David Upham leads the island orchestra in a spring program.

Rehearsing Mozart’s “Magic Flute” overture with just the string players, the issues for conductor David Upham become minute.

He and concertmaster Tom Monk discuss whether a series of short notes played by the violins should be played with an upward bow instead of alternating down and up for each note.

“Let’s do them all up – but I reserve the right to change it when we hear it with the woodwinds,” Upham says with a grin.

“It’s very expressive and plaintive, but it’s supposed to be in the background,” he adds. “If it upstages the main line, we can’t do it, or it will have to be toned down.”

Balancing different lines of music is just one role Upham will fulfill when he guest conducts with the Bainbridge Orchestra on April 15 and 16 at the Playhouse, in a program that includes works of Mozart, Brahms, Strauss, Wagner and Dvorak.

How to balance the melodies and harmonies between sometimes nearly 20 parts is a trick.

“It depends on the score,” Upham said. “A composer who’s a skilled orchestrator would assign instruments in such a way that leads to perfect balance and transparency, but it also depends on the orchestra, the size of the string sections….”

Since he was a child trying to make his family sing “Stars and Stripes Forever” – and “them intensely messing” up and frustrating him – Upham has always wanted to conduct.

Trained in trombone, Upham pursued a degree in music with an emphasis in education at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, followed by a master’s in conducting at the University of Northern Colorado.

He is working on a doctorate of music arts at the University of Washington, while teaching and conducting three orchestras at Newport High School in Bellevue as well as the Classical Orchestra of the Seattle Youth Symphony.

Although some view conducting as a power trip – controlling 45-50 musicians at your fingertips – Upham is drawn emotionally and intellectually to the art.

“What it is, is I have the fortune to stand in the nexus of all that musical energy flying around, and that’s really thrilling,” he said.

On the other hand, having to learn a score and figure out how the lines fit and weave together appeals to his analytical side, Upham said. As the melody is passed off from one section to another, the conductor has to help those parts transition gracefully.

Last season, Upham stepped in to lead the orchestra in its final concert when the former music director Sandi Schwarz resigned midseason. The experience of conducting the adult community orchestra was so enjoyable that he returned this year.

“It’s a question of musical maturity. (Adults have) played longer and heard more music. There’s a life experience factor that comes in,” Upham said. “They have a more intuitive sense of how to phrase. There are the unwritten dynamics and the push and pull that (adults do instinctively, but) needs to be broken down for students.”

He recalls the first time he gestured for the orchestra to slow down, in the way he would normally do with his student orchestras, and found that, “They nearly came to a halt…it’s like getting power steering,” he said. “Even when a younger orchestra is watching they will be slower to respond (than adults).”

But when it comes to creating a successful concert, the answer is all soul.

Upham recalls one day sitting in his apartment listening to Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” which Elgar wrote as musical portraits of his friends. The most famous variation is “Nimrod,” which was written for his closest friend.

“I was moved to the point of tears and realized I was imagining being able to help an orchestra execute and touch that moment,” Upham said. “I just imagined an orchestra getting to that moment and feeling the content, and by extension the audience gets drawn into that.”

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Spring fling

The Bainbridge Orchestra, led by guest conductor David Upham, performs 7:30 p.m. April 15 and 4 p.m. April 16 at the Playhouse. On the program are Mozart’s “Magic Flute” overture, Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” Serenade for Winds by Richard Strauss, the first movement of Brahms’ Serenade No. 1 and selections from Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances, Op. 46. Tickets, $15 adults, $9 students/seniors, are available at the Playhouse, by calling 842-8569 or at www.theplayhouse.org.