WEEKEND: Guest conductor to lead chamber orchestra in Friday, Saturday concerts

[Today and tonight signify Friday, Jan. 16.]

It’s as if the music animates the man, instead of the other way around.

When James Ray leads his orchestra in Joseph Haydn’s 88th Symphony, his body seems electrified by the swell of the strings.

But then, when the music changes, he does too. Ray next beckons the sound forward, as if to bring it off the stage and into his audience.

This connection, the dissolving of the wall between players and listeners: It’s Ray’s goal, whether he’s holding the baton or his violin.

He’ll lead his fellow musicians, the Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra, in two concerts: tonight at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Port Angeles and Saturday night at the Sequim Worship Center.

Both performances will start at 7 p.m., with tickets at $12 for general admission. And in an ongoing effort to connect with young people, concert-goers age 16 and younger are admitted free when accompanied by an adult.

Ray, 30, is the fifth conductor to lead the orchestra in a kind of audition for the permanent job of music director. After choosing not to renew Seattle-based conductor Adam Stern’s contract last spring — indicating it wanted a more community-focused orchestra — the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra board began a nationwide search.

In recent months, local conductors including Ron Jones of Port Angeles High School and Kristin Quigley Brye of Peninsula College have led the orchestra, as have Jonathan Pasternack, who is originally from New York City, and Richard Sparks, a Pacific Northwesterner now teaching at the University of North Texas.

Now it’s Ray’s time. With the 31-member Chamber Orchestra, he’ll explore pieces by Scarlatti and Mendelssohn, the Haydn symphony and Bartok’s Romanian Dances ­— “a great mix of stuff,” as the conductor calls it.

Then he plunges into a discussion of it all: Scarlatti’s Sinfonia No. 1 “definitely has an operatic vibe,” while Mendelssohn’s String Sinfonia No. 10 “has got a fieriness to it.”

The Romanian Dances are timeless contributions from Bartok who, Ray added, was an ethnomusicologist who traveled from village to village in central Europe, collecting tunes.

Then there’s the concerts’ 22-minute anchor: the 88th symphony out of the 104 Haydn wrote in his lifetime. While hardworking, the composer could be playful in his writing.

“And the second movement,” Ray noted, “is just gorgeous.”

At rehearsal earlier this week, Ray led the orchestra not as a boss on high but as a man walking the path alongside the rest of the players. He has, after all, played violin in the chamber group on several occasions.

Ray is a Northwest-bred musician: He grew up in Tacoma, received degrees at Central Washington and Western Oregon universities and now teaches music in Port Angeles at Stevens Middle School, Franklin Elementary School and in the private violin studio he runs with his wife, Heather Ray.

He also has performed as a violinist with the NorthWest Women’s Chorale and the Salem Chamber Orchestra. Between 2003 and 2009, Ray served with the U.S. Army Reserve, performing as a violinist, keyboard player and assistant rehearsal conductor. And this year, he is finishing his doctorate in music education from Boston University.

As a teacher and conductor, “my most important job is to inspire. That — I think and I hope — underlies everything I do,” he said.

Those notes on those pages are just the beginning. Ray wants to explore the emotions in the music — play “beyond the ink,” as it were.

Sabrina Scruggs, a fellow music teacher in the Port Angeles School District and a member of the Chamber Orchestra, heaped praise on her colleague.

Ray “is a powerful leader and musician. His conducting is commanding, but he is also sensitive to soloists and isn’t afraid to step back,” she said.

And all that energy and humor is catching, “giving an energetic ‘boost’ to the groups he leads.”

“Music,” Ray said, “is a social art . . . I don’t care how serious the music is. We’re always putting on a show . . . We want to break down every possible barrier between the performer and his or her audience.”