Famous conductor Charles Ansbacher, who conducted the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra in VietNamNet’s Reconciliation Concert in April, passed away at the age of 67 on September 12th at his home in Cambridge, MA.

Conductor Charles Ansbacher in a rehearsal with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra to prepare for the Reconciliation Concert.

Although knowing for the past 13 months that he had an incurable brain tumor, Ansbacher, a White House Fellow (WHF), courageously continued his life’s mission of bringing free orchestral music to diverse audiences.

Conductor Ansbacher was born in Providence, Rhode Island on October 5, 1942, and found his love for music at a young age, encouraged by his parents–noted Adlerian psychologists Drs. Heinz Ludwig and Rowena Ripin Ansbacher. He majored in physics at Brown University but switched to music after creating a successful chamber orchestra with his classmates. His musical studies also included the University of Cincinnati and the Mozarteum in Austria.

In the early 1970’s, he moved to Colorado, where he served for nearly two decades as the music director for the Colorado Springs Symphony and was a driving force in the building of the Pikes Peak Performing Arts Center. In 1976, he briefly left Colorado Springs when he was selected to be a White House Fellow and assigned as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Transportation. As a Fellow, he was co-chair of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Task Force on the Use of Design, Art, and Architecture in Transportation. Ansbacher was influential in pushing forward a bill that would allow a percentage of federal funds for mass transit systems to be spent on the arts.

His interest in design and architecture led to his appointment by Denver Mayor Federico Pena to the Blue Ribbon Committee for the design of the new Denver International Airport. He stayed in the policy realm and was appointed Chair of the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities by Governor Roy Romer. Last year, a room at Denver International Airport was named for him to honor those efforts.

While in Colorado, Ansbacher met and married Swanee Hunt. He accompanied her to Vienna when she was appointed as the US Ambassador to Austria. Charles used the opportunity to guest conduct not only in Austria, but also as an opportunity to act on his faith in music’s ability to forge or repair a community. Honoring his efforts to bridge international communities, former President Clinton once called Ansbacher “the unofficial ambassador of America’s music.” He conducted far outside the typical circuit to bring musical inspiration to states suffering from imploded economies and war.

Ansbacher established and continued until his death to maintain relationships with orchestras in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, and Uzbekistan and held positions with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Bishkek Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra of Kyrgyzstan, and the Sarajevo Philharmonic. In April of this year, 27 WHF’s and guests were present in Hanoi as Ansbacher conducted the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra in a Concert for Reconciliation.

Ansbacher firmly believed in the power of the arts to lift individual spirits regardless of one’s background while also strengthening the bonds of civic life was true not only in war-torn countries, but also in the US.

Upon arriving in Boston in the late 1990s, he was surprised to see how little classical music was performed in the city during the summer months. Those with the time and resources, he noted, could travel to bucolic summer music festivals, but he argued that those without such opportunities still deserved the chance to hear live concerts.

Ansbacher became the founding conductor of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, whose free concerts at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade and in many city neighborhoods brought live classical music to thousands of Bostonians. His populism seemed indistinguishable from his love for the art form itself. He once told an interviewer: “Classical music for me is simply a thing of beauty… that everybody should have the opportunity to enjoy.”

The Landmarks Orchestra’s own presentations grew steadily in number and reach over their first decade, with this year’s series drawing an average weekly crowd of some 8000 listeners to the Esplanade. This orchestra of freelance musicians presents accessible programs designed to bring pleasure equally to lifelong music lovers and uninitiated fans, to school children and the passing cyclist. Often clad in one of his signature vests, Ansbacher did not shy away from presenting demanding concert works like Verdi’s Requiem in al fresco settings. He also tended to favor a fast-vanishing repertoire of light classics and Americana. In what seemed a characteristic gesture, Ansbacher lobbied to have the name of Leroy Anderson, who composed “Sleigh Ride” and countless light concert tunes, added to the list of composers inscribed at the Hatch Shell alongside the likes of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert.

When he founded the orchestra in 2000, Charles placed the word “landmarks” in its title to signal his belief in the “synergy,” as he often called it, between music and location, or in other words, the power of the arts to deepen one’s sense of place. In addition to its Esplanade series, the Landmarks Orchestra has given concerts in several local Boston neighborhoods and against the backdrop of various iconic New England sites. Each year the group typically commissions a new family-friendly work on quintessential local subjects or institutions, such as “Make Way for Ducklings,” Old Ironsides, John Adams, and the Boston Red Sox.

In July, Ansbacher and a conducting associate led the first symphonic program ever to take place in Fenway Park. 15,000 free tickets to the event were claimed in four days. In an intermission interview with WCRB-FM, he spoke of his approach to democratizing the arts. Ansbacher said he hoped “to limit barriers that keep people from knowing and learning and eventually loving orchestral music.” That desire, according to the conductor Christopher Wilkins, a longtime colleague, was vintage Ansbacher.

“I’ve always been inspired by Charles’s gut level instinct to guide musicians toward a wider purpose, a bigger role beyond just making music and giving concerts,” Wilkins said. “We all know that music is a healing art but we don’t often treat it that way, and we don’t often deliver it to the people who can use the most healing. Charles would look for the places and the people who needed it the most. And then the most exciting thing was to see the results.”

“Charles’s commitment to restoring community, his warmth and capacity for empathy, and his love of music all came together in the Boston Landmarks Orchestra,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “What a gift he was to our community.”

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino echoed those sentiments: “Charles Ansbacher has added so much to the cultural life of the city since his arrival to Boston. His dedication to music and our parks was tremendous and he will be sorely missed. We are all grateful that his legacy will live on through the Boston Landmarks Orchestra.”

Jeff Makholm, chairman of the board of the Landmarks Orchestra, noted that “Boston has indeed lost a rare sort of friend, but it will not lose what he wanted to give to Boston.”

In a recent talk with VietNamNet, the famous conductor said he was willing to return to Vietnam to participate in other VietNamNet’s concerts to support VietNamNet’s meaningful Reconciliation Day initiative.

PV