetist of the L.A. Chamber Orchestra; and John Novacek, internationally acclaimed pianist. Mills has particularly enjoyed working with David Shostac, the principal flutist of the L.A. Chamber Orchestra, who was 13 years old when he began to play with the orchestra. ‘He still treats me like a father and I treat him like a son,’ says Mills, who has five of his own children and eight grandchildren. Leonard Slatkin was also a teenager when he started with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony. Today, he is the conductor of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. Sheryl Staples, assistant concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and Timothy Landauer, principal cellist with the Pacific Symphony, also started with Mills’s orchestra. Devoted to encouraging talented youth and building an interest in classical and contemporary music, Mills initiated a music education outreach program in 1994 to bring music to children of the inner cities and Westside public schools. His orchestra performs about six of these outreach concerts per year, usually for students in grades 4, 5 and 6. ‘I prefer elementary school-age children because they’re more receptive and open,’ says Mills, who also teaches students a bit about conducting during his visits. As a conductor, Mills, who only makes about $600 a concert, looks upon the orchestra as his needy child. ‘I won’t retire as the conductor of the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony,’ he jokes. Mills spent most of his life as an instrumental teacher, working at various schools in Glendale. He currently teaches an instrumental ensemble class at the Westside Community Adult School. His position as conductor and music director with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony was jeopardized once, in 1992, when the board considered replacing him with ‘an ambitious conductor who wanted to come in,’ according to Mills. Letters of support poured in and he kept his job. That same year, Mills married Grusha Paterson, a singer and dancer who concertized throughout Los Angeles with her Continental Gypsies group. Originally from Russia, she grew up dancing in New York under Nadia Chilkovsky and Martha Graham, and was at one point partnered with Michael Kidd, who later won fame as a Broadway choreographer and producer. After marrying Mills, Grusha began working as executive secretary and general manager of the orchestra, in charge of preparation and publicity for concerts. She says she likes to sit in on and tape the main, Saturday rehearsal before each show. ‘I tell Alvin what mistakes I hear,’ she says. ‘He’s a miracle maker’he tells them and fixes it all for the concert.’ Working with people for 52 years may be one reason why Mills hears words and laughing in the music he conducts. For example, he wrote the words ‘for peace of mind’ to the famous musical phrase in Beethoven’s Fifth, ‘Dit-dit-dit-daaaah.’ He also has an affinity for Spanish music, having studied in Madrid, Spain, at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica in 1970. The orchestra rehearses every Tuesday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. ‘I teach it like a class,’ says Mills, who is a member of ASCAP and the National Association of Composers, USA. ‘What I try to do is encourage and inspire them.’ Sunday’s concert, March 13, takes place from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at Paul Revere Middle School, 1450 Allenford. Admission is free Contact: 829-3149.
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