Rob: Coming up next on Rob at Home.

Peter Jaffe joins us.

Peter has served as Stockton Symphony's dynamic music director and conductor for almost 30 years.

The man behind the music joins us, next, on Rob at Home.

♪♪ Annc: And now Rob on the Road, exploring Northern California.

Rob: Peter Jaffe joins me now from Stockton.

It is great to see you, Peter.

Thanks for joining us.

Peter: Oh, it's so great to see you, Rob.

What a pleasure.

Thanks for the invitation.

Rob: So glad to have you here.

Peter: I'm gonna...

I'm gonna talk your ear off.

Rob: That's all right.

That's all right.

We'll talk a lot about music and you are so good at both.

I love the way you conduct.

It is fascinating to me.

You have your musicians in front of you and you have the massive audience behind you, and yet, you're in the middle.

And you do such a good job of actually conducting both and you form your own language as the conductor, in my opinion.

And I've watched you do it.

It's amazing to me to see how you bring it to life, both the audience and the players.

Peter: The very basic first thing that you need to do as a conductor, in terms of the gestural language, is to just get people to synchronize an event.

Gesturally, we make predictable trajectories so that you will know when you will arrive somewhere.

In other words, if I was just to start here and go boom, nobody would be able to predict when it happened.

It's the ability to see that rocket launching and falling that enables people to... to predict when we're going to have a moment of synchronization.

And that's a basic gestural language that you can take all around the world.

Rob: Hmm.

Peter: But within that language- and there are certain basic beat patterns, you know, that people know, whether it's a 3/4, like a waltz time, or a 4/4, like a March- everybody develops their own style, and this is what you were alluding to just a minute ago.

And you basically have two different types of styles, because we're kind of like a conduit of energy, um, sort of giving musical impetus, but the people who are playing, they're making the actual sounds, you know.

They're the people who are making the sounds you hear.

I'm kind of like this translation device.

(Theme from Mission Impossible) ♪♪ (Applause) Peter: There are a lot of people who... who do very tiny, small beats, and it's all very clear and... and pristine and everything like that, but it... it looks kind of like you're in a hospital.

And then, there are the people who basically live the music.

I mean, I kind of feel, when I'm conducting, that I'm living the music, and the fact that these gestures are preparatory- they're designed to show what's going to happen, just a couple of milliseconds in the future, what's going to happen- that's probably why you, or many people in the audience can say, "Ooh!

That's really engaging.

I can see what's happening.

"He's showing me the... the music.

He's living the music," because it's all actually part of the gestural vocabulary.

Rob: You have a way of being that conduit that is so energetic.

It is so filled with positivity.

And, you know, I remember a long, long, long, long, long time ago, you would see conductors that seemed just angry, and that might be part of the song.

Right?

But even in intense songs, I see joy in you when you conduct.

Peter: It... it's very fulfilling, um, and... and in fact, we've built the word "joy" into the mission statement of the Stockton Symphony.

Rob: Well, you're doing it.

I did not know that.

You're doing it.

Peter: Our... our mission is to inspire joy and to build community through the magic of music.

Rob: Well, you're hitting a home run.

You really are.

I will tell you, I went to your YouTube page and watched a bunch of your videos.

My goodness!

Your Mission Impossible video has, like- What is it at?

Peter: Four point million- Rob: 5 million, almost.

Yeah.

Peter: 4.9 million views.

Yeah, um- Rob: That's amazing.

Peter: I want everybody to love what the symphonic repertoire, what we play, is.

And it's such a broad spectrum.

I mean, we play something for everybody, all the way from, you know, all the classic, dead composers- you know?

- to movie scores, and... and pops concerts, and world premieres.

I mean, there's always something, within any season, for anybody.

Rob: And current events.

And current events.

Peter: Oh, oh, for sure.

I mean, right now, we happen to be, uh, in a time when we, along with a lot of other orchestras- We're starting our concerts with the Ukrainian national athem.

Rob: How beautiful!

Peter: Out... out of... out of solidarity.

You know, and... and, you know, we're not the only ones who have done this, but... but the orchestras I conduct, for the past several months, we've been opening up our concerts with the- this Ukrainian- And it's... it's a really heartfelt moment of... of solidarity and... and heartfelt support.

Um, but I don't want- We don't want people sustaining a, quite frankly, pejorative myth that the orchestra is stuffy.

You got to do a lot of homework to understand the music.

You're going to be there, trapped, forever.

You know, it... it's... it's... it's... it's music that doesn't have a good beat to it, and it's- You know, it... it's all this, and it's all that, and we don't want that at all.

We want people to come dressed however they want.

We want people to be emotionally moved, and you don't have to read a note of music or have ever had any class.

You know, I try to communicate to people on a level that everybody can understand.

And maybe that's what you're kindly alluding to, is I...

I want to make the music accessible.

So, rather than saying- You know, because I sometimes do preconcert discussions, where I'll sit down at the piano and play a little something, or explain the music.

Rather than saying that it goes, you know, with a really exotic modulation, from A major to G-flat minor, you know, I w...

I w...

I will say, "Listen to how the harmonies are- the juxtaposition of those harmonies is just so exotic."

You know?

And so, just calling... because there's a way that... that you can describe the emotional impact or the technical thing of what's happening, with... without getting into graduate music level theory.

Rob: What is it in you that did that?

What inside of you made you this person that can take music and make it so relatable?

Peter: I think it has to do with an either conscious or... or unconscious decision that I made, at some point in my career, that I thought I was just going to be the most fulfilled when I became a conductor.

Uh, my parents were both musical.

They were- None of them were- Neither of them were... were professional musicians, but my dad was, uh, in that whole New York folk music scene.

Rob: Mmhmm.

Peter: He... he had one of Woody Guthrie's old guitars and he knew Pete Seeger, and... and I used to listen to my parents sing Dust Bowl Ballads, but they also loved all music.

They introduced me to the classics, and they also introduced me to rock, pop, and jazz.

I was probably the only pre-teenager in the 1960s who was introduced to the music of the Beatles by his parents.

And so, I grew up with this really broad-spectrum love of all types of music.

And then, I started concentrating on the violin and I grew up playing in orchestras, and I would always come home from rehearsals where just playing my own part, no matter how glorious it was, wasn't enough for me.

I wanted to duplicate the sound of the entire orchestra.

And so, I would go to the piano and try to just duplicate the sound of the whole band on the instrument, on the piano.

And so, I learned as much by ear as I did by notation.

And it was that gradual evolution of thinking I...

I'd much rather relate to a whole group of people making music all at once, and be that conduit, rather than being just an individual player in the group.

And that's, probably, goes hand-in-hand with the ethos that you're talking about, about just wanting to relate to a whole group of people, to want to communicate to a whole group of people, and feeling satisfied both with the people on the stage and the people in the audience, that that's life.

You know?

That... that's... that's what we live for.

That's what I live for, the ability to communicate and to make a lot of people feel something, and to feel like I coordinated it.

Now, I want to say for anybody out there that's interested in conducting- If you're interested in doing that and it's some kind of power trip or some kind of idea that you're going to have a lot of authority and... and... and, uh, power, this is not the job for you.

That's completely the wrong attitude to take.

Um, you know, I respect all my musicians to the nth degree.

And it's... it's like I have the privilege of getting to make decisions and be the impetus for a lot of how it goes, but they're the ones who are making the sound and they're the ones who are really pulling the weight.

And I'm just kind of in that lucky, central position to be leading, yes, but it's... it's... it's a bottom-up, not just a top-down.

Rob: Are your musicians paid?

Peter: It depends on which orchestra we're talking about.

Rob: Mmhmm.

How about Stockton?

Peter: The Stockton Symphony is an all-professional orchestra.

We're the third-oldest continuously operating professional orchestra in California.

Uh, the only two that have more longevity than we do are the ones you'd expect- the San Francisco Symphony and the LA Philharmonic.

And by the way, there are two different titles, right?

The San Francisco Symphony and the LA Philharmonic.

It's an example of how those titles are practically interchangeable.

Rob: You know, that... that is such a- an... an interesting perspective, um, and it's such an interesting action that you do.

Peter: No matter which group I'm working with, whether it be the Stockton Symphony, which is all professional, or the Folsom Lake Symphony, which is all volunteer, um, I want to engender a family atmosphere where people feel safe to even be able to make a mistake, and where they feel safe that they don't have to play safe.

You see, what'll happen in almost any orchestra, be it a professional orchestra or a volunteer orchestra, is you can kind of get into your own little safe box, because in order to make a lot of emotional impact, you have to put yourself out on a limb.

And that is wonderfully dangerous, but audiences can tell if you decide to take that risk.

I call it an elegant risk, um, and I want people to make those risks, so that we'll really feel something and we'll really make the audience feel something.

And so, that's something I think is really important, no matter what group I'm working with, to engender that kind of atmosphere.

Rob: Your father knew so many people in the musical world, and you also do as well.

Um, you worked with Dave Brubeck, um, who is internationally known and is so adored where you are as well, in Stockton.

Uh, the University of the Pacific home to his collection of archives is just phenomenal.

And I want to ask you- You know, I remember, um, I did a story there on the archives and I...

I was watching video when, uh, President- then President Reagan, um, was in a very serious situation with President Mikhail Gorbachev and brought in Dave Brubeck to play before a meeting that they had... Peter: Yeah.

Rob: ...and the meeting- According to former President Reagan, that- the meeting went so much better, the relations went so much better because of music.

Wow!

Peter: Dave Brubeck was not only a fabulous musician and an extremely inventive composer.

Some people have even made the analogy of Dave Brubeck, in this era, to JS Bach, in the Baroque era...

Rob: Wow.

Peter: ...that he had that kind of genius and imagination.

You know, just as an aside- Rob: And for civil rights.

Peter: And for civil rights!

And he campaigned fiercely, because he had an integrated band, and... and if... if they wouldn't allow, uh, his players all the same privileges, he wouldn't take that date.

Rob: Yup.

Peter: Yeah.

You know, he was... he was an amazing human being.

Uh, there- It's really hard to write great pieces of music, um, and it's... it's not easy- It- You know, it's not easy on any level, but there are some things that are so iconic that have the genius of simplicity.

If you think of "Ba, ba, ba, bum," right?

The opening notes of Beethoven's fifth symphony, that is so- It's even beyond genius.

It's iconic.

It's become, like, you know, something in... in our... in our culture, uh, that... that we all know.

And if you hear the opening of "Ba bee, ba bee, bum, bum.

"Ba bee, ba bee," you know, the opening- Rob: (Imitating melody) That one?

Peter: If you hear the opening part of Take Five, I mean- that- which he... which he co-composed along with his sax player, Paul Desmond- You know, everybody knows that the world over, and... and he's come up with something iconic.

Um- Rob: That's 5/4, right?

Isn't that 5/4 beat?

Peter: It's... it's 5/4.

And... and if you watched that Mission Impossible video, you noticed that I talked about the fact that Mission Impossible wouldn't have been possible, if it wasn't for Take Five.

I mean, that had a huge influence on Lalo Schifrin who... who wrote Mission... Mission Impossible.

But Dave Brubeck- his son, Chris, I've al... also worked with, but I've done several world premiers with Dave Brubeck, especially since he's local hero history, here, in Stockton.

He went to what was then the College of the Pacific- now, it's called the University of the Pacific- and he... he studied there.

That's where he met his wife, Iola, and he studied with a theory teacher there named Russell Bodley.

And when I first got called to be on that archive advisory committee that you're talking about, we got to s- Okay, first of all, he never threw anything away.

And so- Rob: I saw that when I- Yeah.

Peter: There... there are some love letters between him and Iola that are, really, kind of steamy.

Rob: They could be entire, um, musical productions... Peter: Yeah.

Yeah.

Rob: ...a love letter.

Peter: When the... when the... when the archive first came over to the university and not all of it was catalogued, they took us in the basement and I saw on a piece of manuscript paper, in Dave's handwriting, there... there was a C major chord on the bottom and a first inversion F-sharp major chord on the top.

And you don't need to know what that means, but that's a Petrushka chord.

And so, I thought, "Wow!

He's a Stravinsky fan."

And so, then, I went and listened to one of those old LPs of Jazz at Oberlin, where Dave and his quartet had played, and they started riffing on Petrushka in the middle of one of their songs at the end.

And I thought, "Wow!

There's a lot more to this guy besides just Take Five and Blue Rondo a La Turk," and it started this long relationship where we would premier some of his works with the symphony and equally premier some works with his son, Chris, who's also a world famous composer.

And one of the pieces they wrote, they co-composed.

It's a piece called "Ansel Adams: America," and during the piece, they- we show over a hundred slides by Ansel Adams while the symphony is playing.

And that's since been given all around the world.

Rob: That's amazing.

That is such a beautiful production.

Peter: I think, as human beings, we need music.

There has been no part in the history- and we're talking about tens of thousands of years.

There has been no part in the history of our species where we didn't have music.

You know, the very earliest human beings beat a log with a stick, or they would get a simple reed and turn it into a flute, or they would sing, you know, or do something.

We've always needed it, and it's- I think that, in music, you have a series of really complex emotions.

I mean, we're... we're used to thinking of really simplified, one-off emotions, like you're happy or you're sad or you're fearful or you're victorious.

Whereas, when you hear a certain passage of music, you can feel all those things at once.

You can be scared and you can be joyful at the same time.

Um- Rob: And vulnerable.

Peter: And vulnerable.

And if we were fully able to put into words how music works and how it makes us feel, then I think the art would be redundant.

It's the fact that we can't put it into words that makes it essential.

Rob: And it also- That's beautiful.

And it's also, bizarrely, a universal language.

You can play a song for someone and it can have so many different meanings... Peter: That's right.

Rob: ...to so many different people.

And I can't imagine my life without music.

I can't imagine getting through some of the things in my life I've been through without music- nor down the road, do I want to go through without music.

Peter: Yeah.

Rob: Um, and it has the ability to move you and... and transcend time and place to a spot inside of you that is uniquely yours, and I don't know much else that does that.

Peter: No, I don't either.

And... and I...

I can't help but recall two incidents that happened amidst tragedies, when the community felt we needed to have an orchestra concert.

Rob: Okay.

Peter: I...

I was slated to do a... a guest appearance with the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans, and I had...

I had guest conducted there before- you know, I...

I do guest conducting, besides the orchestras I've mentioned before- and it went really well and they asked me back.

But then, in the interim before my return, Katrina happened, the hurricane, which really just devastated so much of New Orleans and the surrounding area.

Rob: Where music is life.

Peter: Where music is life.

And this concert was delayed, and I was pretty sure that it was just going to be canceled.

But they called me up several months afterwards and said, "Are you still willing to come down and do this thing?"

And I said, "Absolutely."

In fact- You know, because that orchestra was really hurting and a lot of their musicians had to, you know, wait tables or move to Houston or something, I said, "I'll tell you what, "if you just fly me down there and put up- put me up in a hotel, I'll give you my fee."

Rob: Wow.

Peter: "It'll be a donation to the orchestra."

Um, and that was such a heartwarming morment- moment because we got- I got down there and we prepared this concert and the... the hall was packed, and it's like, we needed to have an experience.

We needed to have that communal experience that an audience has, where we listen to an orchestra play and we can all share this together.

I mean, the most important part about the concert is not just what's on the stage.

It's the audience, too.

It's... it's this communal activity.

Human beings, we love to gather, and we... we like to feel things together.

Rob: What was the second one?

Peter: Uh, that actually was the second one.

The first one had happened on the original 9/11 and- you know, the turn of the century.

And we were all slated in Stockton to play a concert that was featuring all American composers and we had recently won the award of being an All-American city and, you know, we had a soloist who was coming from Philadelphia to play Rhapsody in Blue, you know, by Gershwin, and all of a sudden, 9/11 happened- I think it was on a Tuesday.

My memory's fuzzy.

Rob: It was.

Peter: It was and, you know, the concert was that weekend.

And all of a sudden, imagine trying to fly across the country right after that happened.

And we gave the program and it was like everybody in the town wanted to come to that.

They needed that communal experience of feeling something deeply, and feeling it together.

Rob: Um, for your life, in- if there were a statement piece from you that the musical score said it all, is there a... is there a soundtrack for your life, so to speak, in music that you'd want to point to?

Or are you creating it?

Peter: Well, you've kind of elegantly put the typical question, is "What... what's your favorite piece," in... in broader and more elegant terms, but... but, um- Wow.

Maybe not.

I mean...

I mean, I'm so used to loving it all.

I mean, my... my stock answer is... is my favorite piece is the one I'm working on.

Um, and so, I don't know.

I think I would have a really hard time choosing that desert island piece.

I...

I...

I think I'd need a really huge desert island.

Um- Rob: I love that for you because it says that it is still as important today as it was in the beginning for you.

I mean, it... it is so... Peter: Yeah.

Rob: ...great that that is not something in the past.

Peter: Yeah.

Rob: Where do you see the next chapter being for you, with music?

What- Where- What do we see down the road with Peter Jaffe, with you?

Peter: Well, I can tell you what I'm looking forward to...

Rob: Okay.

Peter: ...uh, barring me getting run over by a bus, which is, in about five years, the Stockton Sym... Symphony is going to be celebrating its Centennial.

Rob: Hmm.

Peter: This orchestra is going to be a hundred years old.

Rob: Wow.

So, you're talking about in 2027?

Peter: In the '26-'27 season.

You know, our seasons are kind of like academic years.

And so, we straddle the '26, '27 years.

And I think, to me, that's going to be, like, a real pinnacle, um, and... and, you know, I've...

I've already kind of got my little secret bucket list of pieces and things that... that we might want to play during that season, and special activities and things that- You know, I'm already plotting with our wonderful CEO, Philip West, you know, what we're going to do.

Uh, but I think that's going to be a real milestone to have- again, standing on the shoulders of all my predecessors- but to be able to think that this organization has now played for a century.

I think that's going to be incredible.

Rob: Peter, that is so exciting.

That really is.

To hear you say that is so cool- For a century!

Peter: Yeah!

Rob: That is phenomenal.

I love that for you, and for California.

Peter: You know, when... when you think about a century ago, there were a lot of pieces that we like to play today that weren't even written yet...

Rob: Mmhmm.

Peter: ...and it...

Rob: Absolutely.

Peter: ...it's just amazing what... what... what's happened.

Yeah.

Rob: And who knows what will unfold before then?

But we know that you will be there leading the helm, not a century down the road, but in five years, when we celebrate the century mark.

Peter, it is so good to see you.

Thank you for being on Rob at Home.

I have heard- I've known you for, uh, throughout 10 years, at least, here in... in California, and you really are the music man.

And I...

I love that you- Peter: Oh, I real...

I really appreciate it.

And I especially appreciate talking about playing for the young, because that's something that's really close to my heart.

Um, reaching young audiences, I...

I think it's magic.

You know?

Rob: Yeah.

I noticed your ability to do that, and it really... it really got me because I saw dreams... Peter: Yeah.

Rob: ...beginning in children when they were listening to you, and to see that, it's like, oh!

There's nothing more beautiful.

So, thank you for making that happen.

Peter Jaffe, it's so great to see you from your home in Stockton.

Peter: Well, thank you, Rob, nd I'm a big fan of yours too.

Thanks for everything that you do.

Rob: Thank you, and we will, uh, talk to you soon and I can't wait to hear more music from you.

And we will see you next week on Rob at Home.

Stay with PBS KVIE.

We'll see you next week.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Peter.

Peter: Thank you.

♪♪ ♪♪