100 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM Orchestrating Magicwords by LOUREEN MURPHY • photography by ANNIE BARNETT A wave of Mitchell Sardou Klein’s magic wand unleashes dynamic tales, resonating with power and delicacy, exultation and depth. Unlike apprentice Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, the maestro of Peninsula Symphony Orchestra remains in complete control of his baton's wizardry. Now celebrating 40 years at its podium, he shares the elements of his orchestral alchemy with bass player Jeff Wachtel harmonizing. Both men were reared in New York, trained under noted musicians and ended up in the Bay Area, making music with the Peninsula Symphony. Meet Peninsula Symphony’s renowned maestro SURROUNDED BY MUSIC Mitch grew up free of a sense of musical destiny, even though his cellist father co-founded the Claremont Quartet, and his mother was an accomplished pianist and ballet dancer. In placing a half-size cello in his four-year-old son’s hands, Irving Klein simply drew Mitch into the family milieu. Though the close connection to his dad brought him joy, the selfdescribed nerdy 1950s kid preferred a bat and glove to a bow and strings. “Music came pretty naturally for me,” he recalls. “But I wasn’t one of those kids to practice three or four hours a day. That was just not me.” However, young Mitch did listen to string quartets day and night as his dad’s quartet rehearsed
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