Members of the New York City Ballet cheered their departing principal conductor, Maurice Kaplow (holding flowers), the Philadelphia son of a barber, with Peter Martins, balletmaster-in-chief (holding baton), at the Koch Theater after Kaplow’s last performance in June of 2010. (Photo by Paul Nolnik, New York City Ballet)[/caption]

by Rita Charleston

Max Kaplow gave up the violin to become a barber so he could earn a living for his family. His son, Maurice Kaplow, followed his lead only as far as the Cleveland Institute of Music, which his father had attended. “Music came easy to me, but I was determined not to follow in my father’s footsteps to the point of becoming a barber.”

Instead, his father, who was his inspiration, instructor and mentor, had the joy of seeing Maurice achieve what could be considered the pinnacle of success in the field of music. “My father was the first to introduce me to the violin when I was just five years old,” said Kaplow.

Just how easily he learned is illustrated by his success as a French horn player. Drafted into the army in the '50s during the Korean War, Kaplow tried to get into the Army Band. “I initially went to the bandmaster and told him I played the viola (I had switched from the violin at that point), and he told me he needed a French horn player. He told me he'd give me eight weeks — the time basic training lasted — to learn.”

Kaplow contacted a good friend who was concertmaster of the Louisville Symphony and asked that he teach him just to make a sound and play the scales. Within the prescribed time, Kaplow taught himself the rest, auditioned and found himself playing the French horn for the next two years with the Third Army Band while stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

After his discharge, Kaplow went on to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, for his master's degree. He was playing with the Philadelphia Orchestra when he met Pierre Monteux, who guest-conducted the orchestra and also conducted the Boston Philharmonic as well as the Ballet Russe. Kaplow expressed an interest in conducting, and over the summer Monteux taught him some of the finer points. “Monteux told me to start conducting a ballet, which was the best place to learn. And he was right.”

When Kaplow first left the Philadelphia Orchestra, “it was like quitting the New York Yankees. But then Barbara Weisberger, who founded the Pennsylvania Ballet, came along and really changed my whole life. She had heard I had studied with Monteux and was sufficiently impressed. She asked if I had ever conducted a ballet, and I said I had. But truthfully, I never, ever saw a ballet. In fact, the only dancing I had ever seen was in the movies with Fred Astaire.”

But he was so skilled that he was eventually hired.

Explaining that there's a big difference in conducting for ballet and conducting for other forms of music, Kaplow acknowledges that “Yes, music is music, but when you're conducting for dancers, that's a completely different art form. The body has its limitations so the dancers rely on strict tempos, which are crucial. And you never watch the dancers, which can be very hard to do.”

Kaplow recalled conducting for Mikhail Baryshnikov when the Russian dancer first came to the U.S. “He said, ‘Don't watch me; don't look at me.’ Then he's jumping around, and by the end of the music, I'm almost sure this guy's not gonna make it. Maybe I should slow down to help him. But then bang! He made it, and everything he was supposed to do, he did. Great dancers can do that.”

According to Kaplow, who now lives in Center City, “Opera also requires a different set of skills because you're dealing with text as well as music. The orchestra can hear the singers, and a good orchestra can almost do their part without a conductor. In ballet, however, the orchestra hears nothing and is totally dependent on the conductor.”

Kaplow conducted the Pennsylvania Ballet from 1963 when it was just getting started and for the next 26 years, then moved on to the New York City Ballet for 20 years until his retirement in June, 2010.

Today at age 85, Kaplow is enjoying his retirement. Making up for time lost from enjoying the company of very old friends due to a very busy schedule, his social life is quite full. And he now has enough time to pursue his love of composing, recently completing a collaborative effort with Philadelphia native Eric Porter.

“I've been a very lucky man,” he concluded. “Music has given me so much. I've had the opportunity to bring pleasure to others and myself by creating beautiful music. And aside from my family, music has been my life.”

Rita Charleston, a regular contributor to the Local, has been a freelance writer for 30 years.

* This article is being reprinted, with permission, from Milestones, published by the Philadelphia Corp. for Aging. More information at www.pcacares.org.