Arizona opinion: What does a community want from a music director? Tucson knows.

As Americans continue to grapple with what former United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation,” the need for social infrastructures that “bring people together” remains a high priority. One such organization, the American symphony orchestra, now faces a critical juncture in determining the extent of its outreach as four major ensembles seek a new conductor: Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and (soon) Cleveland.

The choice carries intriguing implications for community social health. As New York Times classical music reporter Adam Nagourney recently lamented, orchestras traditionally employ celebrity conductors whose residency may last only 12-14 weeks a year, precluding the kind of grocery-store public rapport allowing conductors to “be a presence in the city.” My research on Tucson’s own musical past bears out Nagourney’s nostalgia, affirming the critical role which resident conductors play in promoting community connection. In Tucson’s case, it was a brilliant Hungarian immigrant whose down-home persona and gift for public music education helped shape the city’s musicscape as it is still known today: Frederic Balazs.

In Balazs, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra got its first full-time conductor, but it also got someone with purpose and vision. “Music is the instrument to bring the heart of a community together,” Balazs wrote at the dawn of his residency in 1952. Within a year, he had not only elevated the Symphony’s performance quality but also organized the Tucson Civic Chorus, which assumed its current identity in the 1980s as the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. Within eight years, Balazs had also established a youth symphony that would become today’s Tucson Youth Philharmonia. “It was not just about music,” recalled former participant turned director, Suzette Battan. “It was a social outlet for these really talented people. ... You might be the one unusual talent at your school, and you feel very isolated, but within the youth orchestra, you were inspired to be with the best and shoot for the best.” Both organizations have been fostering community connection now for more than half a century.

Balazs developed an extensive local network that drew the community together in gratuitous concerts for thousands of schoolchildren. Employers released players from work for the day, bus companies offered discounts, and volunteer ushers escorted long lines of children to and from the University of Arizona auditorium. High school students choreographed dances, made costumes, prepared programs, and even performed with the orchestra. These concerts ultimately reached up to 20,000 children each year, all ensured by Balazs’s clock-like coordination as a resident conductor.

Living in town also meant that Balazs and the orchestra players became well acquainted, both in rehearsals and in daily life. So Balazs would have understood that TSO clarinetist James Glasgow idolized Benny Goodman. “I dreamed that I would meet Benny Goodman,” Glasgow recalled, “and he would tell me that there was something wrong with his clarinet and did I know someone who could fix it. The other part of the dream was that (Goodman) might play with a jazz combo and ask me to play.” Balazs literally made these dreams come true, booking Goodman for the Symphony and then inviting Glasgow to a cocktail party held later in Goodman’s honor.

“When we met, we seemed to hit it off right away,” Glasgow recounted. “But when he asked me if I knew where he could get his clarinet fixed, I almost fainted.” Glasgow subsequently chauffeured Goodman around town, treated him to dinner, and yes, even performed with him in a roof-raising hour of jazz encores following the symphony concert. Glasgow’s obituary recorded the event as “a highlight of his life.”

In a time when civic unity might seem more distant than ever, Tucson can show just what a resident conductor like Balazs might do: not only elevate an ensemble but also create opportunities to “bring the heart of a community together.”