March 28, 2024

DealBook: Puckering Up, With a Piano Concerto at His Lips

Christopher W. Ullman still remembers the day when he realized he was a serious whistler.

“I was walking in a grocery store parking lot whistling, and some guy walking towards me called out, ‘Beethoven! Third piano concerto!’ ” he recalled. “I said to myself, ‘Whoa, I have a talent.’ ”

More than two decades later, Mr. Ullman, who works by day as global head of communications for the Carlyle Group, the private equity firm based in Washington, hasn’t stopped puckering up for music. He is a four-time international whistling champion, sharing the record for the most wins in the competition’s history. And he assures skeptics that the world of competitive whistling, despite sounding like the premise of a Christopher Guest mockumentary, is very real.

“It’s typically viewed as a novelty,” he said. “But I’ve whistled with 10 symphony orchestras.”

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Mr. Ullman, 48, learned the art of lip-based lyricism by listening to his father whistle Gilbert and Sullivan songs around the house, and tried it out while delivering papers on his bicycle in his Long Island neighborhood. He honed his skills during college, where a friend’s band let him improvise whistling parts to their jazz and blues songs.

In 1992, a friend urged him to enter the International Whistling Competition, held every spring in Louisburg, N.C. He decided to sign up, and his rendition of “In the Mood” by Glenn Miller earned him a second-place finish in the pop music division. The next year, he took home first prize over all with renditions of “This Night Life” by Clint Black and a movement from Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

Typically, about 30 contestants enter the adult division of the International Whistling Competition, though Mr. Ullman said that only five or six could truly be classified as world-class whistlers.

Christopher W. Ullman of the Carlyle Group is also a four-time international whistling champion.Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York TimesChristopher W. Ullman of the Carlyle Group is also a four-time international whistling champion.

“For eight years, a Canadian guy named Tanguay Desgagne and I traded off. He won, I won, he won, I won. He was ascendant for a while, and then I came on the scene,” Mr. Ullman said.

The rules of competitive whistling are not as simple as doing your best Andy Griffith impression. Hopefuls may enter one of three categories: pop, classical or “allied arts,” in which they can sing or accompany themselves on an instrument. Entrants in the pop and classical divisions are scored by judges on musical quality, interpretation and performance skill. The highest combined score wins the championship.

Winning the gold medal in 1994 started Mr. Ullman on a brief but intense media tour that included an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” Mr. Ullman told the host about his training regimen, which included a no-kissing rule for 24 hours before performing in order to avoid softening the lips. Mr. Leno shot back, “Well, that’s not a problem for you.”

“I didn’t get it at first,” Mr. Ullman said. “And then suddenly it dawned on me that he was making fun of me.”

Mr. Ullman’s stint atop the competitive whistling world paid off again in June 2001, when he was working as the spokesman for Mitch Daniels, the head of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. One morning, Mr. Ullman said, he was summoned unexpectedly to the Oval Office to whistle for President Bush, who had heard rumors of his talent. Nervously, Mr. Ullman performed a full set that included Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, “Take the ‘A’ Train” by Duke Ellington and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

“It was rocking,” he said.

He frequently whistles while he works. Mr. Ullman has performed for power players like Sanford I. Weill, the former Citigroup chairman, and Richard A. Grasso, the former head of the New York Stock Exchange. He credits his impassioned rendition of “Vesti la giubba” from “Pagliacci” with landing him a job as spokesman for Arthur Levitt Jr., the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr. Ullman’s colleagues at the Carlyle Group are also supportive of his melodious hobby. He once opened for Tony Bennett at a firm-sponsored event, and David Rubenstein, the firm’s co-founder, recently called on him to perform during a meeting with visiting executives.

“It kind of shows our humanity,” Mr. Ullman said of the impromptu performances. “Although I feel a little like a trained monkey.”

Recently, the demands of Mr. Ullman’s family and professional life have taken a toll on his musical pursuits. He hasn’t competed in several years, although he still whistles “Happy Birthday” for friends and colleagues upon request.

His boss, David M. Marchick, global head of external affairs at Carlyle, said, “Chris is fantastic at promoting Carlyle’s brand and reputation, and equally world class at whistling.” Mr. Marchick called the whistling talent “definitely eccentric and a little wacky, but part of Chris’s charm.”

But opponents be warned: Mr. Ullman says he plans to return to the competitive circuit as soon as he gets a little more free time. For inspiration, he’s been listening to Rachmaninoff concertos in the car on the way to work.

“I’ll compete again someday,” he said. “My lips aren’t going away.”

Off The Clock is a new DealBook column that features the extracurricular hobbies, passions and interests of Wall Street professionals. If you or someone you know would like to be featured, e-mail your suggestion to offtheclock@nytimes.com.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c94890b996fbdeb92d18b09851ba543c

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