Kent Nagano

Name: Kent Nagano
Uploaded: 2026-11-06T19:02:11.204Z
Duration: 5 min

Conductor

Year: 2003
Place: München
Duration: 5min
Language: English

Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. Wikipedia

In the 2003 interview in Munich, Kent Nagano recounts his unusual collaboration with Frank Zappa. Early in his career with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, he could not stage Zappa’s complex scores due to limited resources. Funded by the success of “Valley Girl”, Zappa invited him to Los Angeles. Nagano was unexpectedly taken to CalArts to rehearse pieces like “Pedro’s Dowry” with an orchestra. Only afterwards did Zappa reveal that this was a successful audition. Weeks later, they recorded three works in London.

Transcript generated automatically, may contain errors

I didn't really know what to do with the scores because they called for very, very large orchestras, were complicated, and at the time I was just beginning my work with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. It's my first orchestra, and it was simply impractical to try to mount such complicated scores with a small orchestra. So I simply kept them on my piano.

I think it must have been nearly three months that went by without communication, and one day, without warning, I received a telephone call, and it was Frank Zappa, who said, "Well, I'm calling to see what you think of my music." And I was very open and honest and explained that it was intriguing, it was fascinating. I had the scores, but it was clear that I really didn't have the resources available to really do anything about it.

And if he wanted, I would return the scores to him. And he said, "Well, I have a better idea. I've spent the last three months finding out information about you, and I'd like to invite you to join me for a set of recording sessions." He explained on the telephone that he had recently had the good fortune of having a number one hit in America called "Valley Girl", and with the enormous profit that he made from this recording, he decided that he would try to properly record and perform his music so that for once he could hear his music as he wished.

And he asked if I would be interested in working on the project. So I said, "Yes, it could be interesting." Bear in mind, this was many, many years ago when I was just out of school. So he said, "Yes, well, I'm going to send you up a ticket, an airplane ticket, and I'd like you to fly down and visit me, and we can discuss it." So he met me at the Los Angeles airport with his Rolls-Royce, [laughs] his bodyguards, and his entourage, and we began to drive.

We drove to his mansion in the Hollywood Hills, and then after briefly speaking for about 15 minutes, another set of cars came. Frank said, "Let's go."I said,"Where are we going?" And he said, "I want you to meet some friends of mine." So we drove to the CalArts Institute, which is a music college in northern Los Angeles, and assembled before me in the room was an orchestra.

And he said, "So, Kent, go up there and conduct 'Pedro's Dowry'." And I said, "Well, gee, what is this all about?" He said, "Go ahead, just, these are really friendly friends of mine. They work in the studios with me. Go ahead and conduct 'Pedro's Dowry', and then I'd like to see you conduct 'Mo 'n Herb's Vacation'. These were two of the scores that he had given to me. So, I thought that they were friends of his, and I would just help them play the music, and in fact they had quite a bit of difficulty with a number of points of accuracy. So we rehearsed very seriously for the better part of an hour in a very friendly way, and I tried to help them play Frank Zappa's music as best as we could within such a short time, and afterwards everyone said thank you and we got back in the car, and were driving back to his home in Los Angeles, and Frank Zappa said," Well, I guess everyone was right. You passed the audition."

So unknownst to me, I had been flown down for an audition, and within a matter of weeks we flew to London and made three recordings. So that was my very, very unusual introduction to Frank Zappa and his music.

He never tried to intervene when you worked with the orchestra and said, "No, you should do this"? No, no, no.

He just was watching and listening.

Okay, that's it.

Great."

Sayonara", thank you very much. You're welcome. I hope we took too much of your time.

No, it's fine. But this is for… Sorry. Uh-huh.