The first weeks have been wild for new Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra conductor Ryan Tani

No easing into the new job for Ryan Tani, who joined the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra this season as assistant conductor. He's experienced a full-immersion baptism into Milwaukee musical culture.

The first show Tani conducted here? The Violent Femmes' sold-out Oct. 3 performance with the orchestra.

Then, on Nov. 11, with just a few hours notice and no rehearsal, Tani stepped in for the ailing Edo de Waart to lead a demanding classics program featuring the music of Elgar, Rachmaninoff and John Adams.

As this season unfolds, most of Tani's work won't be as high-profile. But the enthusiastic 30-year-old will be busy, leading about 60 concerts, including youth, family and community engagement programs; Pops concerts; and films with live orchestra accompaniment.

A singer who took up the baton

Tani start playing violin at age 3. Then he made singing his priority, attending the Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City, where he sang the cycle of choral repertoire over and over. He studied vocal performance at the University of Southern California.

But even though he was "an incredibly shy child," he also imagined the possibility of being the person in front of an orchestra. "I had incredible mentors and teachers who I really looked up to," he said. "They really pulled me out of my shell."

His USC freshman roommate asked Tani to start an orchestra, separate from the established student organization, mostly for non-music majors who wanted to play solo repertoire. The group they started, then called Concerto Chamber Orchestra, is still active, Tani said proudly.

Tani went to the Peabody Institute in Baltimore for graduate studies in conducting, where one of his teachers was Marin Alsop, a major international conductor. "She really kicked my butt," Tani said, meaning that in a positive way. Alsop taught him the level of commitment necessary to work with musicians and produce the best music possible.

He finished his graduate education at Yale University. Tani served as interim symphony choir director with the Bozeman Symphony and taught at Montana State University before winning the MSO position.

Taking over on short notice

Responsibilities of the MSO's assistant conductor include "covering" music director Ken-David Masur and guest conductors by attending rehearsals and learning the music for that week's program, in case of emergency.

Around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 11, Tani was home, looking over music for a future program when vice president of artistic planning Bret Dorhout called. Music director laureate Edo de Waart, who had conducted the previous day, was ailing and unable to go on. Dorhout was passing the baton to Tani.

Tani had about three hours until he was on the podium.

The scheduled music was "not an easy program," Tani said, probably in understatement. It included contemporary composer John Adams' "The Chairman Dances," a 1985 work originally commissioned by the MSO and strongly associated with the internationally renowned de Waart; Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," featuring piano soloist Joyce Yang; and Elgar's "Enigma Variations."

"The Chairman Dances" is "a piece that requires immense focus," Tani said. "The Rachmaninoff is relatively tricky … (with) tempi that need to be set well, so that Joyce (Yang) can have the flexibility that she wants."

Some of what happened after Dorhout's call is a blur in Tani's memory. MSO music director Masur called Tani with his vote of confidence. As soon as he could that late afternoon, Tani connected with Yang, a frequent soloist with the MSO.

"We were able to go over the piece together just briefly before the performance," he said.

Tani also conferred with concertmaster Jinwoo Lee and principal bassoonist Catherine Van Handel about tempi for their sections and other details.

Aware that de Waart and the orchestra had rehearsed these pieces together and performed them the previous day, Tani did not see his role as heroic reimagining of everything. "That's both irresponsible and not collegial," he said. Rather, he aimed to "not get in the way too much."

When Tani walked off the podium after the concert, "I was just glowing," he said.

"I felt deeply the love and support of the musicians and the staff after the performance in a way that I never expected."

Conducting is a form of nonverbal communication

When he talks about his profession, Tani repeats this statement like a mantra: "The conductor doesn't make any sound."

When Tani visits classrooms participating in the MSO's Arts in Community Education program, he takes kindergarten students through an exercise that both demonstrates and explains what a conductor does.

Tani and the students start by making rhythms together. Then they change the volume, the speed and other elements of the rhythms, using "our body language to demonstrate what we're doing," he said.

"The goal of that exercise is to say that conducting is really a form of nonverbal communication," he said.

"I have been so impressed with how Ryan has jumped right into everything," said Rebecca Whitney, MSO director of education, in an email response to questions about Tani's role in education programs.

"His enthusiasm and excitement is contagious to our student audiences," Whitney wrote. "He is also incredibly prepared and thoughtful about what he doing and how he is doing it, but also adaptable. That’s an important quality when working with students."

Tani sees his role as conductor as one of communicating what he understands about the music to the orchestra, and "to be a servant of the composer."

He is dismissive of what we calls "maestroism," the notion that everything revolves around the conductor. "I am always humbled that conductors make no sound," Tani wrote, repeating his mantra in a followup email. But he does believe the conductor can bring "a level of spontaneity" to performances.

Tani said he tries to have the same approach to explaining musical things to young people as he does when leading a "Meet the Music" talk before a Classics concert for adults. The chief difference between those audiences is using appropriate vocabulary for the age group, he said. He aims to bring the same passion for the music to both audiences.

Listening is a core element of Tani's job, including a form of listening that may not be obvious to some audience members.

A cover conductor not only prepares to step in if the scheduled conductor becomes ill. It's also the cover's responsibility "to be the ears out in the hall" and to help the conductor in the rehearsal process if they request it or have questions, Tani pointed out.

For Tani, this role as an ear is most pertinent in concerto repertoire, such as piano concerti. "The lid is facing out opposite to the audience," so what the conductor hears on the podium is slightly different than what someone hears in the audience.

A first night Tani will never forget

The atmosphere was "electric" when Tani began his public MSO career Oct. 3 conducting the Violent Femmes with orchestra concert. "How fortunate to have my first concert be … a sold-out show where we get a standing ovation after the first song," he said.

Yet "I was scared out of my mind the whole day," Tani said.

In a concert like that, "there's a significant logistical challenge of making sure arrangements work well," that the orchestra does not cover up the band, Tani said.

The orchestra had only one rehearsal for the concert, and Milwaukee PBS was recording both the rehearsal and the concert.

Also, Tani was acutely aware he was performing this music in front of the people who had created it. Happily, the Femmes — Tani specifically mentioned bassist Brian Ritchie by name — "were so chill and they were go with the flow," he said.

It was Tani's first signature experience with the MSO. A few weeks later, he had another series of big moments that connected his past with his Milwaukee future.

During education and family concerts Oct. 25 through Nov. 7, Tani conducted the title music from "Star Wars." Tani has a deep relationship with that music. When he was 14, for Christmas his parents gave him the John Williams Signature Edition "Star Wars" orchestral score — published by Milwaukee-based Hal Leonard Corp.

More: 17 holiday shows Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra will play or present this season

More: Meet 'the people who make sure that you have a good time' at the Milwaukee Symphony

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New Milwaukee Symphony conductor Ryan Tani enjoys a wild start