Ballet music director dies doing the work he loved

The Journal Sentinel staff

Daniel Forlano, music director of the Milwaukee Ballet, collapsed during a rehearsal of the ballet orchestra late Monday night and later died when paramedics were unable to revive him in the orchestra pit at the Performing Arts Center's Uihlein Hall.

Forlano, who would have been 52 on Tuesday, had quadruple bypass heart surgery in October.

"He desperately wanted to get back to conducting," Pasquale Laurino, concertmaster of the Milwaukee Ballet, said Tuesday. "I can't believe he would not have wanted to go and not tried to pursue the art he loved so much."

Forlano died in the hall where he conducted Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" ballet hundreds of times during the Christmas season.

Laurino also was concertmaster of the Waukesha Symphony under Forlano, who was the orchestra's conductor.

Forlano was awaiting his doctor's advice before deciding whether to return to the podium on April 25 to conduct the symphony's performance of "Carmina Burana" at Carroll College's Shattuck Auditorium with the Waukesha Choral Union, according to Mark Aamot, chairman of the college's music department and director of the Choral Union.

"He loved to make music," Aamot said. "That was his passion."

Forlano's last public appearances were for five performances from Sept. 15 to 18 of Sergei Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," one of his favorite ballet scores, said Jennifer Dryburgh, director of public relations for the ballet.

Laurino said Forlano conducted the season's first rehearsal for the Waukesha Symphony in October. He then stopped directing upon the advice of his physician.

Shortly after that, Forlano, who had double bypass surgery in Philadelphia in 1983 at age 39, was operated on again. He had been convalescing since last fall.

"He felt he wanted to try to get back to the podium again," Laurino said. "He did a little conducting on Sunday. That felt pretty good."

Forlano was so pleased with his progress that Monday night he decided "to take on a more taxing modern piece," a composition called "Stepping Stones" by Joan Tower.

"It was really a very difficult piece, but he really wanted to try to do it," Laurino said.

He had conducted the approximately 50 musicians for about 15 minutes and "he got about two-thirds of the way through the piece, having negotiated the difficulties . . . without a hitch."

"Before the end, he cut off the orchestra and said, `I have to stop now.' "

As Assistant Conductor Jamin Hoffman approached the podium, Forlano "said something to the effect he couldn't get through it," Laurino said. "At that point, he collapsed in Jamin's arms."

Laurino called 911 shortly before 10:30 p.m. The paramedics tried for an hour to revive him but he never regained consciousness, Laurino said.

"Dan was first and foremost our biggest advocate for the orchestra and the ballet," Laurino said. "He was constantly fighting for keeping live music in the pit."

Forlano would bring his own integrity to each performance, "whether a matinee for school children or a packed house on opening night," Laurino said.

"Often people think of Danny as the conductor of the Milwaukee Ballet, but he was much more than that," Executive Director Lillian R. Boese said. "In all our planning meetings, Danny was an integral part. We always treasured his advice."

She said the dancers were "devastated" when they learned of his death. "Tears were flowing."

Dennis Hanthorn, general director of the Florentine Opera, said Forlano had not directed the company since Hanthorn arrived in Milwaukee but had conducted "The Barber of Seville" in the 1980s.

"He passionately loved opera and he and I would go (to lunch) and talk about opera and singers," Hanthorn said.

"He had a great love of the human voice, particularly of opera," Laurino agreed. "He was becoming increasingly recognized as a voice teacher in addition to his skills as a conductor."

Forlano's wife, Diane, is a voice teacher with a studio in London and also teaches voice elsewhere in Europe. She was in Europe when her husband died and was reported to be en route home.

Dryburgh said funeral arrangements were pending.

Forlano grew up in Philadelphia, where he began his studies at the Settlement Music School. He went on to study trumpet, piano and conducting at the Juilliard School in New York and the Curtis Institute of Music and the College of the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

He began his professional conducting career with the Pennsylvania Ballet Company. He joined the Milwaukee Ballet in 1975, under artistic director Jean-Paul Comelin. The Waukesha Symphony named him music director in 1980. He appeared as a guest conductor for the Milwaukee Opera Company, American Ballet Theater, Ballet du Nord, the English Chamber Orchestra and other ensembles.

Forlano was a bulwark of stability and consistency through most of the convulsive, 25-year history of the Milwaukee Ballet. He outlasted Comelin, and then Ted Kivitt. He survived the difficult two-city merger of the Milwaukee and Pennsylvania ballets and the equally difficult breakup two years later. He stayed on when Dane LaFontsee took over in 1990, and when LaFontsee was fired in February of this year.