A few nights ago I was awaken at 4 a.m. in Jakarta, Indonesia, by a phone call informing me of Christoph von Dohnányi’s passing last Saturday. It goes without saying that I was so deeply saddened that he has left us, but what made me even more heartbroken was that in about 10 hours’ time, I was planning to call and wish him “Happy 96th Birthday,” as he had always called me for my birthday every year without fail since he left The Cleveland Orchestra (TCO) in 2002.

I remember the first moment I met him in 1983, when he was conducting Katya Kabanova at San Francisco Opera. I was introduced to him as the Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and as founding music director of San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO). At that time, Christoph was looking for an Associate Conductor to replace Resident Conductor Yoel Levi when he would take the helm of TCO in September of 1984. He told me that he was going to attend my rehearsal with SFSYO at Davies Symphony Hall the following Saturday afternoon, when I would be rehearsing the last movement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. During the rehearsal he stayed at the very back of the hall with his best friend, Dr. Dale Loomis, watching my rehearsal. I saw them in the beginning, but after 10 minutes, when I looked back they were already gone. I thought to myself that he must have hated the rehearsal and left. However, in about three days, I got a phone call from the then Executive Director of TCO, Ken Haas, who informed me that Mr. Dohnányi had decided to hire me as his Associate Conductor. Of course I said yes, but since I had never conducted the orchestra and was not comfortable accepting his invitation without even meeting the orchestra, Ken arranged to have a symposium for the orchestra so that they could see their future staff conductors at work and be able to choose from. At that time, I was also being considered to be the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) under Seiji Ozawa. I was inclined to take the Boston position because I was a product of Tanglewood as their Bernstein Conducting Fellow. However, many of my mentors, including Joseph Silverstein and the management of SFS, advised me to take the Cleveland job and told me that I would learn much more from Christoph von Dohnányi with the great Cleveland Orchestra tradition. Today, I believe even more strongly that everyone would overwhelmingly agree their recommendations and my decision were absolutely the right one. After the symposium, Ken told me that the orchestra agreed with his decision, and I was hired as Associate Conductor to coincide with Christoph’s tenure as music director of TCO in that same month. Later, Dale told me that Christoph was very impressed with the SFSYO’s young musicians who were mostly wearing blue jeans and so he called them “Blue Jean Philharmonic.” I truly believe it is God’s providence and grace that have led me to meet with him and TCO which later became one of the longest and most beautiful musical relationship in the orchestra’s history.

On January 31, 1985—four months after I began my tenure in Cleveland, I had to make a surprise last-minute debut with the orchestra when he took ill. Christoph trusted me to substitute for him to conduct the three subscription concerts at Severance Hall as well as two run-out concerts to Akron and Oberlin (two programs in one weekend). Those debut concerts immediately propelled my career, and he immediately promoted me to become the third Resident Conductor in TCO history after Louis Lane and Yoel Levi. Later that year, after my debut with TCO, I was also invited by John Williams to conduct my debut concert with the Boston Pops and by Seiji Ozawa to conduct another debut concert with BSO (even though I did not take the job there). Both events were subscription concerts at Boston Symphony Hall, and the following month after BSO, I did another one with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The rest is history, and thanks to Christoph, I worked for him for 18 years at TCO as Resident Conductor until he left Cleveland in 2002. His trust and confidence in me made me the longest tenured conductor in TCO history for 38 years continuous annual appearances. I conducted the orchestra in more than 550 concerts comprising 600 pieces because of his mentorship. He also let me conduct pieces of repertoire that are usually reserved exclusively for music directors such as Mahler and Bruckner. In addition, he trusted me completely to substitute for ailing conductors more than 20 different times—not only for his cancellations but other conductors as well—some happened just 5 minutes before the concert began like when he was stuck at the Lincoln Tunnel when we performed in Montclair, New Jersey on my birthday in 1991. I remember in 1986, as I was recording my first album for Telarc in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he fell ill and insisted that I should be the one to conduct the final subscription concerts in Cleveland that season. In order for me to be able to rehearse in Cleveland immediately after my recording sessions, he made Ken to agree to fly me on a Concorde flight back from London to New York. In addition, he also let me lead the orchestra on several domestic tours.

I mentioned that he invited me to join TCO after seeing my rehearsal with SFSYO. Two years after I began my tenure in Cleveland, Christoph and Ken asked me to form the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO), and in September 1986 we began the first rehearsal at Severance Hall, with the participation of many principals and members of TCO who coached them in sectional rehearsals every week before doing full rehearsals with me. I stayed as the founding music director of COYO for 7 seasons. The Youth Orchestra was so successful that some of members would drive two hours from their home every week. COYO was Christoph’s brainchild, and it was from his insistence that we now have a Youth Orchestra with such great reputation which impacted the young generation of Cleveland community and surpassed all expectation.

In my more than 40 years of relationship, Christoph never treated me as his assistant, but always valued and respected my musical ideas and kept me as his very dear colleague as he invited me to participate in artistic and personnel decision matters, including attending auditions. He also treated me as a friend, always calling to wish “Happy Birthday” on my birthday every year, even long after we both left Cleveland. His kindness and thoughtfulness even extended beyond his tenure as music director. As he was already planning to move on in 2002 at his last season as music director of TCO, he decided to appoint me to the position of Blossom Festival Director from 2000-21 season, the first time a staff conductor was named and promoted to this prestigious position in the orchestra’s history. It gave me a chance to hold the orchestra’s artistic integrity and its commitment to the highest level even in the summertime. I stayed for 6 seasons as Blossom Festival Director, then continued to conduct in Severance Hall and Blossom for the next 18 years after leaving my Festival Director position in August 2005.

Furthermore, I also had the privilege to witness Christoph conduct hundreds of memorable live and studio recordings that are forever instilled in my memory and in the memory of music lovers. As always, he paid such meticulous attention to details of the quality of recording. He also trusted me to be the Associate Producer of Cleveland Orchestra Radio Network and to have the authority of quality control of our broadcast products—52 weekly broadcast every year in over 500 radio stations in 50 states of the US.

As he cut down his worldwide appearances due to his advanced age, he still kept his promise that when I became a music director of any orchestra, he would make a guest appearance for my orchestra. After I built San Diego Symphony for 10 years into a respectable orchestra, in 2014 I invited him to conduct the orchestra with my dear Juilliard classmate Emanuel Ax as soloist. It was an incredible and unforgettable concert for everyone. He asked for seven rehearsals, which we gladly gave him, to do Beethoven’s 5th and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9. After his first concert that Friday night, I told him, “Christoph, tomorrow, since you don’t have any more rehearsals and only one concert in the evening, would you join us to have lunch in the beautiful beach resort in Coronado?” He answered, “My dear Jahja, you know that I have to study Tchaikovsky 6th which I am conducting next week. I am sorry I can’t join you.” At that time I know he has conducted Tchaikovsky 6th for hundreds of times—even recorded it with TCO—but his discipline and integrity would always take precedence, more than pleasure or friendship. That’s why I respected him and loved him even more for his utmost dedication to his artistry.

Growing up as a young man in Jakarta knowing George Szell’s legendary tradition of excellence, I learned that in Christoph there were even more warmth, humanity, and compassion in his music, causing our heart and souls to move even more profoundly. I myself found that it was possible to keep precise ensemble, excellent intonation, with wonderful balance of orchestra colors and depth, and meaning to music as he had always searched for in his music-making.

Thank you, Christoph. Farewell to my boss, mentor, colleague, and friend for your inspiration and guidance to my life and career. I am forever grateful and indebted to you. May your soul rest in the Lord. You are blessed to be reunited with your family, especially your uncle, the great theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer whom you often mentioned.

Much love to Barbara, Katja, Justus, Julia, Benedikt, and Olga.