For Houston Symphony Orchestra conductor Hans Graf, his love for music began at an early age. It is those same values that he is pleased to see in the music students at Pearl Hall Elementary School.

Graf visited the students in the music classes at Pearl Hall recently as part of the Building Cultural Bridges program, where students are continually learning about music from different cultures, as well as space exploration.

“I’m very happy to see what you’ve learned musically and culturally,” he said. “Learning new things about both opens your mind to new and different things. It’s a very important thing to carry you throughout your life.”

Groups of third grade students greeted the conductor

with two songs, "Atirei o pau no gato" in Portuguese, contributed by Brazilian Joao Luis who performed with the symphony earlier this year and "Meunier"  in French contributed by NASA International Space Station Commander of Expedition 14, Michael Lopez-Alegria.

Fourth grade students later performed "Moscow Nights" in Russian, contributed by the symphony's first violinist, Sergei Galperin.  This group of children also recorded this song with Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield, who is chief of operations for the International Space Station.  Their recording was sent up to the Russian cosmonaut member of the Expedition 14 crew, Mikhail Tyurin, on the International Space Station as a surprise gift of music for the Russian Christmas season last year.

“I also learned about music at a very early age, because I came from a family of musicians,” he added. “My family inspired me, just as your teachers and fellow classmates inspire you.”

The music students of Jami Lupold, Pat Surface and Seth Fewell also participated in a question and answer session with Graf. In response to one of the questions, Graf said he studied violin and piano as a child – admitting to the students that the piano is his favorite musical instrument. He even played a few brief tunes for the students during his visit.

At the age of 18 – and after admiring the musical talents of his sister and brother-in-law – Graf began to envision his future as a conductor and quickly received diplomas in piano and conducting. Since 1975, he has conducted orchestras all around the world in countries including France, Italy, Japan and Australia. He is in his seventh year as conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

After hearing about Graf’s extensive musical background, it prompted one student to ask – What makes a good conductor?

“You have to learn the music you are conducting and practice, practice, practice,” he said. “You must also feel the emotions of the music and make sure that your audience feels the emotion of that music as well. Music is full of so many emotions and being able to share that experience with others is really powerful.”

In responding to another question, Graf said his favorite thing about conducting is that, “every day is full of new challenges and I am able to travel and experience different cultures.” He added that being a conductor often gives him, “new perspectives of the world and its cultures.”

Graf also extended an invitation to the Pearl Hall students. “I love conducting in front of a full audience,” he said. “And I hope to see all of you in the audience one day.”

Actually, the Pearl Hall select choir will be playing in Graf’s humble surroundings as they will sing for the Houston Symphony during a pre-concert event at Jones Hall on Saturday, Dec. 8.