Calvin Simmons Story or Call Me Maestro

Berkeley, Ca: Muse Woods Press, 1994. First ed., first printing (full number line). Octavo in red glossy illus wraps; 131p, numerous b&w photos. Fine. Paperback.

Calvin Eugene Simmons (1950–1982) was an American conductor and the first African American to lead a major U.S. symphony orchestra. Born in San Francisco, he began piano with his mother and by age eleven was conducting the San Francisco Boys Chorus under founder Madi Bacon. After studies at the Curtis Institute (1970–73) with Max Rudolf, he became assistant conductor of the San Francisco Opera (1972–75), winning the Kurt Herbert Adler Award, then assisted Zubin Mehta at the Los Angeles Philharmonic before, at twenty-eight, becoming music director of the Oakland Symphony. He guest-conducted major orchestras and opera companies, debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1978 with Hansel and Gretel, led the Ojai Music Festival the same year, worked at Glyndebourne (1974–78), collaborated with Jonathan Miller on Così fan tutte in St. Louis, and premiered Menotti’s La Loca in San Diego (1979). At the San Francisco Opera, he conducted La Bohème and the acclaimed Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. He also co-wrote the short story “Addio San Francisco” (in Murder at the Opera, 1989) under a pseudonym. His final performances were Mozart’s Requiem in summer 1982; he died in a canoeing accident near Lake Placid at thirty-two and was memorialized in Oakland and San Francisco for his brilliance, wit, and versatility.