A Conversation with Joel Link and Zubin Hathi

Do you each remember your first experience with The Cleveland Orchestra?

Joel Link: My first experience was as a student at the Encore School for Strings in Hudson, Ohio. Every summer, they would bring students to Blossom to hear the Orchestra. The first time I went, Gil Shaham was playing John Williams’s Tree Song with Williams conducting [July 27, 2002]. I was too young to fully grasp what I was hearing, but during my subsequent summers at Encore, I signed up every time there was an opportunity to hear the Orchestra.

Zubin Hathi: My first exposure would have been through recordings. In high school, I listened to a lot of the Szell and Dohnányi records. This Orchestra is second to none — always has been. And for me, it was also about listening to my eventual teacher, Paul Yancich, and his teacher before that, Cloyd Duff. Cleveland has a legendary timpani tradition because of those two musicians, so that was a huge influence on me growing up.

It wasn’t until I was auditioning for graduate school in 2019 that I heard the Orchestra in Severance. Hearing how they play in their hall was just mind-blowing to me at the time.

Can you both share a bit about the instruments you play on?

Zubin: That’s a tricky question for timpani! Most timpanists own their own drums, but some perform on instruments belonging to their orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra’s main set of timpani was the very first of its model, and they have been used since the 1970s. It took a lot of experimentation for me to get comfortable with them.

After 50 years, though, they needed an overhaul, so this fall, we sent the entire set to Sweden to be restored by John Kapenekas, one of the world’s most sought-after technicians. In the meantime, I’ll be using the Orchestra’s secondary set of timpani.

The Cleveland school of timpani playing uses “German configuration,” with the largest drum on the right and the smallest on the left, which is a mirror image of the “American configuration.” My personal set of timpani was designed for the latter, but when I learned about the vacancy in Cleveland, I had my technician convert them. Needless to say, it paid off!

Joel: My violin doesn’t belong to the Orchestra, but it also doesn’t belong to me — it’s on loan through Beare’s International Violin Society.

During the pandemic, they told me on a Zoom call that a wonderful patron and good friend, Irene Miller, had sold a condo to buy an instrument for me. It was made by Peter Guarneri of Mantua around 1713, and it’s been such a privilege to play. I’m so glad that Irene is comfortable with me bringing it here to Cleveland and having it become a part of the Orchestra.

It hasn’t been a direct path to these positions for either of you. Can you share a bit about what brought you to this point?

Zubin: I started on violin and piano when I was about 7 years old. When I eventually started playing in youth orchestra, I saw the percussion section up close for the first time and thought the variety of instruments looked and sounded incredible. So, I figured out pretty much immediately that I wanted to do that and have never looked back.

Generally, percussionists start out playing snare drum and maybe a mallet instrument, so it took me a while to realize that timpani was what I wanted to pursue. I realized in early undergrad at the Curtis Institute that it came pretty naturally to me, but until I got this job, I maintained equal focus on both timpani and percussion.

Joel: I also studied at Curtis, with Pamela Frank and the late Joe Silverstein, and formed a string quartet — the Dover Quartet — towards the end of my undergrad. We won some competitions and our career took off, so that has been the main focus of my life until now.

Chamber music translates surprisingly well to orchestral playing. People assume it’s a transition from making all your own decisions to a situation where you make no decisions, but neither is 100% like that. In a quartet, you split a lot of the decision-making, so everything becomes a musical compromise. I think the same goes for being in the Orchestra — there are so many small decisions that the person standing on the podium can’t make, so you can bring your own individuality to it.

With those trajectories in mind, how has your adjustment to the Orchestra been so far?

Zubin: It’s interesting what Joel’s saying about similarities to the Quartet, because the first thing that struck me when I started subbing here was the chamber music aspect of this Orchestra. They can play with such power, but they can also play at a whisper, and I can tell the musicians are attuned to one another in a way I haven’t experienced anywhere else. It’s been exciting to fit into that.

I’m also getting to play pieces I’ve spent a million hours practicing and studying but have never gotten to play in an orchestra, like Brahms’s and Mahler’s first symphonies, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Ninth.

Joel: I think the repertoire is the biggest difference moving from a string quartet to an orchestra, and I’m looking forward to discovering a tremendous amount of music — some of which I know, but most of which I don’t.

But I’m loving it so far. People have been so kind and welcoming, and playing in this Orchestra is a dream. I’ve played in many fine orchestras over the years, but there’s something very unique about Cleveland. When everyone comes so prepared, there’s a commitment to not let the quality slide and a desire to keep raising the bar. I’m excited to be here and am ready for more!