Shoot the Conductor

Anshel Brusilow was born in 1928 and raised in Philadelphia by musical Russian Jewish parents in a neighborhood where practicing your instrument was as normal as hanging out the laundry. By the time he was sixteen, he was appearing as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He also met Pierre Monteux at sixteen, when Monteux accepted him into his summer conducting school. Under George Szell, Brusilow was associate concertmaster at the Cleveland Orchestra until Ormandy snatched him away to make him concertmaster in Philadelphia, where he remained from 1959 to 1966.Ormandy and Brusilow had a father-son relationship, but Brusilow could not resist conducting, to Ormandy’s great displeasure. By the time he was forty, Brusilow had sold his violin and formed his own chamber orchestra in Philadelphia with more than a hundred performances per year. For three years he was conductor of the Dallas Symphony, until he went on to shape the orchestral programs at Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas.Brusilow played with or conducted many top-tier classical musicians, and he has opinions about each and every one. He also made many recordings. Co-written with Robin Underdahl, his memoir is a fascinating and unique view of American classical music during an important era, as well as an inspiring story of a working-class immigrant child making good in a tough arena.

"Brusilow is simply telling the story of a Jewish son of immigrants journeying through life. The fact that his life involved many of our most treasured musicians, composers, and conductors makes the ride all the more pleasurable."--Fort Worth Weekly "Shoot the Conductor is a terrific read for any music lover. Some of the inside stories about famous musicians, particularly the three conductors noted in the subtitle, will bring a smile to the lips of all who have heard stories of the evil ways of conductors, particularly George Szell and Eugene Ormandy."--Fanfare Magazine "Brusilow's candid honesty throws a spotlight on how innate musical ability, personal temperament and inner compulsion combine to make us who we are. . . . This book encapsulates the career of an extraordinary musician."--The Strad "The memoir of conductor and violinist Anshel Brusilow is a fascinating read. . . . Exquisitely told and engaging right from the first page. . . . This book will appeal to teachers and performers alike and is highly recommended."--The Instrumentalist "This is a hugely entertaining autobiography by an American violinist, concertmaster, conductor, and teacher. Anshell Brusilow was all of those."--Music Times, "Hilarious and heartbreaking, this memoir is a real page-turner as well as a remarkably accurate account of one extraordinarily gifted musician's professional ups and (alas!) downs. Anshel Brusilow tells it like it was, con brio and molto vivace."--Gary Graffman, pianist "Don't start reading this memoir by an inspired and inspiring concertmaster, conductor, and teacher too late in the evening, or you may not get much of a night's sleep. I found it unputdownable, and read the whole book in one sitting. I don't know which impressed me more: the profound dedication to music evident from first page to last, or the delightfully light and modest touch with which it's presented. I learned a great deal, too, about the educational process that turns promise into achievement."--Bernard Jacobson, music critic "Leading an orchestra of 60 or more musicians is not a job for the meek. Anshel Brusilow tells how he did it, with good humor, and that makes for entertaining reading."--Bernard Garfield, principal bassoon, Philadelphia Orchestra, retired "I grew up listening to my father's classical record collection. Szell, Monteux, Ormandy... these were our household idols. (My father trimmed his mustache after the style of Toscanini). Thank the gods of music, then, for Anshel Brusilow--for his robust humor, his sharp insight into character, and above all for his love of music and music-makers. In this wonderful memoir, the titans leave the podium and step down to earth, allowing us to observe through the eyes of Maestro Brusilow--seated only a few feet away in the concertmaster's stand--their foibles, pettiness, tantrums, but also their greatness."--Bill Marvel, writer for The Dallas Morning News and co-author of Islands of the Damned "While carrying us along with information about these celebrities [Ormandy, Szell, and Monteux], Brusilow simultaneously gives us a good hard look at the day-to-day grim reality of the life of a professional musician."--Wayne Gay, music critic, D Magazine "Brusilow has a remarkable way of telling a story that is conversational and easy to read."--Brian A. Shook, author of Last Stop Carnegie Hall: New York Philharmonic Trumpeter William Vacchiano (UNT Press), "Shoot the Conductor: Too close to Monteux, Szell, and Ormandy, written by conductor, concertmaster, and music educator Anshel Brusilow with Robin Underdahl, is the single most important book about music you can read."--Wanderingeducators.com, "Shoot the Conductor: Too Close to Monteux, Szell, and Ormandy by Anshel Brusilow and Robin Underdahl starts out good and rapidly moves to Great, with a capital "G." Any individual who enjoys classical music will thoroughly enjoy this autobiography. . . . This is a book to be inhaled not just read. Its humor, poignancy, and disappointment crackle through every line in the book. This one belongs on every bookshelf, whether the reader is an aficionado of the classics, or one who enjoys listening just doesn't know why--this book will educate and amuse."--New York Journal of Books, "[Brusilow's] cultivated observational sense and rich, poetic inner life may well send you on a rewarding search for his still-available violin recordings. . . . Playing a Mozart concerto with a classical specialist such as Szell was an invitation to be eaten alive. In contrast to the micro-managing Szell, Ormandy invited his players to bring their own ideas to incidental solos but was tyrannical in other ways: though he thought of Brusilow like a son, he was threatened by the violinist's conducting ambitions."--Gramophone

After a long and distinguished career in music, Anshel Brusilow retired from conducting the Richardson Symphony and lives in Dallas, USA. Robin Underdahl holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and writes fiction, nonfiction, and memoir. She also lives in Dallas, USA.