Plum for a musician - and for the orchestra

To thousands of aspiring young musicians, what Joseph Conyers achieved in the spring was the stuff of elusive dreams.

His resume was plucked from a stack of 237. In auditions, his playing stood out among five dozen others. The pool was culled to 13 musicians, then five.

Then two.

In the end, after four rounds of orchestral and concerto excerpts, Conyers and his double bass - a well-kept 208-year-old auburn Italian nicknamed "Norma" - won a plum spot in the Philadelphia Orchestra; he played for the first time as a member at its Sept. 21 City Hall concert.

But Conyers' entry into the Philadelphia Orchestra is also a marker for the institution: He is the first African American player to be hired by the 102-member orchestra since 1974.

After admitting its first African American musician in 1969 and two more in the early 1970s (players now in their mid- to late 60s), progress stopped - until Conyers took up his post with the start of this season.

Many observers say that music is color-blind and that the racial composition of a symphony orchestra doesn't matter. An orchestra's demographics can be sliced and diced in a variety of ways, and no one has accused the Philadelphia Orchestra of overt racism. Musical quality, musicians and management maintain, is the sole criterion in auditions, a portion of which happens behind a screen.

But that doesn't mean the orchestra and the larger music community have done all they can to cultivate and capture African American talent in a city that is 44 percent black, and the significance of Conyers' arrival and its responsibilities are not lost on the bubbly 29-year-old Curtis Institute of Music alum.

"Yes, I think it matters," he says, "mainly for relevancy to one's community."

"For our community to see itself on our stage, in our ensemble, underscores our commitment to Philadelphia," says orchestra president Allison B. Vulgamore. "Welcoming Joseph is good for the orchestra, good for our city, and wonderful for the many lives I know he will touch in his continued commitment to bring the joy of music to as many Philadelphians as he can."

Conyers, born and raised in Savannah, Ga., and a 2004 Curtis graduate, is not merely a member of the bass section. He is also assistant principal, which means occasionally perching on the visible principal stool usually occupied by his former Curtis teacher Harold Robinson, as he did for the City Hall neighborhood concert.

He hopes his presence will be efficacious. Conyers says peer pressure often keeps young African American musicians from pursuing classical music. He felt it as the child of a musical family.

"Some of my peers were like, 'Oh, why do you do that? Classical music?' I got made fun of. For goodness' sake, my two loves were classical music and weather," he says.

And then, erupting into laughter: "What's wrong with that kid?"

He compares the messaging aspect of his arrival to sports.

"Think about golfing and Tiger Woods. Think about Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters. I would bet money that African American involvement in both of those sports went up."

He tells the story of a call from a music teacher asking if he could listen to a bass student who was having motivation problems.

"The first thing his mother said to me was, 'This is so exciting, because he's never seen anyone who looks like him who does this.' And I gave him a lesson, and we had a good time.

"I got an e-mail from the teacher later saying that the mom said the kid hadn't put the bass down since. He had been encouraged. He was excited. . . . He identified with someone in the ensemble who looked like him, so it was OK."

Conyers, who says that "with opportunity comes responsibility," is still grateful for being the beneficiary of a significant act of generosity. When he won a chance in high school to attend Boston University's prestigious summer Tanglewood Institute, his family didn't have the cash to send him. Teachers and administrators from his school took it upon themselves to raise the money.

"Here's the deal: I wouldn't be where I am if it weren't for the opportunities I was given as a kid - the sacrifices my parents made, the sacrifices my teachers made, people who opened doors for me where they normally wouldn't be. And I think it would be horribly selfish for me to not do the same, if not a hundredfold, because I feel it's my responsibility - on top of the fact that I care."

Conyers started out on piano; a sister played cello, a brother violin.

"I realized that my brother and sister got to make music and hang out with their friends, while I sat home alone on the piano," he says. "I wanted to be able to play with my friends, too! But I didn't want to play what everyone else played. I wanted to play something different - something that would really get people's attention.

"The orchestra teacher at school needed a bass player, and she knew I was interested in playing another instrument. Knowing that I already knew how to read music, she suggested that I play the double bass.

"I took a look at it and said, 'Yep, it's definitely different.' I often reflect on this decision whenever I have to travel with my double bass."

His summer in Tanglewood, he says, "really did change my life. I was with a lot of bass players at a very, very high level. It was the first time I heard about Curtis. There was a horn player who had gotten in, and I was like, 'What's that?' "

He was encouraged to audition for Curtis, and his career trajectory since conservatory has proceeded in graceful leaps. He became principal bassist of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan at 24, and, after 31/2 years, he landed a spot in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in January 2009. The post here - whose salary a Philadelphia Orchestra spokeswoman declined to quantify - came after just a year and a half in Atlanta.

Though Vulgamore also came to Philadelphia from the Atlanta ensemble, she didn't recruit him - he read a newspaper ad for the job - and no one believes that Conyers won his job for any reasons other than musical ones.

"Joe is a terrific musician," says longtime Philadelphia Orchestra double bassist Duane Rosengard. "I sit directly behind him, or sometimes next to him. He is absolutely first rate, and I'm really glad we have him. He is a hard worker - and I'm not just talking about wasting time running your fingers over the strings. He works on his style, his sound, articulation, phrasing - all those important things."

Double bass soloist Edgar Meyer, with whom Conyers studied at Curtis, says Conyers has "a very righteous sound, a very large sound. He's very confident of where he wants to take things expressively."

Still, Meyer says, "he's not busy trying to make sure you remember Joe. He's just playing beautifully."

Conyers says he is sometimes known as a "distinctive, crazy, personality" player.

"I just have a lot to say musically," he says. "My musical background was gospel music, growing up in a traditional black Southern church. I grew up loving that. My mother, she's a singer [a trained, amateur classical one], so I kind of had classical music and gospel at the same time. The expression in gospel music - that's what I connected with. That's what drew me in. Because of the soul and the passion of both gospel singers and instrumentalists, I realized that these musicians weren't just singing or playing notes. They were actually saying something. That's the way I approach my music-making."

In orchestral auditions, he says, "some people like it, some people hate it." He says one orchestra audition drew the comment: Too musical for an audition.

Not true anymore (if it ever really was). Conyers is considered such a catch that some observers fear he'll be hired away. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is holding November auditions for a principal bassist, and Conyers, his chops already honed from the Philadelphia audition, represents exactly the kind of high-profile splash that new music director Riccardo Muti might like.

Meyer says Conyers is a "very serious contender" for the Chicago post. On the possibility of auditioning and accepting a job there, Conyers declines to comment.

His predecessor in Philadelphia, Neil Courtney, retired after 48 years in the orchestra, but Conyers' interests have been so numerous and varied that it's hard to say whether any big orchestra job, plum though it may be, is his final career destination.

He plays chamber music and teaches. He runs a nonprofit, Project 440, that engages musicians as advocates through community projects, and has helped the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra develop curriculum for an elementary school - a total skill set that dovetails nicely in Philadelphia, where the orchestra is on the brink of a major transformation emphasizing community and education.

Norma, whose nickname comes from a feminization of the last name of maker Vincenzo Panormo, and her owner are in a good spot right now. But can orchestra life really be it?

"That's an interesting question. I have no idea," Conyers says. "I'm on Cloud Nine now. Everything's been great. There are a lot of things I wish I could do. But I'm learning more and more that I'm only one person and I won't be able to change the world myself physically.

"Or maybe I can. I won't rule it out."