Conductor Sets High Expectations
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Conductor Carlo Ponti Junior tries to attract new audiences to classical music but he admits being attractive helps.
"I think in every artistic field, presentation plays a very big role and there's nothing wrong with that if someone is visually viable, why not?" said Ponti.
Ponti is part of a new crop of young popular conductors. He leads the San Bernadino Symphony orchestra in California but as he travels around the country performing, teaching and and promoting his new (debut) cd, he's often called a "classical music hottie".
"Well (laughs) in a way it's complimentary, no?" said Ponti.
Of course, it's also the name and famous lineage that attract many people to Ponti. He's the son of screen siren Sophia Loren and film director Carlo Ponti.
"I never actually because they were so accessible and so down to earth. I never really realized how famous they were. And still to this day it surprises me when I go somewhere with my mother and it's like going with the Beatles somewhere. People go absolutely crazy. They start to cry, they start to fight over a specific autograph, and so to this day it surprises me how famous she is," said Ponti.
Loren won an Academy Award for her role in the World War II drama "Two Women" and stole hearts and laughs in romantic comedies like "Houseboat", playing opposite Cary Grant. Ponti said it's not always easy having famous parents.
"In a way it opens doors but once you're in that room you have to be a little bit better than everyone else and people have a lot of notions from the outset, and so it's a tough burden to actually bear. It's not easy," said Ponti.
Ponti said one of the ways he keeps audiences interested is to remember he's not just a conductor, he's an entertainer.
"You have to make people focus on what's going on on the podium. I think that's where that's where the specific interpretation comes in. And I see myself as an interpreter also and I have a specific interpretational goal and I think you actually entertain when that concept is brought forth to the public," said Ponti.
While an adoring public puts his mother on a pedestal, Carlo has chosen the podium where he's found his own way to interpret success.