Alumni Watch: Hugh M. Wolff '75

Attention, first-years—-There is yet another reason to stay as far away as possible from Math 55: “Honors Advanced Calculus and Linear Algebra.” It didn’t help Hugh M. Wolff ’75.

The internationally renowned symphony conductor remembers his freshman-year initiation into the daunting world of Harvard math and science with some chagrin. “I took Physics 55 or something for physics majors and Math 50-something for math majors,” he laughs, saying he quickly realized he wasn’t cut out for the work.

Slamming his topology textbooks shut forever, Wolff went off to study music composition under Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus Leon Kirchner ’61. “It was the rigor of the musical training that attracted me [to composition],” Wolff says in a phone interview, citing Kirchner’s seminars as a highlight of his undergraduate career. But Wolff found the student-led recitals even more stimulating, and decided his true passion lay in performance.

Wolff trekked to Paris immediately after graduation to study conducting with Charles Bruck. He returned to the U.S. for graduate school and a 12-year stint leading the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minneapolis, the nation’s only full-time professional chamber orchestra.

The conductor’s penchant for continent-hopping never faded. In 2000, Wolff moved his family to London and became a denizen of the international terminal; for five years, Wolff commuted from England to Germany to serve as Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.

The classical music tradition is imprinted so deeply in European culture that, as Wolff wryly puts it, “If you’re walking down the street [in Europe] holding a violin case, no one is tempted to ask you what your day job is.”

This past August marked Wolff’s return to the U.S. True to form, much of his upcoming year will be spent traveling and guest conducting for orchestras across Europe. Yet Wolff looks forward to settling back into the American music scene. “I’m hoping to be able to transmit some of that [European tradition] to American orchestras.”