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32 RUTH REINHARDT Age: 28. Occupation: Conductor. Tools of the Trade: Baton. Bold gestures. Sheet music. Passport. When Ruth Reinhardt was 6 years old, she took up the violin — simply because her older sister had. "Doesn't the younger one always want to do exactly what the older one does?" she says. But Reinhardt's classical music endeavors didn't end there. In her hometown of Saarbrücken, Germany, she sang in the opera house at age 9, and she composed and conducted a children's opera at 17. Her undergrad education took her to Switzerland's Zu- rich University of the Arts before she moved to New York City to obtain her Masters of Music in conducting at The Julliard School. Appointed last year as the Dallas Sym- phony Orchestra's assistant conductor after serving as conducting fellow dur- ing the Seattle Symphony's 2015/2016 season, Reinhardt's résumé brims with accomplishments, and her musical prow- ess is nothing short of impressive. "The most important thing as a conductor," she says, "is that you have to want it. People will give you a million reasons why you shouldn't. Another necessary skill is being able to work well with people because such a big part of what we do is coaching musicians, and making them perform at the highest level possible." Her position at the DSO is twofold: conducting all youth concerts and others as assigned, as well as assisting and filling in for music director Jaap van Zweden or guest conductors who can't be there for an orchestral performance (which, although very rare, happened to Reinhardt once in November). "Assisting Jaap is a real joy for me," she says. "Talking to him about Ruth Reinhardt at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center B Y L I N D E N W I L S O N . P O R T R A I T S R A C H A E L W I S E . CONTEMPORARIES CONDUCTING Gen NEXT MUSIC+ART