Bob, tell us how you got headed toward a career in music?
Both my father and grandfather were professional musicians. When I was 12, I started playing weddings as a jazz drummer with my grandfather's band in the Syracuse, NY area. My father, Danny D'Imperio, had a very successful career as a jazz drummer, playing and recording with some of the biggest names in jazz, like Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Jones, Tony Bennett, Joe Lavano, and Maynard Ferguson. In recent years, he put out quite a few CDs as leader of his own band called the Metropolitan Bopera House. I actually came to the bass by accident, so to speak. My father has a massive jazz LP collection of over 10,000 records. In this vast sea of vinyl was ONE classical record - Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra doing Bach transcriptions. Well, one day I found that record and played it. When the basses belted out the opening of the Toccata and Fugue I just loved the sound. My Dad happened to have a bass in the corner, and the rest is history...
Who were your primary teachers?
My first real teacher was Edward Castilano, Principal of the Syracuse Symphony. He was a great bass teacher and mentor in general. I did my undergrad. at Boston Conservatory of Music, where I studied with Henri Portnoi, the former Principal Bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was incredibly demanding and could be rather caustic, at times. Surprisingly, he could also be quite funny. I remember one lesson when I was working on the 2nd movement of the Eccles Sonata. He explained I should play it like a dance and then instructed me to begin. Apparently, I chose to play it at a tempo a little too brisk to suit him. After I finished, he stared at me totally expression-less for several moments before exclaiming, "Wild Indians couldn't dance to that!"
Did you work on the orchestral repertoire with him and did he help you prepare for auditions? How about etudes?
I did work the standard orchestral rep. with Henri. He was not much into etudes, however. He would say, "Why waste time with etudes when you could be practicing excerpts that are just as hard?" In truth, New World Symphony is where I really learned my excerpts and how to play an audition. The bass section was fantastic and every person in that section has a job now. We would play for each other and critique ourselves in mock auditions all the time. That was invaluable.
Tell me more about your New World Symphony experience…
After finishing school in 1989 and freelancing in the Boston area for a few years, I got into the New World Symphony in 1993. I was there for two seasons and would rate the experience as one of the best times of my life. It basically functioned as my graduate training. I was one of the Principal Bassists so it gave me invaluable experience and I learned what is expected from that "chair". There were so many incredible opportunities. One that I will always remember is being selected to play the "Trout" Quintet in Monte Carlo for Prince Albert of Monaco. It was during the winter break in January, if I remember correctly, and they flew the five of us over. They put us up in the incredibly posh Hermitage Hotel. The next night we played a private concert followed by dinner for various royalty, ambassadors, financiers, etc. We were the guests of honor and after the performance each of us were seated at different tables, expected to mingle and represent the New World Symphony. I was so young and had never been to such an elaborate, elegant royal dinner. Being from a small town in Upstate New York, I felt totally out of place. Fortunately, the German Ambassador's wife was seated next to me, recognized my naiveté, and really saved the day. She warned me to be careful not to turn my back to the Prince and schooled me on what utensils to use for each course of the meal.
Yeah, most Americans cut with the side of their fork and wouldn't feel comfortable sharing a table with the Prince of Monaco. (My Dutch wife brought me up to speed on that.) Were there any tours for the whole orchestra?
Well, that summer we went on tour to The Kennedy Center in Washington, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, and then on to Europe and the Middle East. Mahler's first symphony was on the program. I still remember the morning I went to check the board for seating assignments and my exhilaration (mixed with sheer terror!) when I saw that Michael Tilson Thomas had chosen me to be Principal. He had a very particular way he wanted me to play it. The first rehearsal he said, "Don't hate me, Bob, but this is how I want you to do it". He asked me to play it almost impossibly quiet and with no vibrato whatsoever. I had a lot of trouble getting it just right in rehearsals, feeling like I just couldn't play it that quietly. But the night of the pre-tour concert in Miami Beach, I decided I would just kind of go for it and I nailed it. I'll never forget the satisfied look on his face when he had me take a bow. I found out later that in the after-concert reception with the local press, he stated that he had conducted Mahler 1st with some of the greatest orchestras in the world and the bass solo that night was the best he'd ever heard. I attribute it to the fact that most professionals have a specific way they play it and might resist his interpretation. I think being a student at New World (which was his "baby") and eager to please him (unlike the pros) had a lot to do with it.
Bob, you are too modest! I'm sure you played it beautifully and deserved every ounce of recognition. Do you have any audition stories?
That story segues nicely into how I won the Principal position with the Washington National Opera Orchestra in 1995. The audition was scheduled for one week after I returned from the New World tour I mentioned above. The tour was 3 weeks duration and I remember thinking I would practice "on the road" to prepare for it. Yeah right! I should have really worried because all the rep. was unfamiliar opera and ballet, but I was having such a ball that I didn't practice it for one minute the whole tour. When I got back to Florida, I called the Personnel Manager and explained that I had been on tour with no time to practice, so, could she please refund me the $50 deposit. She said "No", that I was past the deadline and that in order to get it I'd have to come to the audition in Washington to pick it up. Well, I would be driving back to New York State that week anyway and planned to stop and stay with a friend in D.C., so I figured I'd get my check then. Later, I realized it would be silly not to at least play the audition to get experience while in town, even if I only had a week to learn all the new material. Well, two days and four rounds of auditions later (including a play-off with another bassist), the Personnel Manager came out with a huge grin on her face, looked at me and said, "YOU owe ME fifty bucks!" If she had sent me that check back I would not have taken the audition and won the job…
That's pretty amazing! Perhaps there's a lesson there, like, maybe we bassists need to improve the quality of our practice time… What would you say is different about auditioning for an opera company as opposed to a symphony orchestra?
It is amazing what one week of intensely focused practicing will do, but just as important, I went to that audition nice and loose, without any expectations. There was absolutely no pressure to do well, so, that is EXACTLY what I ended up doing! Regarding auditioning for an opera orchestra, I would say the audition procedure and all of the associated hurdles are the same, but of course, the rep. is completely different. The best advice I have for anyone taking an opera audition is to listen to recordings of all the excerpts. Make sure the tempos are correct! I have sat on many audition committees and am amazed at the number of good players that get dismissed because they have no idea of the correct tempo or context of the music.
What repertoire would you typically ask for at a WNO bass audition?
The works that I would require would be from both the ballet and opera genres. Some examples include: the opening two pages of Wagner's Die Walküre, Die Meistersinger, Verdi's Othello, a Mozart overture and additional excerpts (Magic Flute or Marriage of Figaro), and definitely some Strauss. I might even be "evil" enough to throw in something from Elektra, which is so fiendishly difficult it is virtually unplayable. Berg's Lulu is also a possibility. From the ballet side I would ask for Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, as well as The Prodigal Son. Oh, and some Stravinsky ballet passages.
What is your favorite opera?
My favorite opera is probably Verdi's Othello. The last act is just incredible. Desdemona's Willow aria (immediately before the bass section solo) is one of the all-time greatest. I am sure the majority of players are familiar with the solo only, but all of you bassists out there - do yourself a favor and get a recording of the whole opera! It is such a masterpiece, and we bassists are fortunate that Verdi had enough faith in us to write such a powerfully moving and prominent bass passage in his greatest opera.
