A final bow at Chorus pro Musica

Rink returns to lead 'Carmen'

Chorus pro Musica's Jeffrey Rink is now director of the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra.

Until his departure from Boston last year, conductor Jeffrey Rink was a force on the local music scene. At various times he directed the New England Philharmonic, the Newton Symphony Orchestra, and Chorus pro Musica, and he taught at many local institutions. In the complex ecosphere that is Boston's musical community, he established himself as a highly skilled and versatile conductor.

And then he moved to the Florida Panhandle.

Rink, who returns to Boston this weekend for his final performance as Chorus pro Musica's music director, just finished his first year as director of the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, based at Okaloosa-Walton College in Niceville, Fla. The move undoubtedly induced some head-scratching: Why would a savvy Boston veteran decamp for small-town Florida, especially a place called Niceville?

Turns out the joke's on the snobs, as Rink reports that he's quite content in his new role, thank you very much.

"It's the first time in my life where I've had stewardship over one organization rather than four or five, which I had to do in the past," he says by phone before a rehearsal for his Chorus pro Musica finale, a concert performance of Bizet's "Carmen."

A crucial advantage of the Florida symphony is that it combines the virtues of a professional orchestra with the support system of a university. The group rehearses and performs in the university's $25 million arts complex, which opened in 1997. Its centerpiece is a 1,650-seat theater with a pit that can accommodate a 60-person orchestra.

"It's the sort of thing that if some of my colleagues from Boston saw, they'd be in utter disbelief," says Rink. "I was as well when I first went down there to audition. I just had no idea."

He's also gotten a practical education in how the orchestra relates to the surrounding community, and what local leaders expect from him as its director. Since his arrival, he's thought many times of Tip O'Neill's famous quip that all politics is local.

"Just keeping that as a motto - trying to remember everyone's name and what their interests are and how they plug into the community - makes fund-raising so much easier," he explains. That support is helping him to expand and diversify the orchestra's offerings. And he retains the freedom to make guest appearances, including two visits to Tokyo this past season. "I've been able to stay cosmopolitan - they give me that flexibility."

Looking back on his 18 seasons with Chorus pro Musica, Rink takes particular satisfaction in the work he did to establish a niche for the group in Boston's crowded choral scene. He says that when he started in 1990, the chorus's identity was "Boston's premier chorus for hire."

"That sounds really great, but in many respects it does not reflect anything that you yourself own," he says. "You're being hired out by other organizations and not doing your own productions."

He had also noticed that almost no one was doing opera in concert. In fact, there wasn't a lot of opera going on at all. Those were the waning days of Sarah Caldwell's legendary company, and Boston Lyric Opera "was nowhere near what they are now. So I thought it was a good opportunity for us - I really thought concert opera would put them on the map."

The chorus's first venture into this area was a "Carmen" performance in 1992, and with the exception of a few years, it has become a permanent fixture in its season. Among the highlights Rink mentions is the Boston premiere of Verdi's "Attila" two years ago.

These days, he notes, "if you look at the paper, there's so much opera going on, much more than 20 years ago. I'd like to think that we were at the forefront of that and, if so, that's my proudest achievement."

This weekend's "Carmen" performance thus gives his music directorship a sense of coming full circle. But his association with the piece runs even deeper, as it was the first opera he ever conducted. "I had no idea what I was getting into," he laughs. "Sometimes it's better that way. But I have a much better idea now."

Sunday at Jordan Hall; 800-658-4276, choruspromusica.org

Longwood benefit

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra plays a benefit concert tomorrow night to support its tour of the United Kingdom in June. The concert, at Tufts University's Granoff Music Center, features music the orchestra will perform on its tour, including Vaughan Williams's "The Lark Ascending," David Diamond's "Rounds for Strings," and Copland's "Appalachian Spring."

617-667-1527, longwoodsymphony.org