Profile | From singing Simon and Garfunkel covers in the school bus to 29 years of conducting the Hong Kong Bach Choir, Jerome Hoberman on improving with age
- As a 12-year-old New York schoolboy, Hoberman caught the music bug when a friend’s piano teacher encouraged his students to compose and he joined his class
- Since 1992 the American has been conductor of the Hong Kong Bach Choir and Orchestra, but he tells Kate Whitehead he feels that his best work is still to come
My grandparents on both sides emigrated to New York from what was then the Russian empire and lived in Harlem and Brooklyn. My parents met in New York and I was the youngest of three kids. We lived in the New Jersey suburbs but made regular trips into the city to see one of my grandparents and go to shows, ballet and the opera.
My father was an engineer and when us kids were a little older, my mother went back to school and became a clinical psychologist. I started playing piano in nursery school when I was four, there were coloured stickers on the piano keys. I loved playing but didn’t like practising. I never wanted to do what I was supposed to.
When I was 12, a friend and I started singing at the back of the school bus. We were a singing duo – we sang Simon and Garfunkel covers – and even did some local talent shows. My friend’s piano teacher was a composer and he encouraged his students to compose.
I thought this sounded fascinating and asked my mother if I could switch to that teacher. About the same time, we got a Steinway piano at home. The combination of a new teacher and a new piano helped trigger me to become a composer.
The magic road
In winter, when the trees were bare, you could see the George Washington Bridge from our dining room window, the magic road to New York. I went to Ramaz School, in Manhattan. I’d stay around in the city as long as I dared and come home late. There was stuff going on in the city, and the suburbs were deadly to someone who is interested in things. Every night it felt like leaving paradise to go into exile.