Pioneer at the podium

Suddenly it's the season of impressive African-Americans showing up in Prague. Just two months ago, President Barack Obama stood at the gates of Prague Castle and told an audience of 30,000 that, if his election was possible, so is a world free of nuclear weapons. This weekend, another native Chicagoan hopes to establish some benchmarks of his own.

Marlon Daniel, an up-and-coming African-American conductor, will be leading the Praga Sinfonietta this weekend in an ambitious program of Brahms and Mahler, along with the world premiere of a new work by American composer Hampson Sisler. His appearance is not as much of a stretch as it might seem. Daniel has not only conducted at the Rudolfinum before; he studied at the Prague Music Academy (HAMU) and the Prague Conservatory, earning postgraduate degrees from both.

"I thank the Czech Republic for helping me get the training I needed at a crucial point in my life," he says. "I'm not sure I would have gotten the same opportunities in the U.S."

Daniel grew up in a bad neighborhood on the west side of Chicago, where drugs and gangs ruled the streets. "For me, it was a type of prison, and I was desperate to get out," he recalls. "Music provided me with hope and the means for escape."

He fell in love with classical music at the age of 7, watching "Live from Lincoln Center" on television with his grandmother, who was instrumental in encouraging and supporting his musical education. Daniel excelled at piano and cello, and still occasionally performs as a concert pianist. (He's also a ballet dancer and holds two silver medals in judo.) He studied domestically at the Manhattan School of Music, and abroad at conservatories in France and Spain. But his big break came in the summer of 2003, at a conductor's workshop in Hradec Králové, where he caught the eye of Praga Sinfonietta founder, music director and conductor Miriam Němcová.

"Miriam thought I had a natural affinity for Czech music," Daniel says. "She offered me a position with the Praga Sinfonietta, which had never previously been offered to a foreigner. I accepted on the spot."

Less than two years later, in February 2005, Daniel made an inauspicious debut at the Rudolfinum.

"It was a great concert that I worked very hard on, but Mother Nature had different plans," he says. "There was a huge snowstorm, and hardly even the main floor of the hall was filled. I vowed never to give another concert in Prague in the middle of winter!"

The weather should be more cooperative this time, and the program is fresh and substantive. Sisler's Phoenix Forever follows the mythical bird through its phases of life, death and rebirth, ending in what Daniel describes as a "cadence of confidence, flying off into a new life." The Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor will pair Daniel with two well-regarded Bulgarian soloists, Kalin Ivanov (cello) and Hristo Popov (violin). And Mahler's Symphony No. 4 features an outstanding young American singer, lyric coloratura soprano Melissa Cintron.

"Melissa has one of the most angelic voices in the opera world today," Daniel says. "I got the chance to work with her in a performance of Ariadne auf Naxos, and I think she is a big star in the making."

For a long time, black musicians who found limited opportunities or battled outright prejudice in the States have been coming to Europe, where audiences tended not to judge them by their color. Daniel hasn't faced the same discrimination that drove, for example, legendary singer Marian Anderson or jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon abroad. But he is certainly aware of what he represents.

"As an African-American conductor in Europe, I feel I'm seen as something exotic, interesting and sometimes new," he says. "In America, there's still a lack of people of color in classical orchestras, and I think it's been exceptionally hard for African-American conductors. But I don't find this as much a detriment as a challenge. If Obama can become the first African-American president, I feel I can become the first African-American music director of a major American symphony orchestra, or its international equivalent. I feel that I too can become a role model - and given the opportunity, I will."

Frank Kuznik can be reached at
fkuznik@praguepost.com