Trummer’s on Main

Victoria and Stefan Trummer have devoted the last year of their lives to transforming the former Hermitage Inn into their new restaurant, Trummer’s on Main. And we’ll finally get a peek at the fruits of their labor when they formally open their doors on Monday, July 13.

The Trummers have entrusted chef Clayton Miller with helping to realize their epicurean dreams, a responsibility he takes quite seriously. Miller describes views his cooking style as modern American, which means he’s only too happy to draw inspiration from all over the globe in order to weave exotic flavors into local ingredients.

He’s also a fan of carving out separate dining experiences within a single venue, which is why Trummer’s will feature gourmet snacks at the bar (available by request in the main dining room), seasonal a la carte offerings as well as a fluid multicourse tasting menu (3-5 courses or chef’s choice) in the main dining room and a 3-course brunch (coming soon) predicated on fresh pastries, homestyle favorites and snappy petit fours.

“I want the guests to have flexibility,” Miller suggests.

Kora

Though he just shuttered Farrah Olivia a few weeks back, telegenic toque Morou Ouattara is ready to jump right back into action with Kora–a family-friendly Italian project taking over the old Bebo spot. Morou and older brother Amadou (last seen behind the burner’s at Middleburg’s Salvia restaurant) will lead a kitchen dedicated to quick, comfortable eats.

“It’s not going to be too far away from casual Italian,” Morou said, listing homemade pizzas and gourmet paninis as Kora cornerstones.

Morou remains committed to resurrecting Farrah Olivia in the near future (within the next year and a half, anyway), but has not yet fixed on a new location. “Whatever comes at the right time, we’ll take it,” he said of his open-ended real estate shopping philosophy.

Columbia Firehouse

The Neighborhood Restaurant Group is hoping to rekindle interest in the old Bookbinders space by launching their own dual-natured venue, Columbia Firehouse, in the next few weeks. Orlando Hitzig (most recently attached to the now-defunct Mark & Orlando’s near Dupont Circle) is still fine tuning the Columbia Firehouse menu, but estimates it will revolve around “comfort food that you can do at home, but don’t want to.”

The first floor will feature said staples, including: smoked chicken wings with buttermilk-blue cheese dressing, Maryland crab cakes and gourmet burgers. The upstairs–tentatively set to open this August–will follow more of an upscale chophouse format.

“That’s where we will be trying to draw in folks from across the river,” Hitzig estimates.

Maestro 2.0 (?)

I’ve just about given up on this industry parlor game. But if you are still interested in what will become of the once fabled Tysons’ dining palace, the cut-off for all placeholder functions is July 31.

–Warren

By Janet Rems

Luis Haza (Photography by Seth Freeman)

Maestro Luis Haza is not afraid to show his emotions. Haza, who is retiring this month after 25 years as music director of the Northern Virginia-based American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras (AYPO), freely admits to getting a lump in his throat, even crying when watching his favorite films—“To Sir, with Love,” “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” “Conrack.”

It’s not by chance that these films are all about teachers. Although Haza has a distinguished career as a classical violinist and conductor, many of his best experiences, he says, have come from working with young musicians.

Dressed in black slacks and black open-neck shirt, Haza, every inch the maestro, looks elegant but uncomfortable ensconced in a student-sized desk in an empty Langley High School classroom less than an hour before a weekly Philharmonic rehearsal.

His discomfort is quickly replaced by ebullience, however, when Haza, who has no children of his own, starts discussing the hundreds of AYPO alumni he has influenced. “My children are all over the world,” he says in a light but distinct Spanish accent.

Born in Cuba almost 59 years ago, Haza fled to Spain as a child with his mother and brothers after his father, a national police chief who initially supported the Cuban revolution, was executed by Raul Castro.

“Of everything else I’ve done—and I’ve done a lot—it’s my life’s legacy, nothing has brought me more joy” than teaching, says Haza, who joined AYPO in 1983 as a guest conductor.

Also retiring in August after 35 years as first violin with the National Symphony Orchestra, Haza, whose own musical career started at age 11, says: “I fell in love with the organization. I am a teacher; I come from a family of teachers. … I have it in my genes.”

One of the nation’s foremost youth orchestras, AYPO, founded in 1964, now trains and provides performance experiences for more than 400 of the metropolitan area’s best young musicians, ages 7 to 21. As music director, Haza has managed all its divisions—the Philharmonic (the most competitive and the one he himself conducted), Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, and String and Percussion ensembles.

When he started, AYPO auditions, conducted annually, took a single day. Now they require a full month. Also in some fiscal distress back then, AYPO, which is funded by tuitions, concert admissions, grants and gifts, now boasts a solid bottomline, supported by a $250,000 endowment.

Its young musicians—coached, in addition to Haza, by a nationally recognized team of conductors and professional musicians—performed 10 separate programs this past season at venues such as Fairfax’s George Mason University Center for the Arts (where they hold the title of Youth Orchestra in Residence) and Alexandria’s Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center.

Haza’s students and their parents describe him in similar ways: passionate, an exacting taskmaster who treats his young musicians like adults but also balances high expectations with infectious enthusiasm and humor, authentic praise and the ability to imbue them with a true sense of accomplishment.

He grows them as people, as well as musicians, they say. And although optimistic about the future, they agree Haza will remain a towering and core figure in AYPO’s history.

Matt Schagrin, 17, a senior at Fairfax High School and percussionist with AYPO for two years, says standards here are higher than he has experienced anywhere else, comparable to the advanced training offered by the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. “When others hear you’re from AYPO, they’re always impressed,” he says.

For 17-year-old Angela Savoia of Vienna, rehearsing with AYPO and Haza every Monday has made it her favorite night. A Philharmonic member of three years, this year as principal harpist, Savoia will pursue a career in music and can recalls the first time she performed the cadenza from Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” in concert. “He ran over, stood me up and gave me a hug in front of the audience.”

Haza, Savoia rhapsodizes, “demands excellence, which I love, and I’ve never seen anyone interact with people better. … He’s taught me so much.”

Christopher Hsing, 17, a senior at Montgomery Blair High School in Potomac, Md., is drawn by Haza’s “ability to communicate with musicians our age.” The Philharmonic’s co-principal cellist, Hsing is most impressed by how Haza “brings the level up every year” and his unflagging willingness “to give it his all.”

Among Hsing’s own growth opportunities, the most memorable, he says, took place last year when he performed the love duet from the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” with guest artist Xiaohui Ma, China’s foremost erhu (two-stringed Chinese violin) musician. “I never before played with someone so musically acute. I learned a lot being exposed to her. Mr. Haza is all about giving you those experiences,” he says.

Seventeen-year-old Oakton High School senior Marina Aikawa, who emigrated to the U.S. from Japan at 13, wants to attend Juilliard and someday, like her mentor, play the violin in a major orchestra and teach. The Philharmonic’s concertmaster, she is in her fourth year with AYPO and has no doubts about the solid foundation AYPO has provided. “I don’t want them to forget what Mr. Haza gave us. I won’t forget.”

Neither will parent Sue Daniels, of Reston. She credits Haza and AYPO with providing her two children with their futures. Both performance majors, daughter Pamela, 21, a flutist, is a senior at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, and son Thomas, 19, who plays trumpet, is a sophomore at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

AYPO’s music librarian for three years, Daniels, 51, says: “My kids absolutely adore Luis Haza and are among the many alum who come back all the time. He’s a pretty amazing man; he’s left an indelible mark on so many.”

Jane Balek, of Vienna, whose daughter Emma is a Marshall High School senior and in her third year playing trumpet with AYPO’s Symphonic Orchestra, is excited by the prospect of having “a new start and a new person at the helm.”

But Balek, 45, AYPO’s volunteer personnel manager, is also quick to recognize Haza’s contributions. “He’s created an organization with amazing vision. That will be his legacy. … It’s all about instruction and growing fine, mature musicians.”

Haza has no trouble singling out his own most profound moment with AYPO. “I loved when we performed at Carnegie Hall on Jan. 13, shortly after 9/11,” he says. An “amazing coincidence,” the concert took place on the anniversary of his father’s death.

Performing the violin solo from John William’s film score for “Schindler’s List” alongside his musicians in that hallowed concert hall during a raw emotional time moved him intensely. “I played it for all victims,” he says.

Coming from a Communist country where “the human spirit is stifled,” he says, heightened not only his love of the United States but also his dedication to teaching. “I consciously look at AYPO as the artistic expression of our Founding Fathers’ dreams.”

It was a motivating factor behind changing the organization’s name from the Northern Virginia Youth Symphony Association to the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras, he adds.

While his passion for teaching is undiminished, the physical exertions of so many decades in music has taken its toll, Haza concedes. Although available until the end of the search for a successor, he and his wife, Dana, who live in Tysons Corner, are eager to move to their home on St. Simons Island, Ga. “I’m ready to go,” he admits.

AYPO executive director Tomoko Azuma and board president Michael Blakeslee are fixing their sights on the future. Azuma, 29, a Herndon resident who has been with AYPO for six years, describes it as a crossroads for the organization, “a scary and exciting time.”

As part of a two-year process, music director finalists selected from a field of about 50 candidates will each conduct a concert during the 2009-2010 season. “They will be asked to do everything,” says Azuma, from picking repertoire and guest artists to conducting rehearsals. They must also be able to work with AYPO’s multiple other constituencies. She expects a new music director to be announced in June 2010.

The person AYPO wants, Azuma explains, is “someone who will continue Luis’ vision and musicianship but also will bring their own fresh approach … someone charismatic and caring who doesn’t need us for themselves, except for giving back to young people.”

Haza has set the bar high, agrees Falls Church resident Blakeslee, 53, who played violin with AYPO when he was a student. For Blakeslee, AYPO’s new leader must not only know how to build on the advantages of Northern Virginia—great school programs, teachers and cosmopolitan musical experiences—he or she must, like Haza, “believe these kids capable of making music on the highest level.”

(June 2009)