Working with My Heroes
Working with My Heroes, John Demain and Greg Hettmansberger. University of Wisconsin Press (ISBN: 9780299352202) 2026.
Summary: A memoir by Madison Symphony Orchestra’s director, tracing his mentors from Youngstown to the greats of American music.
His parents recognized his musical gifts at age three when he would join the women’s choir at Mt. Carmel Italian Church to sing the benediction hymns. Now in his eighties, John DeMain, music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra for 32 years, has had an incredible life in music, which he recounts in this memoir, co-authored with the late Greg Hettmansberger, who died in a tragic auto accident in 2020. DeMain narrates his life while Hettmansberger provides researched background material. The demarcate their respective contributions in different typefaces.
Together, they trace his life from his childhood in Youngstown, Ohio, his training at Juilliard, his decision to conduct and early experiences, culminating with work with the Houston Grand Opera (HGO). In 1996, they staged the first production of George Gershwin’s complete score of Porgy and Bess, winning a Grammy Award for the recording. Leonard Bernstein told DeMain that this was the Porgy and Bess production that he had waited forty years to hear. It led to work with Bernstein, premiering A Quiet Place and with John Adams, premiering Nixon in China, in 1987. In 1994, when the HGO fell into financial troubles, DeMain realized a longing for symphonic conducting and pursued a position with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, believing Madison a good place for he and his wife Barbara to raise their young daughter.
DeMain has led the Madison Symphony Orchestra since then, recently stepping down as music director. He continues to direct the Madison Opera. During that time, he has led the Orchestra to take huge leaps in professionalism, enjoyed broad community support and engagement with the community, and opened a new performing arts center. All this and more is detailed in an informative and highly entertaining narrative. He includes stories of playing piano at a mob wedding and personal insights into many of the luminaries with whom he worked.
As a fellow Youngstown native, I enjoyed learning of the role Youngstown played in his development. He had gifted piano teachers, Hermann and Blanche Gruss. His first mentor was the founding conductor of the Youngstown Symphony, Michael Ficocelli. As his fourth grade music teacher, he taught him conducting and he filled in when Ficocelli couldn’t be there. At age nine, he soloed in Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Youngstown Playhouse. Eventually, he became dance rehearsal accompanist for a Playhouse production of Paint Your Wagon, mentored by music director Lillian Butcher Stambaugh. Then, he served as musical director of Brigadoon for the Playhouse as a high school freshman. A benefactor, Lawrence Lawler, recognizing his gifts, took him to see a touring company of the Metropolitan Opera in Cleveland.
All this culminated in entering the Youngstown Symphony’s concerto competition in 1961. Going up against more highly trained competition, including a Juilliard student, he won, opening the door for him to study at Julliard. During and after his time at Juilliard, He worked with John Kenley’s summer stock productions. Through Kenley, he learned to care for touring stars, culminating with opera great Giorgio Tozzi in Man of La Mancha. [I saw that production on a date in high school!]
DeMain not only chronicles his work with heroes like Jorge Mester at Juilliard, Julius Rudel at the New York City Opera, and Bernstein. He also takes us behind the scenes of various productions, both the technical and personal challenges. He describes his working relationship with various soloists and his flexibility in working with singers. For Porgy, he became a learner, learning from Black performers the southern religious culture behind the spirituals in the full version. Implicit in his account of the Madison years, I sense the community itself has been one of his heroes.
Don’t skip DeMain’s Afterword, “Some Notes for Conductors and Thoughts on the Future.” This is a concise but illuminating distillation of his philosophy of conducting. He also offers his own, mostly optimistic, reflections on the future of classical music.
DeMain and Hettmansberger collaborated seamlessly. Hettmansberger’s background material flows into DeMain’s storytelling without being disjointed. Thus, the book combines scholarly biography with engaging memoir.
Several years ago, I had the privilege to do a Zoom interview with Maestro DeMain for a blog article in my “Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown” series. It was a delightful hour, but I sensed that there was so much more we could have talked about. This book, while not exhausting the stories he could tell, gave me so much more. He portrayed his deep and ever-fresh love of all kinds of music. He captures the delight of working with composers, soloists, and musicians to bring that music to life. And in talking about his heroes, he reminds us of the village of people who formed each of us.