When Marin Alsop was a little girl in New York City, she and her father attended one of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. Watching Bernstein at work, the maestra-to-be fell in love with conducting.

Now an international star, Alsop has become an inspiration to others. Two young Denver musicians credit her with encouraging them to pursue a podium career. They're of different genders and come from different generations and continents. What they share is a love of music - and the desire to lead.

Ilyich Rivas

Raising his baton before a student orchestra at Denver School of the Arts, Ilyich Rivas is in complete control as he sets the tempo for the opening of Beethoven's Symphony No. 8.

During this informal rehearsal with the DSA string players, Rivas hums the missing wind melodies, offers corrections and praise - handling himself in the manner of a mature maestro. His finely chiseled face reveals an intensity and focus.

It's easy to forget that he is all of 15. Not that Rivas is new at this: He's been studying for more than half his life.

"I always knew that was the goal - to conduct," he said. "I remember listening to Beethoven's Seventh (Symphony) as a kid and thinking that the gods were coming down to earth, that they were coming to me!"

Profound sentiments from an otherwise typical, easy-going, all-American teenager, but there's nothing typical about his life thus far.

At 9, he conducted Sousa in Cincinnati. At 14, he conducted Verdi in his Venezuelan homeland. Last summer, he attended Marin Alsop's Cabrillo Festival in Santa Cruz, Calif., as one of seven promising maestros from around the world (the youngest by far). Working with Alsop and Gustav Meier, he rehearsed Mahler, Bartok, Debussy and Mozart.

Noting that the teen "is on a whole other level," Alsop recently commented: "Ilyich exhibits unusual talent and passion for music and conducting. He has enormous experience at his early age and conducts with maturity and conviction already."

Last week, he traveled to Baltimore to work with Meier at the Peabody Conservatory. Next summer, with help from a representative at IMG Artists, he hopes to study in Europe with famed conductors Charles Dutoit and Kurt Masur.

Tracing the source of such prodigious talent is easy: It seems the apple has fallen close to the tree.

Born in 1993 in San Cristobal, Venezuela, Ilyich joined a multi-generational family of musicians. His great-grandfather was a band leader, his grandfather led a chorus and his father, Alejandro, has carved a solid reputation as an orchestra conductor.

His parents moved to America soon after his birth, settling in Cincinnati, where the conducting bug hit the boy at age 6.

"Ilyich was always there watching, always asking questions," his father recalled during a visit with his son in a cafe on the Auraria campus, where the elder Rivas teaches and conducts the Metro State Symphony. "He wouldn't sit out in the theater. He'd be onstage with the players.

"Then, when he was 7, he told me he had learned some music. He'd memorized Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and conducted the recording - really conducted it."

Two years later, at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where his father taught, Ilyich led the school's wind players in Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever.

"He prepared it really well," Alejandro Rivas said. "He was not just beating time. He had a concept and was able to transmit it to the players."

Ever since, the two have worked together, honing Ilyich's craft, adding new repertory.

"I'm a conductor myself," Alejandro Rivas reminded. "I didn't want to do something cute with him. I'm respectful of the profession. I'm taking this very seriously."

"We work on a higher level together," Ilyich said. "He doesn't sugar-coat anything - I've always been told the truth by him."

Though still freakishly young to be a conductor, Ilyich has moved beyond the novelty stage. It's time for serious study. Which is how Alsop entered the picture. After a concert last season, his father gave Alsop a video of his son conducting.

"The very next day she got in touch," Alejandro Rivas said. "She had lots of questions."

An invitation to Cabrillo soon followed. The California visit turned out to be a grueling, but rewarding experience.

"Marin can be very tough," Ilyich said with a wry smile. "But she was always positive with me, showing me ways to express musical ideas. I look forward to working with her some more."

It's understood that patience and hard work are key.

"Conducting is a delicate career," Alejandro Rivas observed. "We want to go step by step."

Ilyich nodded. "I realize there's so much more to learn," he said. "But I feel that I have time."

Catherine Sailer

Sporting a big grin as she walked onstage at Gates Concert Hall earlier this month, Catherine Sailer appeared barely older than the singers in her Lamont Women's Choir, who awaited her down-beat.

Ponytail swinging back and forth, Sailer walked up to the microphone and greeted her audience. "I've been on maternity leave for a year, and it feels really good to be back," she reported.

The smile on her face remained as she went to work, coaxing spirited singing from her young charges.

As director of choral studies at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music, Sailer has emerged as the latest in a long line of Denver-based women conductors, following in the footsteps of Antonia Brico, JoAnn Falletta, Paige Vickery and, most famously, Marin Alsop.

While growing up in Evergreen, Sailer, 34, had observed the march of maestras. "Being a woman conductor seemed normal to me," she said. "I was so clueless."

During Alsop's decadelong tenure at the helm of the Colorado Symphony, she became something of a hero to the young Sailer.

"I remember watching Marin on the podium - I must have been a senior in high school. She was having so much fun up there. I was intrigued by the physicality. For me, it was the dance of it, the way a conductor relates to each instrument."

In 2005, Sailer came face-to-face with her idol, when, like Ilyich Rivas would do later, she traveled to Alsop's Cabrillo Festival in California.

"I got there six weeks after I gave birth to my first boy (Peter, now 3)," Sailer said. "I was so tired, and I was nursing him all the time. I don't know how I pulled through. But Marin was very understanding. We worked on some tough stuff - (Stravinsky's) Rite of Spring, Brahms' Third (Symphony). It was a wonderful experience, despite everything."

Raised in a decidedly non-musical household, Sailer had been drawn to the piano as a young girl, though the lure of conducting soon captured her.

"When I was 15, I won a piano competition and got a scholarship to Rocky Ridge (Music Center in Estes Park). Even then, I wanted to conduct."

Her family had spent a year living in Toronto when she was in the ninth grade. "It was there that I learned that I could do (music) as a living - but that there was work to be done."

As a drum major at Evergreen High, she enjoyed the experience of standing in front of a group and setting the beat. But it was when she began attending the University of Denver that conducting - specifically, choral conducting - took center stage.

"At Lamont I met (choral conductor) Bob Penn. I had gone to one of his concerts, and was spellbound. I wasn't a singer, but I wanted to be a part of it."

After befriending Penn, she received a startling invitation. "He said, 'Do you want some podium time?' I discovered that it wasn't that much different (from instrumental conducting). I mean, clear is clear. There's breathing involved - just as there is with an orchestra."

After graduating, Sailer went to graduate school at Northwestern University in Illinois. She discovered in 1997 that the city was "a choral center," with the renowned Chicago Symphony Chorus as the focus. She received some valuable mentoring from chorus director Duain Wolfe - who also leads the Colorado Symphony Chorus.

In 1999, she married Patrick Heck.

"We were planning to stay in Chicago, so I could do my dissertation," she said. "But then I got a call from DU. Penn had half-retired and was giving up his choir. Would I be interested?"

The first year at Lamont she was part time, joining the full-time faculty the following year. "I felt that I could help (the music school) go somewhere," Sailer said. "I felt confident about the work I'd done."

Earlier this month, the conductor was a portrait of confidence as she led the Lamont Women's Choir in a challenging set.

Fittingly, and without any fanfare, she handed the baton to three of her students - Beryl Fanslow, Jennifer Chester and Jill Schroeder - who each got a taste of conducting.

As they worked, Sailer happily assumed a place in the choir.

Marc Shulgold is the music and dance writer. shulgoldm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5296

Conducting for a living

Music directors of major American orchestras can command healthy salaries. Here's a sampling. Unless noted, salaries are from 2006:

* Lorin Maazel (New York Philharmonic): $2.2 million

* Michael Tilson Thomas (San Francisco Symphony): $1.5 million

* James Levine (Boston Symphony): $1.5 million

* Daniel Barenboim (Chicago Symphony): $927,974

* Gerard Schwarz (Seattle Symphony): $577,500

* Yuri Temirkanov (Baltimore Symphony): $390,717

* Jeffrey Kahane (Colorado Symphony): $210,856

* Lawrence Leighton Smith (Colorado Springs Philharmonic): $71,000 (2007)

* Michael Butterman (Boulder Philharmonic): $49,464 (2007)

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