When Harvey Felder was growing up with his mom, dad and two sisters in Milwaukee, Wis., the civil rights movement was in full swing. While African American citizens and their allies fought to elevate America’s moral and political character through desegregation, Felder’s parents were right there with them, instilling in their own children the belief that if they worked hard and persevered through whatever roadblocks came their way, that they could achieve anything they set their minds to.

“My mother and my father had a great influence on my choices,” Felder said. “They said that while society may try and define who we are as African Americans in this country, they both instilled in [his sisters and him] the understanding that there are no limitations. That doesn’t mean you’re going to slide through. No one’s saying it’s going to be easy, but there are opportunities.”

His parents demonstrated this through their own professional achievements. Both went to college at a time when not many African Americans could do so, starting out at predominantly black colleges then moving on to white institutions for graduate school, which was even more unusual.

Felder’s mother served on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for 25 years as a professor of nursing. Part of her schooling included Hampton University where Dr. Booker T. Washington was among the school’s famous alumni educators.

Felder’s father earned undergraduate degrees in social work and mathematics, attending Morehouse College where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also went to school, and finished his education at Arkansas State University.

“My parents were part of that amazing generation that helped change America. They were there; they were part of this boiling up that was happening in America,” Felder said.

“They knew the potential and the opportunities. This was the mindset of my parents. They didn’t allow us to say that because there are no people of color in this endeavor you can never engage in that endeavor. It may not be easy, but you can do it if you want to.” It was upon this foundation of solid belief in the self that Felder matured into adulthood and it would come to serve him well.

As a boy, Felder didn’t dream that he would one day become a great symphony conductor. He did excel in his music lessons, though, as his parents encouraged him to play piano, flute, French horn and viola. “Every chance I got to try a new instrument I would,” he said. But for Felder, as for any young black student of classical music at the time, the question would become, “Where to now?” Back then conducting or playing in symphony orchestras was something African Americans just didn’t seem to do.

“As I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s and Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra came on TV, there were not African Americans among their ranks. Also, if the New York Philharmonic came on TV the conductor was Leonard Bernstein, not an African American. One just didn’t see African American conductors.

“From my perspective looking at this, it looked like it wasn’t a viable career route for me. I didn’t think of it in terms of I can’t do that or I didn’t want to do that; it didn’t seem like a viable route for me. It was much later that I realized that it was indeed a viable route.”

So, Felder turned his career plan to that of being a teacher of music in public schools. He earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and taught music for four years in grades 5-12. He then went back to graduate school and earned a masters degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

The world had become a different place as Felder grew into manhood, and new horizons were revealed to African Americans like never before. Desegregation and the evolution of race relations in America reached all the way into the hallowed symphony halls once dominated by white Europeans. The world in general opened up more and the art form of symphonic music became embraced by all cultures. The world was growing less polarized and more toward being of one community.

After teaching six years at the college level, Felder said he “decided to experiment with the professional conducting world and see what that was all about.” Attending various workshops and studying with conductors around the country led the burgeoning maestro to many successes, and he took his first professional conducting audition in 1988. After three tries he won a position as assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony.

Making the decision to become a symphony conductor was an epiphany for Felder.

Upon securing his first conducting job, “I was off and running,” Felder said with a smile. “I left academia and I was immersed in the world of professional conducting.”

He later became resident conductor of the St. Louis Symphony and traveled to this and other cities around the country where he could find conducting opportunities. He also had his own orchestra in Appleton, Wis., called the Fox Valley Orchestra. His years of teaching had paid off, and those music lessons his parents had him take did as well.

“I feel it has always served me well to know the instrument, how its sound is produced, to know what the struggles are for an oboist versus the struggles for a cellist, and shape my conducting in a way that’s sympathetic to the idiosyncrasies of the various instruments.”

Around 1992, Felder learned that the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra (TSO) was seeking a new music director, and he launched into the rather long and arduous application process that lasted about two years. It’s a competitive field. Felder was one of 275 others vying for the job. He made it to the finals, though, with three other promising candidates. After all four conducted one TSO season concert and had been assessed by the search committee, the musicians and the community, the TSO board decided Felder was the fit they were seeking.

Andy Buelow is TSO’s executive director, hired this past November. He’s been in the business for more than 20 years and has known Felder a long time. “I’ve worked with a lot of conductors over the years,” Buelow said. “On the one hand Harvey is a serious musician, and on the other hand he’s great with audiences and sharing his passion.

“The third part of the package is he’s very dedicated to music education and working with young people. Those things don’t often come together in one maestro.”

At the time the TSO board was looking for a new conductor, they had already set in motion a goal to elevate the orchestra from that of an amateur community orchestra to a full-fledged professional symphony on a par with the likes of those found in larger metropolitan cities around the world, an action that was in synch with what was starting to happen in the revitalization of downtown Tacoma. “Art was one of the catalytic agents to make that [revitalization] happen,” according to Buelow.

It wasn’t easy; as Felder was tasked with changing personnel in the orchestra pretty much across the board. This meant letting go of numerous players who had been with TSO for up to 20 years or more. “It was an incredibly painful and difficult time,” Felder recalled, as the vast majority of the orchestra members were either let go or left on their own accord and were replaced with more advanced musicians. Other original members stayed and put their all into bringing themselves up to professional level. Eight years later, the change was complete. “That was when I felt we had broken through that threshold and we were playing the finest repertoire in the canon. We were playing, on a regular basis, the same music the Vienna Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic were playing.”

Today, TSO is completely made up of working musicians. If they’re not playing music, they’re teaching it or writing it. The orchestra is a first stop for many young musicians fresh out of some of the finest universities and conservatories in the country who gain experience with TSO before moving on to fulltime positions with larger orchestras that offer a salary or benefits or a pension of some type. There are many older players in TSO as well making for a great blend of generations and skills.

Felder continues his work as a traveling maestro, and maintains homes in Tacoma and Milwaukee. Typically, he’s all over the country and his agent is currently working on an engagement in Finland for next fall. He just ended a three-year return to academia having served on the faculty of West Virginia University as professor of orchestral studies.

Back here at home, Felder seems to have found his rightful place leading TSO. The dazzling smile that often lights up his face while he’s conducting is genuine. It’s plain that he loves what he does and the whole city can benefit from his dedication and joy in leading Tacoma’s acclaimed symphony.

As the maestro said, “It’s always so refreshing to come home.”