James Sommerville, principal French horn in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, would be the first to acknowledge he was no classical music prodigy. Growing up in Canada, he was drawn to the prog-rockers Gentle Giant and Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. He didn't start playing the piano until age 8, and nothing approaching destiny drove him to his eventual instrument of choice.
"My first day of high school, they herded us into the music room and said, 'Pick your instrument,' " he recalls over a recent sushi lunch near Symphony Hall. "All the trumpets and saxophones went right away."
On Thursday night, Sommerville will be at center stage as he steps out from his usual spot - a few rows back, between the timpani and the woodwinds - to serve as the featured soloist for the world premiere of Elliott Carter's Horn Concerto. Carter created the work for Sommerville, commissioned by the BSO. Expect such iconic Carter flourishes as tempo changes and speedy runs that can push a player - and an audience - to the edge.
"For a lot of people, that would be a very daunting possibility," says BSO principal trumpet player Thomas Rolfs, a friend of Sommerville's. "But Jamie is a player who likes to take chances, and that's something that can be contagious in an orchestra."
That same desire to take chances has led Sommerville, 45, to continue his musical evolution in a new way. Last week, he made an unlikely commute - Boston to Hamilton, Ontario - for his second career as a conductor. This season, he became the artistic director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, an organization with a $1.2 million budget and 32 core players.
In Hamilton, not far from his native Toronto, Sommerville had heard there was a job opening. But some of the orchestra's musicians say they were baffled by his interest in the position.
"He's the principal horn of the Boston Symphony Orchestra," says Stephen Pierre, the Hamilton orchestra's principal clarinet player. "He's probably the best horn player on the planet. I thought, 'What would somebody with a position like that, why would you want to do something different?' He said, 'I need a challenge.' "
Alex Baran, executive director of the Hamilton Philharmonic, says the orchestra knew it was getting someone relatively inexperienced on the podium; Sommerville had guest conducted for them only a couple of times. But Baran says Sommerville was a good fit for the job.
"We're getting in on the ground floor of what we hope will be each other's rising careers," Baran says.
Peak performance
In person, the curly haired Sommerville is soft-spoken, with a dry wit. He doesn't gossip about his fellow players, and he seems to dislike criticizing composers, especially living ones. In a recent conversation over lunch, the subject of the late composer Arnold Schoenberg, a James Levine favorite, came up.
"I feel like Schoenberg wrote some masterpieces and some awful pieces," Sommerville says. When asked to name them, he demurs.
Sommerville, who has played with the BSO since 1998, is at his peak as a performer. As a conductor, he acknowledges that he has work to do. When he was hired in Hamilton, there was some concern that his laid-back personality might not translate to the podium, which often calls for a bold, energetic figure. Those fears have been calmed.
"He's not a presumptuous, larger-than-life person, he's almost the anti-type of conductor," says Baran. "There was a concern - 'Where's the dynamism you want to see on the podium?' To our surprise, we saw it during performance."
Sommerville took conducting classes in college and led ensembles at McGill University in the 1990s.
"I think I did it very poorly," Sommerville says today. "I didn't give a lot of thought to my technique or preparation."
He kept working, though, studying under Finnish maestro Jorma Panula and conducting at Tanglewood. As a horn player, he says, "I look at scores and try to understand the context, but it's still like shining a high-powered flashlight in a dark room." As a conductor, he takes a broader view: "To look at great music and take the time to understand the scores, you get a much deeper appreciation."
How would he describe his current conducting style?
"I try to be clear, both musically and in terms of not letting people get lost," Sommerville says. "I think I have a ways to go with my technique. One benefit, having spent a lot of time in rehearsals, I know what's useful and what isn't. Orchestras hate wasting time."
Two hats
Sommerville has committed to Hamilton for five years - a commute that involves flying to Buffalo, then renting a car to drive the remaining 1 1/2 hours of the trip - but he says he has no intention of leaving the BSO. He loves to perform on the French horn, which is more challenging to play than many other brass.
"It's a precarious instrument," he explains. "It's a little less sure, less reliable than most instruments. The positive is that it's very flexible in the right hands. It's sort of a bridge between the brass and the woodwinds. You need to find a much broader range of dynamics than you would with a trumpet or a flute. And the sound itself is very beautiful. When it's quiet, it's very round and soft. In loud dynamics, it's very brassy and exciting."
Sommerville lives near Symphony Hall with his girlfriend, pianist Aimee Tsuchiya, and says he remains challenged by his BSO gig. The Carter commission is a perfect example.
Two years ago, Levine spoke with Carter, one of his favorite composers, and reminded him that the BSO had a strong horn player. Perhaps he would want to compose a work for him? Carter agreed. He began sending pages to Sommerville, and eventually invited him to his studio in New York to test out the piece. Carter was pleased to hear Sommerville play some of the faster passages.
"I was surprised, and delighted," says Carter, recalling the meeting in a phone interview.
Sommerville describes the concerto as "episodic": six sections stretched over about 15 minutes.
"It has a real cool kind of progression of characters, from an aggressive character to a joking character," he says. "There's some lyrical writing for the instrument, which is not what I think he's known for. What is characteristic of his style is this brilliant orchestration. He uses a ton of contrasts and sudden changes and very intricate rhythms."
Would Sommerville ever want to conduct the Carter concerto?
"Not," he says, with a smile, "while I'm playing."
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com. For more on the arts, visit boston.com/ae/theater_arts/exhibitionist.
