When American Idol first aired 8 years ago, my inner entrepreneur marveled at the financial acumen of the show. In an era when kids don’t let radio or MTV tell them what they’re supposed to listen to in order to be cool, how does the music industry create a successful song-selling artist? Simple—let the kids themselves decide who they want, through an extended contest mechanism. At the end of the contest, there will be at least one if not more brand names to put before the song-buying public, carefully established commodities who will guarantee sales. Since the musicians are newcomers, their contracts will be cheap. No more risky guessing and backing musicians who the fickle public ignores.

As one who has tried for decades to figure out how to make a living by writing, performing, showcasing, or writing about music, I can’t help but be impressed by the efficiency and music industry success of American Idol.

Apparently Jung-Ho Pak was also struck by the career-making apparatus of American Idol; he was inspired enough to establish a small-scale classical music version which he optimistically calls The Next Star. Through an audition process, Orchestra Nova is putting three talented local musicians before an audience this weekend, and asking listeners to vote for the best one.

Classical music competitions have been around for decades, but the judges are always professionals, never audiences. Careers can result from winning a prestigious prize, but more often than not, winning one is little more than another sentence in a performer’s program note bio. Like American Idol, classical competitions usually have age limits.

What makes The Next Star unique from either of these two types of contests is: 1) there’s no age limit; and 2) the competition is limited to San Diego residents. Also, contestants must not be professional soloists.

The supply of highly qualified classical musicians in the U.S., ever increasing through conservatory and university programs, greatly exceeds the American demand for them. The result is that the average professional classical musician today plays at a much higher level than his or her predecessors half a century ago, but the downside is that there are plenty of extremely talented musicians who wind up in fields unrelated to their musical studies. The genius of Pak’s idea is that it taps into this hidden reservoir of musical talent.

Consider Hei-ock Kim, a pianist with a doctorate in music (she graduated from Juilliard); her day job is working at Birch Aquarium. Gorden Cheng doesn’t even have higher schooling in piano, but he practices 3 hours every day outside of his duties as a systems engineer for Sony.

Orchestra Nova.

^{Courtesy Photo}

The third contestant, soprano Maria Lozano, is a vocal student at San Diego State, but she arrived there through an untypically circuitous route, with detours in the Mexican Navy and computer engineering before she applied to grad school at SDSU.

So did these finalists deserve to be on stage with a professional orchestra? Yes! All three are talented enough that I would attend (and review) a recital by any of them. There wasn’t an obvious standout for the best musician in Friday night’s concert at St. Paul’s Cathedral. (Ballots distributed to the audience are tabulated every evening, so there will be a “winner” for each night, with First Place going to the musicians with the most votes overall after 3 performances).

Kim performed first, choosing the last movement of Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto. All the notes (and there are lots!) were in place and it was taken at a nice clip, demonstrating solid piano technique and an understanding of the music. It would have sounded even better had Kim put a bit more fire into her part; while she performed what Beethoven wrote, one wished that she would have played with the music more.

Because the altar/stage of St. Paul’s does not accommodate both an orchestra and a grand piano, the piano was on the floor below the orchestra. A video camera trained on the keyboard and projected onto a screen left of the podium allowed all the audience members further than three rows back to watch and enjoy the piano action.

Next, Lozano performed three selections: the Alleluia from Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate, "Mi chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme, and Ponce’s Estrellita. Alleluia requires the singer to take rapid flourishes in a single breath, which Lozano did, to much excitement, but her vibrato throughout was somewhat mechanical. For a soprano she has a dark tone, and in her lower register almost sounds like an alto. She can maneuver in her high range, however, but her highest notes for Mozart were a little too shrill.

Lozano’s rendition of "Mi chiamano Mimi" was well received by the audience, but I suspect they may have been responding more to Puccini’s gorgeous music than any extraordinary interpretation. Out of all Puccini’s soprano arias, this one requires the most acting: it starts out as simple chitchat about Mimi—who she is, what she likes—but when she sings about her rooftop view, something amazing happens. She reveals an inner poetry, an ability to find profound beauty in common things, and Puccini sets these words with a soaring, heart-stopping melody, and then, just as suddenly, backs down, as if Mimi is ashamed of revealing something so intimate about herself to a stranger. A good performance of this aria should capture all of this, and it wasn’t there. The shrillness heard earlier in the Mozart selection was gone, and Lozano’s climactic notes were radiantly sung, but there wasn’t any personality to this aria. Lest readers think I’m too harsh, listen to what a good opera singer can do with this, and ask yourself if you heard any of that in Lozano’s performance.

Where she really shone was in her passionate rendition of the unofficial national song of Mexico, Estrellita. Here was the yearning, sex, and playfulness that was absent in her Puccini performance. This was the one real part of her stage time that announced that she is an artist to keep an eye on.

Gorden Cheng ended the first half with Chopin’s Grande Polonaise, a canny selection for both its musical virtues and its technical displays. Cheng tossed off the most difficult passages with confidence, alternately playing with bravado and lyricism. Unlike Kim’s Beethoven or Lozano’s first two selections, Cheng went beyond the notes to put a little of his own personality into the music (notably good humor), and for that extra individual touch, I gave Cheng my vote as best of the three (and so did my wife).

Who was the audience favorite? At the end of the concert, Pak announced that the tally was very close, but Lozano came out ahead of the other two. The musician garnering the most votes after the final concert on Monday will get to perform with Orchestra Nova next season.

It’s been 2 years since I’ve heard the orchestra (the last concert I attended, they were still known as the San Diego Chamber Orchestra). Friday night revealed a sharper group, with few of the intonation and ensemble problems that marred the last performance I heard. The strings sounded especially good this time around, and one hopes Pak can maintain and even improve the level of performance heard on Friday evening.

Prior to the soloists in the first half, the concert opened with Mozart’s Overture to The Impresario, a wry programmatic comment on the competition which followed. The second half was devoted to Schubert’s Fifth Symphony, which was given a light, witty reading by Pak and the musicians.

The Next Star was a gamble, but one which paid off well for the orchestra. What happens next after the votes have been cast?

Let’s be optimistic about what this effort can accomplish. One musician, whose dreams of a musical career have either been put aside for practicality or not yet come to fruition, will have the opportunity next year to perform with Orchestra Nova. All three, with the orchestra’s managerial help, should have the opportunity to present recitals around the county. One hopes other presenting organizations in town are taking note of this, and will consider booking any of these musicians on their series. Their fee will be reasonable, and there will be an interested audience willing to follow up and buy tickets to hear Kim, Cheng, and Lozano. (Here’s an idea—Lozano could be accompanied by either pianist, each pianist could play solo music, and Kim and Cheng could team up for a piano duo or four-hand piece.)

Finally, the success of these musicians will encourage other amateurs to come forward, and contribute more to the city’s musical life. It’s a nice dream; let’s hope that Orchestra Nova and San Diego classical music lovers can make it come true.

For a copy of the program, click here and here.

For more information on The Next Star and contestant submissions, as well as a chance to vote on a winner, click here.