As Israeli-American conductor Ilya Ram steps up to the podium at Sailors and Soldiers Auditorium to guide the Chattanooga Symphony through a performance, his shoes are the first indication he’s no ordinary maestro.
Ram, 33, sometimes wears a pair of silver sneakers that shine like disco lights in contrast to his jet-black slacks and are easy to spot even from the rear of the auditorium. Ram debuted these during the opening night of the symphony’s 2024-25 season in September, which also served as his introduction to Chattanooga audiences following the departure of music director Kayoko Dan.
Other times, Ram will slip into his Campers, which feature a subtle fusion of dark blue, light blue, dark green and gray. He sported these during a performance in November.
The printed program for the evening always contains reassuring passages about the many competition prizes that weigh down the young conductor’s shelves at his Bielefeld, Germany residence, as well as name of the prestigious orchestras that have performed under his baton. But the shoes will insist he’s different.
Ram says he’s often felt like an outsider in the world of symphonic music, even as he’s reaped international praise for his talents. In Tel Aviv, he attended a music academy, but not THE music academy. He was repeatedly discharged from a university in Tel Aviv for what his instructors said was a lack of skill, only for them to readmit him the following school year. Then there were the professors who bullied him for not being good enough – or so they said.
So, yes, Ram at least feels different, but that’s not what his shoes are about. Rather, he simply thinks they look nice, he smiles.
“I enjoy dressing up as a performer but I hate concert dress. Those costumes come with a certain exclusivity, and I don’t take my life or my job that seriously.”
Ram’s playfulness extends to his conducting, which music critic William Ford describes as energetic and charismatic in a review of the CSO’s 2024-25 season opener published on EarRelevant.com. If Ram’s footwear freezes anyone’s vision, the graceful arcs of his baton and dance-like motions as he leads the orchestra through its paces should draw their eyes upward.
“Maestro Ram is an active conductor, using his left hand to shape the performance and the right to keep the beat,” Ford writes. “Every so often, he’s prone to leap off the podium when he feels a musical point has to be made.”
Less-animated movements are also a part of Ram’s somatic repertoire. During a performance of Tchaikovsky’s only violin concerto in November, he occasionally leaned toward the strings and made an airy plucking gesture with his fingers. He says he was physically conveying the sound he wanted to the players.
“Someone asked me if I’m a string player. I’m not, but I’ve been working on mimicking the motions of a string player in order for the musicians to understand what I want.”
Ram insists his expressiveness is not about him being the center of attention. Instead, he’s giving free rein to his impulses as he brings black and white notes to vivid auditory life.
Plus, Ram loathes dull concerts, he says.
“I hate boring concerts more than I hate bad concerts,” he adds. “A bad concert meant something went wrong, but for a reason. Boring concerts meant nothing happened.”
If anyone disapproves of Ram’s eccentricities as a performance begins, the music that bathes the audience as the CSO plays contains the power to undo their objections. For example, under Ram’s direction, the orchestra sounds warmer and rounder than it has in the past.
Ram attributes this variance to a few Germanic adjustments in seating. Instead of cloistering the first and second violins in a single section, he’s split the musicians between either side of the orchestra and moved the cellos to where they’re playing toward the audience.
“American orchestras are usually brighter in coloration than European orchestras,” Ram says. “But I’m used to working this way, and I think it’s effective.”
Audience members who fell spellbound under of the lush harmonies and spirited rhythms of Stravinski’s “Firebird Suite” on opening night would have been hard-pressed to disagree with Ram. Little did they know that his journey was more challenging than he was making it look.
Sorcerer’s apprentice
Ram became aware of music during his earliest years of life, when his father, renown Israeli sociologist and professor Uri Ram, was studying for his doctorate in New York City. He recalls seeing – and hearing – the city’s philharmonic perform in Central Park and then becoming enchanted with a VHS copy of Disney’s animated musical “Fantasia.”
Elvis and Gershwin followed as Ram grew up in Tel Aviv. Conducting entered the picture when he was a teen, although it failed to ignite a genuine spark of interest.
“Someone in high school told me I should conduct, so I started taking private lessons before I went into the academy, just to try it out,” he says. “It became clear to me that I was going to pursue conducting for no good reason.”
Ram says he “scraped by” as a conductor in university, where his teachers repeatedly expelled him and then allowed him to return at the start of each new school year. His initial encounters with the toxicity he says is endemic to classical music occurred during this phase of his education.
“I had a teacher who continuously told me I was worthless and that doing something else would be in my best interest,” Ram recalls, his expression darkening. “I eventually had a breakdown from him giving me new things to do because I was improving but at the same time telling me I was rubbish. It was like the movie ‘Whiplash.’ We live it all the time.”
“Whiplash” is a 2014 psychological drama in which an abusive music instructor pushes a jazz student to mental extremes, ostensibly to motivate him to reach his full potential. Similar treatment of Ram incited his ambition, he says.
“Finding any crumb of success – especially a personal sense of success – as a conductor is tremendously hard. It’s a very competitive field, even though it doesn’t have to be. It’s bred into you that you’re either the best or you’re nothing. But I was headstrong; I said, ‘I’m not stopping until I’m certain this isn’t working.’”
That moment never came. Instead, during a masterclass in Bulgaria, someone told Ram they’d stepped out as he was conducting because he’d brought them to tears.
“That told me that something I was doing was working,” Ram remembers.
Spurred to continue his studies, Ram moved to Germany, partly to immerse himself in its rich musical heritage but also because “there’s nothing for conductors to do in Israel,” he says. As he earned his master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music in Dresden and then completed advanced training at the Berlin University of the Arts, his “ears began to open,” he says.
Competitions and work on international stages came next – as did the peaks and valleys that mark any journey. Each instance offered Ram lessons that shaped him as a conductor.
High, low notes
A major concert in Germany is the setting for a story that makes Ram wince. While the performance went well, he says, he ended the program with the biggest gaffe of his career.
“I conducted the entire concert by memory – and it was phenomenal until I drew a blank at the very end of Brucker’s ‘Symphony No. 7’ and stopped conducting half a bar too early,” Ram shares. “You could hear the air going out of the orchestra like a balloon.”
Ram was convinced he’d never live down the incident. He now takes a cautionary page from his own tale and is more wary about conducting from memory.
“I still (conduct from memory) sometimes. I enjoy it more than (conducting from the page) because I feel more disconnected from the score and more connected to the music.”
Ram says one of the highlights of his career was his audition with the CSO in November 2023. He calls it one of the best concerts he’s ever done.
“Sebelius’ ‘Symphony No. 5’ was the main piece,” he recalls. “The first half of the concert was made up of three pieces drawn together into one continuous piece: Mendelssohn’s ‘Midsummer Night Dream,’ Grace-Evangeline Mason’s ‘The Imagined Forest’ and the end of Wagner’s ‘Das Rheingold.’ It worked exceptionally well. I was very happy.”
Ram was music director of the Leipzig University Orchestra when Chattanooga announced its search for a new music director. After he landed the job, his farewell concert at Leipzig turned into his most emotional experience as a conductor.
Ram led the orchestra through a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “A Sea Symphony,” which he describes as “a “magnificent piece of music.” His life partner was the soprano, a friend was the baritone, and the choir caused him to collapse in tears.
“It was the right time for me to leave because I’d given the orchestra everything I could and the orchestra had given me everything it could. The more emotional I became, the more I knew that leaving was the correct decision.”
The journey ahead
As Ram assumes leadership of the CSO, Chattanooga owes a debt to Leipzig. He’s the conductor he is today, he says, because of the university orchestra, which not only poured into him musically but also changed him on a personal level.
“My conducting is a product of personal growth,” Ram explains. “When I started conducting, I was very rigid; I wasn’t at all expressive. I thought I had to fix the music and I always had a stuck face because I was constantly thinking. But over the past few years, I’ve started to let go of trying to make the music perfect and just enjoy the ride.”
While Ram has grown comfortable as a conductor, he says he’s still a work in progress. Beethoven might have once said the same thing about his 10th symphony, but whereas the famous composer died before he could complete his opus, Ram says he’s feeling optimistic about the future.
“I’m challenging myself to let go even more. I have a clear vision of what I want to hear, and I sometimes try to force it, which never works, so I’m playing around with giving the musicians as much freedom as possible and trying to navigate that space with them.”
Ram is presently music director designate of the CSO; the organization will drop the “designate” portion of his title for the 2025-26 season, when all artistic decisions will theoretically be his to make. His fresh philosophy could benefit the CSO as he’s tending to his duties away from the podium, which will include selecting the music the orchestra will play, molding the performances in rehearsal, hiring new players, petitioning guest conductors and organizing community programs – among other sundry obligations.
Ram is tilling the ground for this work by living with CSO board members and donors when he’s in Chattanooga. Like the connections he formed in Leipzig, he hopes these relationships will bear fruit both personally and professionally, he says.
“I’m enjoying the time I’m spending at their homes and getting to know them.”
Meanwhile, Ram is striving to connect with audiences by encouraging them to engage with the music the CSO plays emotionally. He’ll continue to give brief talks during stage changes to provide context or intellectual nuggets, but he doesn’t want the symphony’s performances to feel like a lecture. Rather, he wants audiences to simply feel.
“Classical music has a responsibility to challenge people but also to be a respite for those who don’t have the capacity to be challenged at the moment,” Ram offers. “Feeling angry, sad, joyful or empathetic – and feeling a connection to those around you who are sharing those emotions with you – is enough of a challenge. I don’t expect everyone to feel like they’ve seen the Lord after a concert, but if they do, then I’ve done something well.”
Off the clock
Although Ram is committed to Chattanooga and its world-class orchestra, he has a life away from music and even the U.S. Despite what people might assume a conductor does during his or her time off – maybe listen to Bernstein and consume wordy biographies about the great maestros – one of his pastimes could raise as many eyebrows as his silver sneakers.
Ram’s passion for cooking and baking is ample enough for the culinary arts to qualify as a second love. He even says he would have endeavored to become a chef if he’d failed to become a conductor.
“I enjoy eating well,” he grins. “I’m also very deep into coffee. I love toying around with grinders and things like that. I love tinkering.”
Ram is also an avid music fan. As such, any list of his favorite activities must include attending concerts and listening to different genres.
“I especially love the rhythms and harmonies of jazz,” he says. “This is such a simple way of putting it, but they move me.”
Ram is particularly fond of the years between 1910 and 1930, which birthed the Harlem Renaissance (a vibrant mix of jazz and blues), the Ballets Russes (a Parisian ballet company) and French impressionism (a style of Western classical music that focused on atmosphere).
“Those are the sounds and colors that really draw me in,” Ram says. “The Ballets Russes and the French mastered the colorations of an orchestra. They utilized the power of the symphonic orchestra to an extent that hadn’t been done before.”
Ram also is “obsessed” with George Gershwin and “Rhapsody in Blue,” he confesses. Just don’t expect to see the popular piece of Americana on the CSOs schedule any time soon.
“I would die to do it,” he says. “Then again, there’s something to be said about not doing your favorite pieces and leaving them as a wish. Because when your wish comes true, the reality of it is never what’s been in your head.”
Ram’s only leisure time interest that might seem inharmonious with his stature as an esteemed conductor of classical music is his fixation on “Magic: The Gathering,” a fantasy-based trading card game. However, the leap from one kind of “geekdom” (music) to another (games) is not very far at all.
“I’m a pretty big nerd,” Ram laughs. “I’ve played ‘Magic: The Gathering’ since I was a kid. It takes up a big chunk of my time.”
Ram is therefore fortunate to have a gracious life partner in Mayan Goldenfeld, an opera singer who captured his heart a decade ago and shares a home with him in Bielefeld.
“Mayan and I have deep connections on many levels. She’s also the most inspiring musician I know. Whenever I have thoughts about music, she’s the person I trust the most with my ideas. That’s very attractive to me.”
Deliverance
As a bonus, Goldenfeld makes Ram laugh. A lot. This could be his salvation, as the poisons he says blacken classical music’s veins still have a grip on his mind.
Ram knows he doesn’t have to climb to the peak of his profession to flourish; he knows perfection is not always possible and might rarely be attainable; and he knows there’s always room for growth, even among the great maestros of the world. He admits these things with the conviction of a man who notes that a cloudless sky is blue.
And yet releasing his grip on the toxic dogma that others hammered into his brain during his formative years has been easier said than done.
“I’m trying to let go of all of that because it’s a lie and it’s unhealthy. Even the conductors at the top of our profession could be judging themselves, or believe others are judging them, because we don’t play any instruments. We rely on other people and witchcraft to do our job.”
A good start would be for Ram to define his own success rather than try to scale the Mount Everests others have placed ahead of him. He and his therapist are working on it.
“Success is hard for me to define because I’m stuck in those concepts. The biggest issue for me to solve is how to reconcile my ambition with my belief that being a perfectionist is a bad thing. I’d like to learn to view success on a much smaller scale. If I have a better concert than my last one, then I should consider it a success.”
Ram says becoming the music director designate of the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra is nothing less than a personal triumph. And he’s doing his best to relish the moment.
“I keep telling myself, ‘Stop for a moment and think: This is a big deal; you’re doing well. You’re successful.’”