She found music early in life and never let go - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Conducting wasn’t something Alyze Dreiling ever saw herself doing. She stumbled into it as a result of her first husband’s funeral. When Zoltan Rozsnyai — founder and conductor of the Philharmonica Hungarica, assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and music director of the San Diego Symphony — passed away in 1990, Dreiling decided to conduct the funeral concert at his service. An accomplished violinist and violist herself, she’d introduced him to “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis,” composed by Ralph Vaughn Williams, and it became one of the couple’s favorite pieces.

“I wanted to give a special gift from my heart to Zoli and decided that I would conduct the Vaughn Williams. That was my first conducting experience and after that, I have been driven to conduct,” she says. “It seems, for me, that conducting is second nature.”

It would seem that she isn’t the only one who sees it that way. She recently earned first prize in The American Prize in conducting, in the youth and school orchestra division, after winning second and third prizes in previous years.

Dreiling lives in Rancho Bernardo and has a daughter from her first marriage, Alize Rozsnyai, who’s an opera singer (her second marriage was to the late Thomas Hammer). Filling her time with music, she is currently the artistic director of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s festival orchestra, soloists ensemble and soloists sinfonietta; conductor of the Civic Youth Orchestra’s symphonic orchestra; conductor of the North Coast Strings; principal violist of the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra and Grossmont Symphony String Quintet; and maintains a private teaching studio. She took some time to talk about her life in music and her passion for music education.

Q: What do you recall was your earliest introduction to music?

A: Well, my father, Clement, was an organist and choir director and I recall being taken to Tuesday night choir practice at St. Robert Bellarmine in Redford, Mich. I would sleep or play with toys on the pews in the choir loft while my father conducted rehearsal and my mother sang in the choir. She had a very beautiful, untrained voice. Her big talent was as a fine artist and oil painter.

We also had a piano at home, and even before I officially took lessons with my mother, who could play a little, I would compose little pieces and loved to fool around on the piano. It was funny because my father, who was really the pianist, started off teaching my older sister, but he was too impatient. My sister disliked his frustration and the lessons quickly stopped, so both my parents agreed that with me, my mother would start me on the piano. The hope was that she would have more patience and the lessons would take.

Q: What led to the violin and viola?

A: I learned to read music pretty quickly, and I guess I was bored with the discipline of the piano lesson curriculum and went off on my own just playing the easy sonatas we had lying around. At 11, I fell in love with the sound of the cello and wanted to learn that. I played and carried that big cello back and forth to school for the whole school year. That summer I took a little summer music class and realized that the violin had most of the nice melodies and was a lot easier to carry, so I switched to the violin and never looked back. … From the time I started to play the violin, I didn’t even consider another profession. I just wanted to do it for my whole life and it seemed to me that that is what I was supposed to do. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Q: What appealed to you about playing music, over pursuing another art form?

A: I think the big appeal was that playing music, piano or violin, just came relatively easy to me. I think that is the case with most musicians. Not to say that it isn’t hard, daily work and diligent practice, because it is. But if you end up with good results after some hard work, and those results stick, then you can say it comes relatively easy.

Q: And why classical music?

A: Classical music speaks to me in a way that other music doesn’t. Studying music by the greatest composers — Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, just to name a few — is mind-boggling in terms of form, harmonic and melodic content. And still, beyond all of the analysis, it is speaking to my soul and gut on a deep level. This is why classical music.

Having said that, I love to listen to all kinds of music, whether jazz, R&B, rock, funk, new indie groups, and yes, country music, too. To me, a good song is a good song, whether it holds my attention with the rhythmic or melodic aspects, or contains lyrics that I can relate to or find clever. I also admire, so much, those musicians who can improvise. Great stuff.

Q: What’s your approach to conducting, or your goal as a conductor?

A: My philosophy as a conductor is to serve the musicians of the orchestra in reproducing the intent of the composer. We perform and experience a piece of music together, to the end of serving the composer. The chief must be at the helm in this situation, and certainly phrasing and tempo are at the discretion of the conductor; however, the musicians must feel comfortable and trust the conductor, so that they can all play to the best of their ability within the orchestra.

Q: What kind of music do you listen to when you want to relax?

A: When I want to relax, I can’t listen to music.

Q: What kind of music do you listen to when you want to party or feel upbeat and excited?

A: Anything Motown; Earth, Wind & Fire; late ‘70s and early ‘80s disco. Possibly Boston, Eagles, Steely Dan, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder.

Q: Who’s your favorite composer and/or piece of music?

A: Oh my, that is so difficult. There are so many. May I offer four pieces that are on my list of pieces that I can’t listen to without tearing up, they touch me at such a deep level? They would be Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler; Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss; the second movement of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto; and the Lachrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem.

Q: You’re a private music teacher, adjunct faculty member at Grossmont College and the University of San Diego, and you were the founding artistic director and conductor for Classics for Kids, as well as the current artistic director of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s probably safe to say that you have a passion for teaching music. Where did that come from?

A: I love to teach and see that seed of music take root in my students. It is so rewarding to feel that I am giving some of what others have given me over the years. I just cannot express how fulfilling that is. It doesn’t matter that most of my students won’t major in music or choose it as a career (although some do!), but I know that they will continue to love music and have it in their lives. To me, that is very important.

Q: Why is music education important to you?

A: Music education, as well as any of the arts, is human expression on the highest level. It requires us to reach higher and further than our day-to-day human tasks. It inspires us to question and search for meaning in our lives. Pretty spiritual.

Q: What’s been challenging about your work?

A: I think one of the most challenging things is finding enough hours in the day to do as many things as I would like to do.

Q: What’s been rewarding about this work?

A: Coming out of a concert and being approached members of the orchestra who not only felt the concert went well, but describing that they really “felt” the music that they played.

Q: What has this work taught you about yourself?

A: I have learned a lot about my personal, professional goals, and have learned that I can do tasks that I never thought possible. I think at heart, I am a fairly shy and contemplative person, but in my work I have to be outgoing and exuberant at times. I am able to do this if I can then retreat to my personal space for thought and study.

Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

A: My mother, Marcy Rita Dreiling, said, “Don’t do something unless you plan give it your all.”

Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: I love to garden and love to do home improvements. I wish I would feel comfortable using power tools to do home renovations. I love being home, when I can, and just piddling around the house.

To suggest a notable San Diegan for the One-on-One series, contact Lisa Deaderick at lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com.

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