Kenneth Jean, who’s 38, is facing a dilemma that other conductors of his age can only envy. He holds down the number-two artistic post at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, heads the Florida Symphony Orchestra in Orlando, and guest conducts all over the world. But now that he’s the recipient of an unexpected and generous prize, the Seaver Institute’s coveted biannual $75,000 grant for young American conductors, he has to make room in his already hectic schedule–the grant stipulates that he take time off for further development as a musician. “I have been so busy that I haven’t even had time to ponder what to do with the money,” he says, slightly exasperated.
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Born in New York City, Jean grew up in Hong Kong in a family of physicians that expected its offspring to practice medicine. In 1967, afraid that the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution might spread from the Chinese mainland to the island colony, Jean’s parents dispatched him to Berkeley, where he was enrolled as a pre-med student at the University of California. But Jean didn’t spend a single day there. Defying his parents’ wishes, he went across the bay to study violin and music at San Francisco State. A couple of years later he transferred to the Juilliard School in New York and switched to conducting. As a pupil of Jean Morel, he was soon leading the Youth Symphony Orchestra of New York in concert at Carnegie Hall. He obtained his master’s degree from the Juilliard in 1976, spent two years as an apprentice to Lorin Maazel in Cleveland, and then was appointed second-in-command at the Detroit Symphony.
An orchestra’s associate or resident conductor has ill-defined duties, explains Jean in his carefully enunciated, vaguely accented English. “It’s unique to North America. The position is part understudy, part whatever you want to make of it. In any European city there are many good conductors, so it’s easy to find a last-minute substitute. But here you might have to get someone from the west coast, and that could take several days. So I and Michael Morgan [the CSO’s assistant conductor] take turns covering the subscription concerts. One of us is always around for emergencies.”
“I’d love to hang loose for a while,” Jean says. “I might use the Seaver grant on language studies in Europe for a couple of summers. At the end of next season I’ll see where I am in my career, then decide whether to stay in Chicago. One has to be flexible with one’s career-making choices as they come. I’ve relied on instincts all my life. I am sure I’ll make the right choices–even though things in the classical-music industry are more difficult than ever.”
