In 1999, a Cleveland Institute of Music cello student named Michael Samis traveled to Nashville in pursuit of the seemingly impossible — an actual, bona-fide, union-wage-paying job performing classical music.
Most music students never go pro. But there was something about the young Samis — who played with a degree of emotional insight and virtuosity unusual for a musician of any age — that appealed to former Nashville Symphony Orchestra music director Kenneth Schermerhorn. Samis got the nod.
It was a remarkable stroke of good fortune, which made Samis' recent decision to quit the NSO seem all the more extraordinary. "The last 15 years have been amazing, and playing with the Nashville Symphony was a great way to start my career," says the soft-spoken Samis, 37, who still looks like a student courtesy of his thick, jet-black mane. "But having to be onstage with the orchestra every Thursday through Saturday night made it difficult to tour and to play other kinds of music. It was time for a change."
Nashville classical fans will be glad to know that Samis — who has also performed for years with the Alias Chamber Ensemble — won't be leaving for good. He'll be principal cellist of the Nashville Opera Orchestra and will be in the pit when the company opens its season with La Bohème on Oct. 9 at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Samis will perform around town with the Gateway Chamber Orchestra, a terrific Clarksville-based ensemble that now presents an adventurous subscription program in Nashville.
Samis' main goal is to tour as a soloist, performing concertos with regional and national orchestras around the country. To mark this career shift, he recently released his first recording, which features, among other things, a concerto performance with the Gateway Chamber Orchestra under the direction of conductor Gregory Wolynec.
Founded in 2008, Gateway specializes in performing three kinds of pieces: contemporary American works, masterpieces of the repertoire and lost musical gems. Samis' new album, Reineke: Cello Concerto, adheres to a similar template.
A lyrical player, Samis has decided to anchor his album with 19th century composer Carl Reinecke's unjustly neglected Cello Concerto in D minor. The album also includes a Romantic masterpiece, Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro for cello and orchestra, along with Ernest Bloch's Suite No. 1 for solo cello, John Tavener's Threnos for cello solo and contemporary composer Osvaldo Golijov's Mariel for cello and marimba.
Born in Germany in 1824, Reinecke was one of the foremost pianists, composers and conductors of his day. He conducted the premiere of Brahms' A German Requiem, and in 1905 he became the oldest living pianist to make a piano roll, recording Robert Schumann's Warum? (The recording provides a priceless glimpse into the past, given that Reinecke was friends with Schumann, who died in 1856.) Reinecke's Cello Concerto, composed in 1864, is an intensely melodic and dramatic work, yet no professional recording of it existed in the catalog.
"I came across the score of the Reinecke concerto about a year ago, and it was so lyrical and dramatic that it reminded me of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, which had been my favorite piece as a kid," says Samis. "For my first recording, I wanted to play something that wasn't overrepresented in the catalog, which made the Reinecke a perfect choice."
Lasting about 25 minutes and consisting of three movements, the concerto opens with a dark, mysterious theme that sounds as if it could be a gypsy violin tune. In contrast to that melody, Reinecke wrote a secondary theme full of lyrical warmth and romance. As the opening movement progresses, these themes are explored and developed with ever-increasing color and virtuosity. The second movement, for its part, comes across as a soulful meditation, while the finale is a playful romp. Samis performs all of this music with a golden tone and commanding technique. Wolynec and the Gateway Chamber Orchestra cling to the cellist like Velcro, providing tight, sensitive support.
Surely the most unusual work on the album is Argentine-American composer Golijov's Mariel. Golijov's music is abstract and modern, but it has been colored and rejuvenated with harmonies and rhythms that call to mind Argentine tangos, Brazilian sambas and klezmer music. Mariel is such a piece. It opens with an extended introduction for marimba that explores a rainforest worth of bright sonic hues. The cello later enters with a melancholy melody that Golijov wrote in memory of an old friend. Samis and percussionist Eric Willie play every note with heartrending emotion.
Samis will be with Gateway when it opens its Nashville season on Sept. 15, playing the music of Mozart, contemporary American composer John Corigliano and 19th century French composer Louis Farrenc at Downtown Presbyterian Church. The season continues at Downtown Presbyterian on Oct. 27 and April 20. On Feb. 9, Gateway performs the music of one of history's most famous Masons — Mozart — at the Grand Lodge of Tennessee's Freemason Auditorium.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
