Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone who is well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”

By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services

His mother had quite the voice. A coloratura soprano. She could have been a professional opera singer.

But in those days, husbands frowned on their spouse having such a career. So, she stayed home, played the role of wife and mother, and performed at the town’s community theatre.

“I would go and sit in on my mom’s rehearsals. When I was old enough and could play well enough, I was the rehearsal pianist.”

Like back when his mom and other talented singers and actors were preparing for the stage production of Hello, Dolly! Having played all the songs during rehearsals, the 15-year-old darn near had the score memorized.

Good thing.

“On opening night, the musical director decided to run off to Detroit with the choreographer. He said, ‘You know this as well as anybody. Go ahead and conduct it.’”

Gulp. Remember, we’re talking about a high school freshman.

“The orchestra pit was behind the audience and above the balcony. You got there by elevator. I started the overture and heard the elevator. In walks the theatre’s artistic director, who is both livid and wide-eyed.

‘What is going on here?’”

The start of an amazing career, that’s what.

Shreveport’s Kermit Poling, the recently-turned 65-year-old conductor, composer, and violinist whose list of musical accomplishments is a long as Luciano Pavarotti could hold a note, told me that story – and his story – during lunch at a place he chose, Monjunis Italian Café’ and Grocery on Youree Drive. We both ordered from the lunch menu. Kermit had Sausage Spaghetti, and a Diet Coke. I enjoyed the Turkey Lite Salad, and water with lemon.

Growing up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Kermit’s love for music began when he was just five years old. At his mother’s urging, the oldest of two boys learned to play the piano. One day at school – Kermit went to parochial schools from elementary through high school – the Suzuki musical program was performed. He was enamored with the violin.

“I said, ‘I want to do that,’ so I signed up for the class. I didn’t tell my parents. They got a bill in the mail and asked ‘What’s this?’ Fortunately, they let me continue. I was able to take both violin and piano throughout my childhood and high school.”

Though Kermit says he was destined to be a musician, he had a Plan B.

“I was particularly good with math. I loved the sciences. I think if I had not become a musician, I would have tried to go into something related to the space program, or become a pilot.”

In fact, later in life, Kermit took flying lessons and completed a solo flight. But his heart and talent weren’t in the clouds. They were in notes.

“I was inspired by the music of those shows I grew up watching. Star Trek. Lost in Space . . . . This was the music that inspired me orchestrally. I still hear it. I can play in my head any of those themes because they were so magnificently done.”

While in a four-year program at the Boston (Massachusetts) Music Conservatory, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in violin, Kermit made quite the name for himself.

“If I say so myself, I was the go-to violinist, in a lot of ways, for much of the city. I started playing with various suburban orchestras around Boston. I was doing extremely well. I advanced a whole lot in my performance career. I started conducting more seriously, and writing to some extent. I never took myself as serious as a composer, because I felt everything I wrote sounded like movie music, but that’s what I grew up hearing.”

Speaking of making a name for himself, let’s get the whole “Kermit” thing out of the way. No, he was not named after the frog who only had eyes for Miss Piggy. Kermit was named after his father, Kermit. (By the way, Kermit and his dad were born on the same date. (“I was his birthday present). Kermit’s father was named after Teddy Roosevelt’s son. Kermit’s grandmother “was a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt.”

From Beantown to the beach, Kermit and the young lady he was dating moved to San Juan, where he played with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. But after three years and in a new relationship, Kermit’s significant other wanted to get back to the mainland.

“She had applied and was auditioning for Shreveport. I said, ‘Ok, I will audition there’. I won, both as concert master and assistant conductor.”

Kermit has been in northwest Louisiana ever since. 40 years.

“I never imagined I was going to be here that long, but I got to learn the community. I got to learn how much care there is for arts and culture.”

Kermit also learned that living in a major city wasn’t a requirement for fulfilling his major ambitions. He’s conducted all over the world. Think Italy. Mexico. London. China.

“I suppose there were times when I thought it would be nice to move to New York. Shreveport just seemed like the right fit. If I have to travel out of the area to get other recognition for what I do, that’s okay. But I get a lot (of recognition) here, too.”

But in 2016, the music stopped. Kermit kept having chest pains, which led to a heart catheterization, which led to triple bypass surgery. But two weeks later, he was in the audience watching his only child perform in an opera.

“I was moving slow, but I made it across the parking lot and into the hall. I just did not want to miss hearing him sing.”

And six weeks post-surgery, Kermit was once again holding the baton, in front of an orchestra on the square in El Dorado, Arkansas.

“At intermission, I just cried. It was the first time I had conducted without pain. It still chokes me up.”

Now nine years later, Kermit remembers the lessons learned from his health scare.

“That was a life-changing thing for me. It taught me two things. One, don’t take myself too seriously. I was like, ‘I have to do this. Nobody else can do that.’ Nonsense. Someone else was there to step in for me. It also reminded me of how precious all of this is. It gave me a joy in being able to do this.”

Kermit also finds joy being in the studios of The Red River Radio Network, based on the campus of LSU Shreveport. As general manager, Kermit oversees public radio stations in north Louisiana, south Arkansas, and east Texas. Not bad, considering his relationship with the local affiliate began shortly after moving to town, when he wasn’t totally happy with what he heard.

“To be honest, I was going to complain because they kept playing the same recording (of a piece of music). They played it a lot. I thought, ‘Ok, I love this piece, but they don’t have to play it every day.’ I went to the studio and complained to the program director. He pulled me aside and showed me their collection of records, which was maybe 50 at most. I was taken aback.”

Now, those network stations play everything from Classical, to Jazz, to Eclectic, to Acoustic, to New Age music.

“It’s having access to all that which makes a huge difference for the community.”

Wanting to ask Kermit what someone meant when they once said I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, I decided to ask something else. My final question was as always. What has he learned in life that might be a good lesson to others?

“Clearly, I am someone who has benefited from being able to live out my dreams, my ambitions, and being able to share them with other people. But I have certainly had more than my share of moments that were frustrating, or where things didn’t go necessarily the way I wanted. In those situations, you still have to keep pressing forward with your dream and what you want to accomplish. If there’s something you really believe in, you should try to obtain it. Even if you get there through a different route than what you ever imagined.”

Oh, wait. I did have one more question. Whatever happened to the guy who ran off with the choreographer?

“They fired him. I never did see him again.”

Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.

The Journal’s weekly “What’s Your Story?” series is sponsored by Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers.

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