In the very old days in Europe a musician would come to a new city with a letter of recommendation from a local patron. Beethoven had one, Chopin had one -- it was common practice.

These days we rely more on resumes, CV's, e-mails and phone calls. But Ronald Zollman, the new Carnegie Mellon University director of orchestral studies, came to Pittsburgh with a hearty recommendation from none other than Henri Dutilleux. The esteemed French composer said Zollman was a "Master performer" of one of his works and "of the music of our time as much as of all times."

Nice words, indeed, but they are not the reason Zollman landed the job last spring, as one of several candidates who "auditioned" by leading the CMU Philharmonic in a concert.

"It was clear to everyone both during his rehearsals and after his concert that the work he had done with the group was head and shoulders above the others," says Noel Zahler. "He was able to extract from this group something that no one else had been able to."

"A concert program should be a work of art, like an installation," says Zollman, who will also lead the CMU Chamber Orchestra and its Contemporary Ensemble. "I want to teach the students, but I want them to enjoy playing. I want it not to be a routine, but positive experience."

Then he added: "I have never conducted a concert like paying my taxes."

Zollman, who is 59 ("But I look 58," he jokes), was born in Antwerp, Belgium, studied at the Royal Conservatories of Antwerp and Brussels, and later with Igor Markevitch and Nadia Boulanger in 1967, in Paris. From there he built an impressive guest conducting resume at the likes of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Bamberger Symphoniker, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony.

From 1989 until 1993, he was music director of the National Orchestra of Belgium. Zollman also conducted operas and new music ensembles, the latter highlighted by an association with the prestigious Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris since 1982. He has conducted 80 world premieres, and it's a focus he wants to bring to CMU.

"Every year I want to focus on one 20th-century composer, and this year is [Witold] Lutoslawski," says Zollman, whose program for the Philharmonic's concert in May at New York's Carnegie Hall will be Webern's Passicalgila, Stravinsky's "Petrushka," and Druckman's "Demos."

But Zollman won't let his love of contemporary music deter him from his duties as an educator. "Students need to cover a certain repertoire," he says.

With a repertoire of nearly 1,000 works, the only music that he doesn't love to conduct is baroque: "I start with Mozart and go up to the contemporary composers."

On Monday, he leads a special concert of works by Jewish composers, such as Mahler, Martinu, Schulhoff and Schoenberg, whose music was banned during the Nazi regime. The performance is part of the Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project of the Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

Zollman's first experience in academia did not go the usual route. He got tenure at the Brussels Conservatory in 1977 but left to follow his conducting career. In 2006, he returned as a conducting professor (leaving again for CMU) and also has conducted several operas at the University of Indiana.

"I am aware of what the university world can be," says Zollman, who has settled in Shadyside.

"We were looking for someone who worked on the international concert scene but needed someone who knew exactly what he was getting himself into," says Zahler.

Zollman also is aware of what America can be. "My grandparents died American citizens on both sides," he says. "They immigrated during the war with all of their children. Only my parents, who met during the war, came back to Europe. My cousins are American."

Zollman remains Belgian to the core, but in the end, the most important part of his makeup will be the musicality that comes when he is on the podium.

"There was an impression on all of us that he knew exactly how to go to the core of any musical problem and elicit the kind of musical response with professional directions, while simply being able to communicate those things in a manner that the students could relate to and respect," Zahler says.

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