A homecoming a decade in the making will be heard at Santa Monica’s BroadStage this weekend.
Elias Peter Brown, a 2013 graduate of Santa Monica High School, will be making his United States conducting debut on Sunday alongside musicians of the LA Philharmonic, performing Stravinsky’s "The Soldier's Tale." First performing at BroadStage as a Samohi trumpet player, the time has come for the rising star to take his place at the front of the stage.
"I’m really excited for the opportunity to reconnect … to perform for several teachers of mine (that) will be there … it’s not so easy to get friends and family and music teachers (to go), so it’s a wonderful opportunity to be performing at a high level, but also to be doing this for very special people," he said.
Already a world-traveled conductor, Brown’s return to the U.S. after a prolonged overseas excursion comes with his selection as a Salonen Fellow. The fellowship has Brown serving as assistant conductor at the San Francisco Symphony, while also working as assistant conductor with the Colburn Conservatory Orchestra in the Nagaunee Conducting program.
The art of conducting is not one typically taught at U.S. schools, forcing Brown to carve his own path. His musical path began within the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, starting with simple recorder classes in 3rd grade before evolving as a trumpet player. Brown credits the "amazing" SMMUSD program for sparking his musical interests, along with the city he called home.
"(Santa Monica is) an amazing place to grow up, because you feel a part of this really intimate community," Brown said. "Santa Monica (is) its own kind of enclave and we’ve got beach and mountains all at your fingertips. But you’re also connected to this much larger metropolis. You can kind of dip into all these other offerings that exist, but also, Santa Monica has its own very special thing."
Continuing to grow and collaborate with fellow SMMUSD musicians, an orchestra tour of New York during his first year at Samohi included a guest session with conductor Daniel Boico, a moment where Brown’s eyes shifted from his instrument to the front of the stage.
"He started conducting, and it just felt like we were a better orchestra immediately, without him saying anything," Brown said. "I felt like ‘wow, I’m hearing things that I haven’t heard before,’ I (felt) like I’m better able to play and come in at the right time and play with the group. This made such an enormous impact on me, this idea that a conductor actually without even saying anything, just using a sort of gestural vocabulary, would be able to make an orchestra sound better like that quickly."
Reconnecting with Boico during his time with the California All-State Orchestra, the conductor arranged a masterclass for Brown in St. Petersburg, Russia. Brown’s first solo overseas venture, his parents were initially against the idea, and the musician’s grandmother was the supporting voice to take on the endeavor.
His St. Petersburg excursion was another eye-opener, this time showing Brown the extreme detail that goes into the seemingly simple gestures.
"Before that trip, the conducting was sort of this … pure musicality thing, where you don’t have the technical limitations of an instrument, you’re just kind of working with music in some sort of ideal, pure way," Brown said. "And of course, that’s not the case, there’s an insane amount of technique, an insane amount of training that has to go into actually learning how to get on the podium and get an orchestra to sound better."
Learning that technique first sent him across the country to Yale University, where he was able to work with student-run orchestras and have "a lot of time on the podium to … make a lot of mistakes." Organizing concerts on campus, he eventually found himself wanting to be an "agent of change" within the classical landscape, a statement he’s had to refine throughout the years.
"I’ve always wanted to kind of shake things up, do things a bit differently," he said. "I think when a lot of people think about classical music, (they) think about an institution that is kind of resistant to change. I think that was kind of a challenge for me to negotiate my relationship (with)."
Challenging himself took the young conductor worldwide, working in places like Berlin and London during his overseas tenure. Prior to his return to the Los Angeles area, he was also assistant conductor of the Korean National Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, South Korea, during the 2022-23 season. He earned the role after winning First Prize at the Korean International Conducting Competition.
A "full circle" arrival back to the area has him rediscovering Los Angeles, particularly his appreciation for local food and weather after spending time in "dark, rainy, cold places." His BroadStage performance of "The Soldier’s Tale" is seen as a "lovely opportunity" to reconnect with a piece he’s conducted before. Brown finds the folk and ragtime elements of the music intriguing, along with Stravinsky’s Los Angeles presence that inspired generations of composers and performers.
"The thrust of the story is basically a soldier who makes (a deal with) the devil and loses everything as a result … and he gives up his fiddle in exchange, so the fiddle plays a huge role musically and theatrically," he said.
Tickets for "The Soldier’s Tale" performance, beginning at 11 a.m. on Sunday, can be found at the BroadStage’s website,broadstage.org.
