6
Thursday, April 27, 2000
Three Genres of Art,
Two Generations of Artists
By Russ Lane
Staff Writer
Sometimes a passion to create travels
along the family tree.
Often the children of famous artisans
inherit the family business and follow
their parents’ paths in the arts.
Tonu Kalam, music director and con
ductor of the UNC Symphony
Orchestra, continued his father’s path of
conducting, reveling in its demands to
understand many different instruments
and personalities of his musicians.
“Some people do it as a power trip, or
as an ego thing, but what I like about it
is that I like the sound of the orchestra,
the way the instruments blend together,”
Kalam said. “1 can create something
with this music, and that is what I love
more than anything else.”
Bom into a family of musicians,
Kalam’s mother mastered the piano and
his father was an accomplished viola
player and conductor. Spending the
early years of their marriage in the Baltic
state of Estonia, the Kalam family left
their homeland for America following a
Russian invasion in 1945.
After his initial attempts at breaking
into the highly competitive world of
orchestras proved futile, Kalam’s father
took janitorial jobs until finding a niche
in orchestral music.
As his father’s career flourished in
America, Kalam displayed a prodigious
talent as a pianist in his own right. To
spite his talents, Kalam said the life as
solo pianist did not fascinate him as
much as conducting.
“It’s been on my agenda for some
time,” Kalam said. “I always wanted to
conduct because of my father.”
As his interests in conducting grew,
Kalam’s parents nurtured their son’s devel
oping passion. Kalam’s father would allow his
son to lead him, sitting with the orchestra to
follow Kalam’s lead.
Eventually Kalam permanently took
his father’s podium following his tragic
passing. Seated in the theater watching a
performance, Kalam watched his father
collapse onstage and pass away soon
thereafter. With performances sched
uled in advance, Kalam said he believed
his father’s concert should continue, so
he led the chamber orchestra in his
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father’s absence.
“There was still concerts to be done
after he died, so I took over conducting
a half dozen shows. It was a nice round
ing out, taking care of those few remain
ing concerts that he would have con
ducted. I tried to carry on the legacy that
way.”
Despite the unfortunate circumstance
of his father’s death, Kalam said his con
tinuing conducting fulfilled a lifelong
dream, which fueled his childhood
games of “playing conductor.”
“When i was a kid, I’d put on records
and wave my arms around, following
the score. Conducting was in my blood
as early as 10,” he said.
Like Kalam, “Passions" soap-opera
star and recent UNC graduate Liza
Huber also followed in her family’s foot-
steps. The daugh
ter of 30-year soap
opera veteran
Susan Lucci,
Huber said she has
found her own
audience.
“I think if you’re
a natural for per
forming you know
from day one.
Even at age 3,
“Even at age 3, before I knew
anything about what my
mother did ...I was always
wanting to perform for people.”
Liza Hubert
Soap Opera Actress
before I knew anything about what my
mother did, I was dancing and acting,
and putting on fashion shows ... 1 was
always wanting to perform for people.”
Receiving her undergraduate degree
in Communications and Film
Production, Huber discovered the UNC
campus when visiting a friend at Duke.
“I just fell in love with (UNC). It is
the quintessential American campus and
such a wonderful school academically. I
was thrilled that I spent four years of my
life here,” she said.
Trading her intense life as an aspiring
New York actress to the slower pace of
the South, Huber said her collegiate
years focused on the more technical
aspects of filmmaking and performance.
Although she spent little time acting,
Huber wrote screenplays and directed a
documentary. Having learned the fun
damentals of production at UNC,
Huber returned to New York with a
solidified focus on acting.
Regarding her career, Huber repeat
edly describes herself as blessed since
DIVERSIONS Features
the actor’s obligatory starving artist stint
lasted a surprisingly brief period.
Catching the eye of industry representa
tives in John Patrick Stanley’s off-off
broadway production of “4 Dogs and a
Bone,” Huber landed an audition in Los
Angeles. To her surprise, the audition
went well and landed Huber her role of
Gwen Hotchkiss on NBC’s newest soap
opera, “Passions.”
Although she learned the nuances of
acting by her mother’s example, Huber
said her desire to act stemmed beyond
her lineage.
“My brother and I are perfect exam
ples ... I love performing and entertain
ing people, and he couldn’t care less.
There’s a natural gravitation toward act
ing, something internal.”
Of course, some realize their inner
calling later than
age 3. John
Tempest, son of
renowned painter
Gerard Tempest,
said his love of
painting bloomed
later in his life.
“I never intend
ed to want to
paint, it just hit me
in 1980. It wasn’t
like a voice, but an inner realization that
I had to paint,” he said.
Tempest comes from a long lineage of
famous painters dating back to the
1600s. Tempest’s father Gerard studied
under the father of metaphysical of sur
realist painting, Giorgio de Chirico.
Adapting de Chirico’s style into por
traits, Tempest’s father founded his own
style of painting - Abstract Spiritualism.
Abstract Spiritualism demands that a
portrait should reflect a subject’s soul as
well as visage. Tempest strives for this
lofty goal in each portrait, following the
teachings of both his father and de
Chirico. Tempest said his father’s tech
nical and spiritual influence directly
impacted his work.
“My entire family is Christian, and (in
our painting) we involve ourselves in a
more spiritual undertaking,” he said.
“It’s more real, more significant and
more of a challenge because I’m going
into the subject with the spiritual con
sideration of trying to capture their
essence.”
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Tonu Kalam conducts the UNC Symphony and is pictured above in a rehearsal Monday night.Kalam followed
in his father's footsteps to become a symphony conductor.
Although the family traveled
throughout American and Europe, the
Tempests place firm roots in the
Triangle. Tempest, as well as his father
and brother Roddy, attended UNC,
and now live together in Durham.
Tempest was recently commissioned
to paint a portrait of the Kenan family
and the Hill family, founders of the
Central Carolina Bank. Continuing his
family’s strong link with his father’s
mentor, Tempest said the newly con
structed Giorgio de Chirico museum in
the Italian mountains would feature a
portrait Tempest painted of de Chirico’s
housekeeper.
“It’s a very huge honor to be along
side paintings by the 20th century mas
ter,” he said.
Although the three artists each have
a burning desire to create, all said that
their parentage and history provided
them a backdrop for their shared pas
sions. Tempest said the honor to con
tinue his family’s reputation in the arts
was a combination of his internal
desires for creating and the environ
ment in which he was raised.
“I would hope to think that my
bloodline is an influence, that painting
was ingrained. And ever since I was a
little boy I’ve been around it - so if that
doesn’t influence you, what will?”
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
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UNC graduate John Tempest follows the lead of his father,
creating paintings like the self-portrait above.
(Ehp Daily (Tar