Quadriplegic Conductor Learns New Ways To Lead

By Sabine Kortals
Published: DenverPost.com, 8/12/2005
Special to The Denver Post

It happened in a flash.

Driving to Aspen from Santa Monica, Calif., Mario Sergio Miragliotta fell asleep at the wheel. The promising young conductor woke up a quadriplegic.

"It was supposed to be my second summer at the American Academy of Conducting," said Miragliotta, who returns to Aspen this Sunday for the first time since his accident to conduct the Aspen Festival Orchestra in Arthur Honegger's "Pastorale d'été." "I had decided to take the trip alone, and the superman inside of me kept driving, even when I knew it was time to stop."

That was 2001.

Today, the 39-year-old, who lives in San Diego with his wife and young son, is picking up the pieces with the stuff that real superheroes are made of: courage, perseverance and plenty of pluck.

"Coming back to Aspen is going to be very emotional for me," said Miragliotta, who has conducted the Los Angeles-based American Youth Symphony since his accident, among other conducting engagements. "Music will never leave my body. It has always been my friend."

Even so, Miragliotta backed off his immediate return to conducting to take things one challenge at a time.

"I was blessed to be able to conduct so soon after the accident," he said. "When I entered a rehearsal of Alexander Treger conducting the American Youth Symphony, hearing the music made me cry.

"But as anyone with a spinal-cord injury will tell you, it's very difficult just to get through the day, let alone accomplish any work," he said. "Getting out of bed and taking a shower take almost two hours, and cutting up a piece of fruit is a victory . . . everything takes a lot of effort.

"So I decided to take some time off conducting to first become as independent as possible to be better prepared to accomplish more work. Most recently, I started driving again. I'm slowly rediscovering life."

David Zinman, music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School and founder of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, describes Miragliotta's upcoming stage appearance as an "experiment."

"Mario is very gifted and talented," Zinman said. "After his first summer here, we invited him back.

"Now he doesn't have the facilities he used to have, and he's working on his stamina," he said. "But we decided to give him a chance. It'll give us the opportunity to see him again, and we'll see how things go."

Miragliotta credits not only Zinman - who will conduct works by Mozart and Richard Strauss on the same program - but the academy's associate director and program coordinator, Murry Sidlin; and festival's artistic advisor and administrator, Asadour Santourian, with coordinating his return to Aspen.

"My hands, arms and legs aren't very functional," he said. "So I'll be conducting from my wheelchair on the stage, not from a podium.

"The magic lies in how to communicate with the orchestra in new ways. That's one of the things I've been working on since my accident."

Born in Brazil to Japanese and Italian immigrants, the maestro studied conducting and composition at São Paulo State University and viola at Yale University. He resumed his conducting education at the University of Southern California and later studied with prominent conductor Sergiu Comissiona, who once described Miragliotta as an "exceptionally and naturally gifted conductor with a great future."

Miragliotta - whose infatuation with conducting was motivated by Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" - hopes to make good on that praise by developing ways to communicate with orchestras and audiences beyond the usual visible gestures.

"Being in front of an orchestra is like being in front of an X-ray machine," he said. "The musicians don't need much from a conductor except a little help with the mathematics of music and knowing that you have something to say about the music.

"What's really important is to touch their hearts. And that's not something you see, but something inside of you that musicians can sense about you with very little body motion."

According to Zinman, the Honegger piece is especially appropriate for such a subtle approach. "It's not totally strenuous," he said. "It's short and slow, and it doesn't require a huge effort. That's important in this altitude, where you really have to be in shape."

" 'Pastorale d'été' is a little jewel," Miragliotta said. "It's full of beautiful colors, and it's very transparent and understated. I want to bring out the legato feeling of the long lines and phrases."

Over time, Miragliotta aims to change the way musicians and audiences think about conducting.

"Maybe music doesn't need another good conductor," he said. "Maybe music needs a good conductor in a wheelchair.

"I'm not saying that because I want to be a star, but because I love music and I want to continue doing what I do."