The Pasadena Symphony Association is proud to announce the appointment of David Lockington as its new Music Director and Nicholas McGegan as its Principal Guest Conductor, an innovative partnership of powerhouse artistic leadership. Lockington is the fifth Music Director of Pasadena’s 85-year-old treasured Symphony Orchestra. McGegan’s newly created position formalizes a synergistic relationship between the conductor and the orchestra, and represents a deep commitment of engagement to complement the orchestra’s future artistic direction and impact on its community. Lockington’s and McGegan’s initial three-year contracts commence this year with the 2013-14 Singpoli Classics Series. In 2014-15, both will regularly conduct the orchestra.
“After conducting and getting to know the orchestra, I am excited to begin an extended relationship exploring great music-making,” says Lockington. “I am also looking forward to connecting to the fabric of Pasadena and stimulating even more interest in supporting this community’s live music.”
Diane Rankin, President of the Pasadena Symphony Association reflects, “Looking at musicianship, technique, knowledge, leadership, and inspiration, David Lockington and Nic McGegan kept rising to the top, epitomizing the definition of performance standard and genuine community engagement. We feel very fortunate to have these two remarkable artists as part of our organization and community.”
“I am thrilled to be a part of the artistic leadership team of the Pasadena Symphony, along with David and Pops Conductor Michael Feinstein,” says McGegan. “The Pasadena Symphony is the perfect creative playground for all of us! I look forward to expanding my orchestral repertoire in upcoming seasons here.”
“The musicians of our orchestra passionately declared their preference for David and Nic,” states Paul Jan Zdunek, CEO of the Association. “David is perfect, as our visions completely align. With Nicholas as an artistic partner to David and Michael Feinstein, this new team is sure to take us to places we have only dreamed about.”
Drew Dembowski, Principal Bass states, “As a member of the Pasadena Symphony since 1975, I could not be feeling more positive about our prospects for the future and more proud of the collaborative efforts of all those involved in this process.”
An accomplished cellist before turning to conducting, David Lockington spent 14 seasons as Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, where he created a legacy that the New York Times called “a model in the Classical music world.” Nominated for a GRAMMY® in 2007, Lockington has also held the music directorships of the Long Island Philharmonic, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Cheyenne Symphony and Ohio Chamber Orchestra. Since September 2007, he has served as music director of the Modesto Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, he was named principal conductor of Spain’s Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias. Guest conducting engagements include appearances throughout North America and internationally.
Nicholas McGegan is a pioneer in exporting historical practices of period instruments to the conventional symphonic forces. His discography includes more than 100 recordings, including the Gramophone-winning, GRAMMY® nominated world premiere of Handel’s “Susanna.” He is also credited with the first performance in modern times of Handel’s “Gloria.” As long-standing music director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Philharmonia Chorale, McGegan established the leading period performance ensemble in the United States. Active in opera as well, he was Principal Conductor of Sweden’s Drottingholm 1993-96 annual festival and Artistic Director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival. He has also guest-conducted across the United States.
Highlights of the upcoming 2013-14 Singpoli Classics Series includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto, Bernstein’s Serenade, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 plus world renowned soloists Anne Akiko Meyers (violin) and Shai Wosner (piano). Season Subscriptions are on sale now and may be purchased by phone at 626-793-7172 or online at www.PasadenadaenaSymphony-Pops.org.
Artistic Leadership Biographies
DAVID LOCKINGTON begins his tenure this year as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony. Lockington’s full duties as Music Director commence immediately and beginning 2014-15 Lockington will regularly conduct the orchestra for multiple performances.
In his 14th season as Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, David Lockington has created a lasting legacy of artistic achievements and genuine community enrichment. 2005 marked Lockington’s conducting debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The New York Timescommended the Grand Rapids Symphony, under his artistic leadership for being a model in the Classical music world. Lockington also earned a 2007 Grammy Award nomination and has led five recordings with Grand Rapids. The recordings have received high praise including the CD of Adolphus Hailstork’s Second and Third symphonies, released internationally on the Naxos label in 2007. Additionally, 2008 saw the successful start of the Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Choruses. At his initiative, the Symphony has also reached out to new and diverse audiences through its annual community concert “Symphony with Soul,” now in its 12th season.
Lockington’s guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Saint Louis, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Colorado, Oregon, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Pacific, Nashville, San Diego, Kansas City and Columbus Symphonies; the Louisville Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa; the Buffalo, Rochester, Calgary and Louisiana Philharmonics; and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. Internationally, he has conducted the China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in Beijing and Taiwan, led the English Chamber Orchestra on a tour in Asia and appeared with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain and the Northern Sinfonia in Great Britain.
Since September 2007 Mr. Lockington has served as music director of the Modesto Symphony Orchestra in California. In May 2012, he was named principal conductor of Spain’s Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias. Prior to leading the Grand Rapids Symphony, Mr. Lockington held the music directorships of the Long Island Philharmonic, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Cheyenne Symphony and Ohio Chamber Orchestra. For three years he held the post of assistant conductor with the Denver Symphony Orchestra and Opera Colorado. Mr. Lockington was also associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Lockington began his career as principal cellist with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Cambridge, he came to the U.S. on a scholarship to Yale University, where he received his master’s degree in cello performance and studied conducting with Otto Werner Mueller. He was a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and served as assistant principal cellist for three years with the Denver Symphony Orchestra before turning to conducting.
Mr. Lockington arrived in this country in 1978 and is a U.S. citizen. He is married to violinist Dylana Jenson. They live in Grand Rapids and have four children
NICHOLAS MCGEGAN begins his tenure this year as Principal Guest Conductor of the Pasadena Symphony. McGegan’s full duties as Principal Guest Conductor commence during the 2013-14 season and beginning 2014-15 McGegan will regularly guest conduct the orchestra twice a year. As he embarks on his fourth decade on the podium, Nicholas McGegan — long hailed as “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” (London Independent) and “an expert in 18th-century style” (The New Yorker) — is increasingly recognized for his probing and revelatory explorations of music of all periods.
Through 27 years as its music director, McGegan has established the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Philharmonia Chorale as one of the world’s leading period-performance ensembles, with notable appearances at Carnegie Hall, the London Proms, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the International Handel Festival, Göttingen where he was artistic director from 1991 to 2011. Throughout his career, McGegan has defined an approach to period style that sets the current standard: serious and intelligent, but never dogmatic. More recently, Philharmonia Baroque is branching out under his leadership. Calling the group’s recent recording of the Brahms Serenades “a truly treasurable disc,” James R. Oestreich in The New York Times made special note of the performance’s “energy and spirit.” The recording, said Voix des Arts, offers “evidence that ‘period’ instruments are in no way inhibited in terms of tonal amplitude and beauty. These are … exceptionally beautifully played performances.”
McGegan’s ability to engage players and audiences alike has made him a pioneer in broadening the reach of historically informed practice beyond the world of period ensembles to conventional symphonic forces. His guest-conducting appearances with major orchestras — including the New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong Philharmonics; the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Toronto and Sydney Symphonies; the Cleveland and the Philadelphia Orchestras; and the Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra — often feature Baroque repertoire alongside Classical, Romantic, 20th-century and even brand-new works: Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Britten, Bach and Handel with the Utah Symphony; Poulenc and Mozart with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Mahler and Mozart with the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra; and the premiere, in 2012, of Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabiliswith the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, paired with Haydn, Brahms and Mendelssohn.
Active in opera as well as the concert hall, McGegan was principal conductor of Sweden’s perfectly preserved 18th-century theatr Drottingholm from 1993 to 1996. He has also been a frequent guest conductor with opera companies including Covent Garden, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Washington.
Mr. McGegan has enjoyed a long collaboration with groundbreaking choreographer Mark Morris, notably the premiere performances of Morris’s production of Rameau’s Platée at the Edinburgh Festival and L’Allegro at Ravinia and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. In 2014 Mr. McGegan will rejoin the Mark Morris Dance Group, along with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale and renowned soloists for the premiere and touring performances of Mr. Morris’s new production of Handel’s Acis and Galateain an arrangement by Mozart.
His discography of more than 100 releases includes the world premiere recording of Handel’s Susanna, which garnered both a Gramophone Award and a GRAMMY® nomination, and recent issues of that composer’s Solomon, Samson and Acis and Galatea (the little-known version adapted by Felix Mendelssohn). He is also credited with the first performance in modern times of Handel’s masterly but mislaid Gloria. Under its own label, Philharmonia Baroque Productions (PBP), in addition to the Brahms recording Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra has recently released five acclaimed archival recordings: Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and selected Handel arias with the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson; Haydn Symphonies No. 88, 101 and 104, nominated for a GRAMMY® Award; Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and other concerti with Elizabeth Blumenstock as violin soloist; Handel’s Atalantawith soprano Dominique Labelle in the title role; and Brahms’ beloved Serenades.
Mr. McGegan is committed to the next generation of musicians, frequently conducting and coaching students in residencies and engagements at Yale University, the Juilliard School, Harvard University, the Colburn School, Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Music Academy of the West.
Born in England, Nicholas McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford and taught at the Royal College of Music, London. He was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for 2010 “for services to music overseas.” His awards also include the Halle Handel Prize; an honorary professorship at Georg-August University, Göttingen; the Order of Merit of the State of Lower Saxony (Germany); the Medal of Honour of the City of Göttingen, and an official Nicholas McGegan Day, declared by the Mayor of San Francisco in recognition of two decades of distinguished work with Philharmonia Baroque.Visit Nicholas McGegan on the web at www.nicholasmcgegan.com.
ABOUT THE PASADENA SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION
Recent Acclaim for the Pasadena Symphony and POPS
“Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony sounded fascinatingly contemporary. Lean, tight and transparent, this Tchaikovsky sizzled with inner life. The playing was clean, the horns a pleasure.” – Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times. November 5, 2012
“…full of pulsating energy from first note to last… the strings were lushly resonant, the wind principals were at the top of their games, and the brass rang out with gleaming vigor.” – Robert Thomas, Pasadena Star News. November 2, 2011
The Pasadena Symphony Association was founded in 1928 by Conductor Reginald Bland. Originally named the Pasadena Civic Orchestra, its first members were mostly volunteer musicians, many of whom were students of Bland. The annual operating budget was $3,500, which was funded entirely by the City of Pasadena.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an ensemble of Southern California’s most talented, sought after musicians. With extensive credits in the film, television, recording and orchestral industry, the artists of Pasadena Symphony and POPS are the most heard in the world.
In the fall of 2007, the Pasadena Symphony incorporated the Pasadena POPS into its Association under the new name Pasadena Symphony and POPS. This merger created an expanded Classics and POPS series providing the community with a full spectrum of live symphonic concerts year-round. In the summer of 2012, the Pasadena POPS’ relocated its summer home to the Los Angeles County Arboretum where it has been performing to record-breaking crowds and critical acclaim. The Pasadena POPS announced Michael Feinstein as its new Principal Pops Conductor in August 2012; he will be the first conductor to hold the Marvin Hamlisch Chair title.
The Pasadena Symphony provides a musical experience like no other at the Ambassador Auditorium – known as the Carnegie Hall of the West – where they have been the resident professional orchestra since 2010. In 2013, the Pasadena Symphony named Maestro David Lockington as its fifth Music Director and appointed Nicholas McGegan as Principal Guest Conductor.
A hallmark of its robust education programs, the Pasadena Symphony Association has served the youth of the region since 1972 through the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra comprised of over 200 gifted middle school students from more than 40 schools all over the Southland. The PYSO most recently performed on several episodes of the popular television show GLEE.
Full 2013-14 Singpoli Classics Series Information
November 2, 2013 | 2 & 8pm
THE RITE OF SPRING
David Lockington, Conductor
Anne Akiko Meyers, Violin
Shostakovich Festive Overture
Bernstein Serenade (After Plato’s “Symposium”)
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
January 11, 2014
MCGEGAN’S DVORAK
Nicholas McGegan, Conductor
Umi Garrett, Piano
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1
Dvorák Symphony No. 6
February 15, 2014
BEETHOVEN 9
Kazem Abdullah, Conductor
The Donald Brinegar Singers
SATB, TBD
Lauridsen Mid-Winter Songs
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
March 29, 2014
BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO No. 1
Andrew Grams, Conductor
Simone Porter, Violin
Bolcom Commedia for (Almost) 18th Century Orchestra
Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1
Schumann Symphony No. 4
May 10, 2014
TCHAIKOVSKY PIANO CONCERTO
Jahja Ling, Conductor
Shai Wosner, Piano
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1
Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
Additional 2013-14 Guest Artist Biographies
ANNE AKIKO MEYERS
Anne Akiko Meyers is celebrated as one of the world’s premier concert violinists. Meyers is constantly ‘charting her own course’ and the American Record Guide is quoted as saying, ‘through her peerless mastery and vivid imagination there seems to be no limit to the colors she can draw from her instrument.’
She regularly performs as featured soloist with orchestras around the world, including the Boston Symphony, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonic.
On Valentine’s Day, 2012, Meyers’ eagerly anticipated ‘Air-The Bach Album’, on eOne, debuted at #1 on Billboard charts and has been a bestseller at iTunes and Amazon. It features Bach’s solo violin concerti as well as the double concerto where Meyers played both solo parts on the 1697 ex-‘Napoleon/Molitor’ and the 1730 ‘Royal Spanish’ Stradivari violins with the English Chamber Orchestra. Also featured, are Bach’s ‘Air’, ‘Largo’ and and Bach-Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria’. eOne Records previously released ‘Seasons…dreams’, featuring music with harp and piano and includes several world premieres in 2010 and and ‘Smile’, released in 2009. Both recordings topped the Billboard charts.
This season, Meyers commissioned Mason Bates, to write his first violin concerto. Meyers will premiere it with Leonard Slatkin and the Pittsburgh Symphony and Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony. Other highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and many other orchestral, recital, and chamber music appearances.
Recently, Meyers performed across North America, Europe, Korea, and Japan, working with the Saint Louis Symphony, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Korean Broadcasting Symphony and the Tokyo Philharmonic and many other orchestras. Anne performed a special benefit recital for Play For Japan in San Francisco, which was broadcast around the world on the Internet and was featured with Ryuichi Sakamoto at New York’s Japan Society, raising funds for the Japan Earthquake Fund.
Over the years, Meyers has collaborated with pop singing sensation, Il Divo, top jazz artists such as Chris Botti, and Wynton Marsalis, who composed cadenzas for her in Mozart’s G Major Violin Concerto, and performed the National Anthem to 42,000 fans at Safeco Field before the Mariners-Red Sox game in Seattle. Meyers’ has recorded extensively for labels including Avie, Camerata, eOne/Koch, Hyperion, Naxos, RCA Victor Red Seal, RPO, Sony and Warner Classics. View her discography on Amazon and iTunes.
Ms. Meyers has regularly performed and commissioned new compositions, premiering works by composers such as David Baker, Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Roddy Ellias, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Jennifer Higdon, Wynton Marsalis, Olivier Messiaen, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Part, Manuel Ponce, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh, and Joseph Schwantner
Meyers’ television credits include a feature on MSNBC’s ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann’, a segment that was so popular it was named the #3 story of 2010. An A&E Network telecast from the Casals Festival with the Montreal Symphony, a PBS broadcast with the Boston Pops Orchestra and John Williams and her appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and the “Emmy Award Show” attracted national attention. She was also featured in a performance with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Holland that attracted an audience of 10,000 and was globally broadcast live on the Internet. Meyers also performed in front of 750,000 people in Sydney, Australia’s Harbour, celebrating their 200th Bicentennial and has performed for dignitaries including the Emperor and Empress of Japan. Meyers has been featured in numerous print and television commercials including Anne Klein’s “Women of Substance” fashion campaign that appeared in magazines around the world and was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and recently starred in ads for Tourneau.
Starting her studies at age 4, she first performed with a local orchestra at the age of 7, then burst into prominence at age 11, when she twice performed on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The following year she made her New York Philharmonic debut with Zubin Mehta conducting, and was soon performing throughout the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe. By the time her debut disc of the Barber and Bruch violin concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was released at age 18, she was recognized as one of the stars of her generation.
Meyers was born in San Diego, California and grew up in Southern California. She studied with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. At age 23, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the only artist to be the sole recipient of this annual prize.
Ms.Meyers was recently given exclusive lifetime loan of one of the most iconic violins ever made. Watch the story here.
UMI GARRETT
In May 2009, 8-year-old piano prodigy Umi Garrett appeared on NBC’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It was such a sensation that her young career has since skyrocketed, receiving requests to perform worldwide and appearing regularly with symphony orchestras in the US and around the world.
Now at the age 12, Umi’s most recent accomplishments include winning first prizes at the 13th Osaka International Music Competition in Japan in October, The Chopin International Competition in Budapest, Hungary in June, and Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition in New York earlier in the same year.
Among Umi’s earlier highlights are an appearance with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops sponsored by NPR’s From the Top, and her orchestral debut with the Desert Symphony in Palm Desert, California in 2009 both at the age of 9, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 in A major. Her performances thrilled the audiences with brilliant playing and charm, earning enthusiastic standing ovations and establishing Umi as a definitive rising star in classical music.
Outside of the United States, the young pianist has thrilled classical patrons in theatres from Panama to the Netherlands and beyond. Umi made her debut on the Asian continent with the Wuhan Symphony Orchestra in 2010 and in 2012 performed with Liepaja Symphony Orchestra in Latvia as her European Orchestral debut. Umi has performed solo concerts in Italy, Poland, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Australia, Japan and Panama.
She captivated European audiences in 2009 in several concerts at the Vianden Music Festival in Luxembourg and in Germany with selected solo and chamber music works. Umi was featured on live Luxembourg television in an interview as a “wunderkind.” Most recently in 2012 she was invited to perform a solo recital for the Japan Times in Tokyo. Umi was invited as a guest pianist in a festival for the city of Tarnow, and at The Chopin Summer Festival in Busko-Zdroj, Poland as well as the “Assisi in the World” Festival in Italy.
At home Umi has performed with a diverse set of orchestras, has been invited to perform for the Kyoto Symposium; a memorial concert celebrating Marvin Hamlisch with the Pasadena Symphony and Pops; a master class with Lang Lang; an annual meeting of Philharmonic Society of Orange County and a VIP event of “From the Top” at Joshua Bell’s house in New York.
Umi has recently won numerous first prizes in 2012 at the competitions such as The Osaka International Music Competition in Japan, The International Chopin Piano Competition “Chopin Plus” in Budapest, Hungary, and also at Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition in New York all in the same year, and Umi was the Grand Prix winner (Highest award given) at The International Chopin Competition in Connecticut in 2011 and was subsequently invited to perform at Carnegie (Weill) Hall. She has been a winner in the J.S. Bach Competition for two consecutive years.
A devout student of the piano, currently Umi is studying with John Perry at the Colburn School of Music, and is in the Colburn Academy program. Umi actively participates in international music festivals such as the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, the Cochem Music Festival in Germany and the Sydney International Master Class Festival in Australia.
Umi resides in Southern California, and speaks both English and Japanese fluently. Besides playing piano, Umi enjoys playing with her friends, drawing, going to the art museums, and traveling throughout Europe.
SIMONE PORTER
Violinist Simone Porter has been recognized by national and international critics as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, musical integrity and vibrant sound. Her performances have been described as “bold” (Seattle Times), “coolly virtuosic” (The London Times), and Ms. Porter herself has been praised as “a consummate chamber musician” (The Telegraph). Ms. Porter made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony, and her London debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at 13. The growing list of orchestras with which she has appeared include the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, the Northern Sinfonia and the Milton Keynes City Orchestra in the UK, the Olympia Symphony and Port Angeles Symphony orchestras in Washington, and the New West Symphony and Young Musician Foundation’s Debut Orchestra in California, among others. In May 2012, Ms. Porter made her professional recital debut on the Miami International Piano Festival’s “Prodigies and Masters of Tomorrow” series.
Ms. Porter’s engagements for the first half of the 2012-2013 season include several debuts. In July, she made her Aspen Music Festival debut performing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins in D major, RV 511, with violinist Adele Anthony under the baton of Nicholas McGegan. In September, Ms. Porter made her debut with the American Youth Symphony and music director Alexander Treger at Los Angeles’s Royce Hall performing Paganini’s Concerto No. 1 in D major for Violin and Orchestra. In October, she made her debut with the Reno Philharmonic and music director Laura Jackson, also performing Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1. In December, Ms. Porter appears on the Colburn Chamber Music Society Series at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles, performing Mozart’s String Quintet No. 3 in C Major, K.515 with violinist Arnold Steinhardt. She returns to her home town of Seattle later in the month to perform “Winter” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with Orchestra Seattle under conductor Huw Edwards.
Past performances of note include a solo appearance at the Great Eastern International Kids Performing Festival in Singapore in 2010. In 2008, Ms. Porter had the honor of performing for the Dalai Lama at the opening ceremony of a five-day symposium on compassion in Seattle, Washington.
Nationally, Ms. Porter has been heard on the renowned syndicated NPR radio program From the Top, featuring America’s best young classical musicians, and hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley. Her performance in July 2012 marked her third appearance on the program; she first appeared in 2007 at the age of 11. Ms. Porter also made her Carnegie Hall debut on the Emmy Award-winning TV show From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall. Other TV appearances include the BBC Documentary, The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies, which aired in the UK in June 2009. She has been featured on Seattle’s Kiro 7 TV’s Quarterly Magazine, In Color, and in August 2011, she was selected as the only Aspen Music Festival student to be featured on the popular national APM radio program Performance Today, recorded live at Aspen’s Harris Hall.
The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Ms. Porter was recently selected as a 2011 Davidson Fellow Laureate by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, which carries with it a $50,000 scholarship to further her musical education. In 2009, she was presented as an “Emerging Young Artist” by the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Ms. Porter studied with Margaret Pressley as a recipient of the Dorothy Richard Starling Scholarship, and was then admitted into the studio of the renowned pedagogue Robert Lipsett, with whom she presently studies at The Colburn School in Los Angeles. Her studies at the Colburn Young Artist’s Academy also include chamber music coaching with Arnold Steinhardt and Paul Coletti, academic music classes, and additional violin studies with Danielle Belen. Summer musical studies have included attendance at the Aspen Music Festival for six years, Indiana University’s Summer String Academy, and the Schlern International Music Festival in Italy.
Simone Porter plays on a 1742 Camillus Camilli violin on generous loan from The Mandell Collection of Southern California.
SHAI WOSNER
Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of repertoire from Beethoven and Mozart to Schoenberg and Ligeti, as well as music by contemporary composers, communicates his imaginative programming and intellectual curiosity. Mr. Wosner’s virtuosity and perceptiveness have made him a favorite among audiences and critics, who have praised him for his “keen musical mind and deep musical soul” (NPR’s All Things Considered) and for exemplifying a “remarkable blend of the intellectual, physical and even devilish sides of performance” (Chicago Sun Times).
Mr. Wosner’s 2012-13 season includes a seven-city tour throughout Germany and Belgium, a Schubert recital at the Kennedy Center, as well as solo appearances with various orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony and the Berkeley Symphony. Mr. Wosner will appear in duo-recitals with violinist Jennifer Koh at the Philadelphia Kimmel Center followed by performances in Virginia, Arizona and Georgia.
In October 2011 Mr. Wosner released his second recital album on the Onyx label featuring solo piano works by Schubert. Reviewing the disc, BBC Music Magazine declared, “this puts him straight into the front rank of Schubertians”. Gramophone magazine wrote, “With this recital Shai Wosner declares himself a Schubertian of unfaltering authority and character.” This album follows Mr. Wosner’s critically acclaimed debut recording, which juxtaposed works by Brahms and Schoenberg, released by Onyx in October 2010.
Mr. Wosner’s 2011-12 season included a concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall (broadcast live on BBC Radio 3), a series of Beethoven Sonatas at LSO St. Luke’s, a return to the Baltimore Symphony, a duo recital with baritone Wolfgang Holzmair at the 92nd St. Y in New York, and a duo recital tour with violinist Jennifer Koh. In May 2012, together with the Seattle Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwartz, Mr. Wosner premiered “Along the Ravines,” a new concerto by Michael Hersch written for him and commissioned by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. He also made his solo recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival performing an all-Schubert program, following which Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote, “In Schubert Mr. Wosner is not afraid to employ an enormous dynamic range. His pianissimos are uncommonly delicate and beautiful. But when the music moves him, his fortissimos can be steely and terrifying…The sheer drama and conceptual boldness of his performance drew you in.”
Mr. Wosner made his highly acclaimed subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2010 and was invited to return later that year to perform with the orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. That year he also debuted with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducting from the keyboard in a performance broadcast on American Public Radio. He has appeared with numerous major orchestras in North America including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. In Europe, he has appeared with the Staatskapelle Berlin, Bournemouth Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique, and Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, among others. In 2006, he debuted with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Salzburg, during the 250th anniversary celebrations of Mozart’s birth. He has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Jiří Bělohlávek, James Conlon, Alan Gilbert, Gunther Herbig, James Judd, Zubin Mehta, Peter Oundjian, Donald Runnicles, and Leonard Slatkin.
Mr. Wosner is widely sought after by colleagues for his versatility and spirit of partnership. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with numerous esteemed artists including Martin Frost, Lynn Harrell, Dietrich Henschel, Ralph Kirshbaum, Jennifer Koh, Cho-Liang Lin, Christian Tetzlaff, and Pinchas Zukerman. He is a former member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two and performs regularly at various chamber music festivals, including Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Piano Aux Jacobins festival in France, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Recent chamber music engagements include a performance with members of The New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall; a performance of the Mozart concerto for three pianos with Joseph Kalichstein and Alon Goldstein and the New York String Orchestra with Jaime Laredo at Carnegie Hall; collaborations with the Tokyo, Miró and Parker string quartets; and an appearance with the Georgian Chamber Players at Spivey Hall. He has performed at summer festivals including the Ravinia Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. For several consecutive summers, Wosner was involved in the West-Eastern Divan Workshop led by Daniel Barenboim and toured as soloist with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
Mr. Wosner is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and he recently completed a residency as a BBC New Generation Artist, during which he played frequently with the BBC orchestras, including appearances conducting Mozart concertos from the keyboard with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He also returned to the BBC Scottish Symphony in both subscription concerts and performances at the Proms with Donald Runnicles, and appeared with the BBC Philharmonic in a live broadcast from Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. His performances in recital, chamber music, and with orchestra continue to be broadcast on Radio 3.
Born in Israel, Mr. Wosner enjoyed a broad musical education from a very early age, studying piano with Emanuel Krasovsky as well as composition, theory and improvisation with André Hajdu. He later studied at The Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax. Mr. Wosner lives in New York City.
KAZEM ABDULLAH
A vibrant, versatile and compelling presence on the podium, American conductor Kazem Abdullah is one of the most watched up-and-coming talents on the international stage today. He assumed the post of Generalmusikdirektor of the City of Aachen, Germany, in August 2012, and will lead both the orchestral and operatic seasons. His predecessors in this tradition-rich post include Fritz Busch, Herbert von Karajan, and Wolfgang Sawallisch.
In his first season in Aachen, Kazem conducts four productions: Carmen, Hänsel und Gretel, Simon Boccanegra, and Die Zauberflöte. In addition to this he will also lead several subscription concerts and will conduct Mozart’s Requiem in the Aachener Dom. As GMD in Aachen, Kazem Abdullah will also serve as the artistic director of the 3rd International Aachen Chor Bienalle where he will lead several concerts with choirs from Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Iceland and Brasil. Kazem Abdullah is also the Honorary patron of the Accordate Chamber Music series and the Honorary Patron for the bid for the Aachen-Maastrict bid to be the European capital of Culture in 2018. In addition to his many duties in Aachen, Kazem will also make his debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony in May 2013.
A passionate advocate of new music as well as established repertoire, Maestro Abdullah continues to develop relationships with national and international orchestras and opera houses. Among his orchestral credits are the Berliner Kammerphilharmonie, Philharmonisches Orchester der Stadt Nürnburg, Staatskapelle Weimar, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, Oregon Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Huntsville Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Napa Valley Symphony, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, and the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa. During the 2011-2012 season, Maestro Abdullah’s guest conducting included performances with the Sinfonieorchester Aachen and Nürnberger Philharmoniker in Germany and the Michigan Opera Theater, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Houston, Texas) and a return reengagement with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Of special note are three acclaimed orchestral engagements from the 2009-10 season: leading the Orquestra de São Paulo, one of Brazil’s most celebrated classical music ensembles, on its third United States coast-to-coast tour, conducting the New World Symphony’s 2009 Ives Festival. at by special invitation from Michael Tilson Thomas, and substituting on very short notice to conduct the Tangle-wood Music Center Orchestra in performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group. In the opera arena, Maestro Abdullah has guested with such esteemed companies as the Atlanta Opera, where he conducted Cosi fan tutte, and the Théâtre du Châtelet de Paris, where he led sold-out performances of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, Mr. Abdullah made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009 conducting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. The New York Times lauded this first performance at the Metropolitan Opera as “…a confident performance… impressively responsive to the singers during their long stretches of orchestra-accompanied recitative.”
Born in Indiana, Kazem Abdullah began his music studies at the age of ten. He graduated from the Cincinnati Con-servatory of Music, with a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet. He then studied at the University of Southern California before joining The New World Symphony as a clarinetist under Michael Tilson Thomas for two seasons, after which he continued his musical studies at The Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University. Mr. Abdullah served as Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a three-year post to which he was appointed by Music Director James Levine. In addition to Levine, while at the Met he worked with conductors such as Louis Langree, Kirill Petrenko, Lorin Maazel, and Fabio Luisi. A recipient of a prestigious 2010 Solti Foundation U.S Career Assistance Award, Abdullah was named #4 by The Daily Beast on its 2009 list of “Young Rock Stars of the Conducting World.” Mr. Abdullah’s con-ducting teachers include Jorma Panula, Gustav Meier, Stefan Asbury, Bernard Haitink, and James Levine.
ANDREW GRAMS
As one of America’s most promising and talented young conductors, Andrew Grams has already appeared with many of the great orchestras of the world including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C., and the orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, New Jersey and others in the United States. On the international arena, he has conducted the Montreal Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn, the BBC Symphony Orchestra London, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Melbourne Symphony, the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia Rome, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague, the Hamburg Symphony, and the Malmo Symphony to name a few.
Maestro Grams was a protege of Franz Welser-Moest and served as Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra from 2004 to 2007.
Mr. Grams made his first subscription series appearance with the Cleveland Orchestra in May, 2006 conducting Schoenberg’s Second Chamber Symphony and conducted his first series of full-length subscription concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra in November, 2006. He also led programs with the orchestra at the Blossom Music Center in 2006 and 2007 and returned to lead the orchestra again at the Blossom Music Center in July, 2010.
This season sees major subscription debuts for Mr Grams with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic (Amsterdam), the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He also makes debut appearances with the Slovenian Philharmonic, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana Lugano, the North Carolina Symphony, the Adelaide Symphony, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He returns no fewer than three different times to the Residentie Orchestra (The Hague) as well as to the RTE Symphony Orchestra Ireland (Dublin), the Limburgs Symphony and the Louisville Orchestra. He also makes debuts with the summer festivals of Chautauqua and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.
Last season (2010-11) witnessed a major debut for Grams with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London which was highly acclaimed alongside debut appearances with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn, State Symphony Orchestra of Sao Paulo, the Louisville Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Grand Rapids Symphony and several others including an appearance at the Grant Park Festival in Chicago. Grams returned to the podium last season with the Residentie Orchestra several times including a Concertgebouw Hall appearance with that orchestra and also made welcome repeat visits with the Hamburg Symphony, the Malmo Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa and the Utah Symphony among others.
Recent history has seen Maestro Grams at the helm of the Detroit Symphony, the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague, L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (RTE), the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Kansas City Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa.
In 2002, Grams was appointed the assistant conductor of the Reading Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania and returned to conduct that orchestra again in 2005. He was selected to spend the summer of 2003 studying with David Zinman, Murry Sidlin and Michael Stern at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, and returned to that program again in 2004.
A Maryland native raised in Severn, Andrew Grams began conducting at the age of 17, when he directed the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. In 1999 he received a bachelor of music degree in violin performance from the Juilliard School, and in 2003 he received a conducting degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he worked with Otto-Werner Mueller.
Also an accomplished violinist, Mr. Grams was a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra at Lincoln Center from 1998 to 2004, serving as acting associate principal second violin in 2002 and 2004. In addition, he has performed with ensembles including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the New Jersey Symphony.
THE DONALD BRINEGAR SINGERS
The Donald Brinegar Singers gave their first concert in 1997. In a very brief time, this ensemble has become established as one of the premier chamber ensembles in North America. Noted for their warm choral tone and highly musical interpretations of a wide range of music including recent compositions, the ensemble already boasts an enviable discography. They participated in the world premiere recording of the Villa-Lobos 10th Symphony and have recorded the Morten Lauridsen Lux Aeterna with organist James Buonemani. They recorded Letters from Ireland for Mark Brymer and are the background choir for the Disney movie Bridge to Terabithia. Donald Brinegar enjoys a distinguished career as conductor, tenor soloist, voice teacher and music educator. Since 1979 he has been Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at Pasadena City College. He is has been a lecturer in voice at Pomona College and CSULA and a lecturer in conducting at Southern Oregon University, the University of Southern California and the University of Nevada. He is also co-director of the Summer Masters in Choral Conducting Program at CSU Los Angeles.
JAHJA LING
Jahja Ling’s distinguished career as an internationally renowned conductor has earned him an exceptional reputation for musical integrity, intensity and expressivity. The 2011-2012 season marks his eighth season as Music Director of the San Diego Symphony and the year in which the orchestra celebrates its centenary. The orchestra’s performances conducted by Mr. Ling have received the highest praise from public and critics alike having been broadcast both locally and nationally and they have recently released five new live recordings (the Symphony’s first in a decade). Together they have undertaken many commissions as well as premieres of many new works and recorded new works of Bright Sheng for Telarc Records which was released in summer of 2009 and a new CD of Lucas Richman “Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant” and Saint Saens “Carnival for the Animals” with soloists Jackie Parker and Orli Shaham to be distributed by Naxos. Some live performances are available via www.instantencore.com. Under his leadership, the San Diego Symphony has been designated as a major orchestra of Tier One by the League of American Symphony Orchestras which is based on a new level of unprecedented artistic excellence, its continuing increase of audience attendance as well as its solid financial stability.
Mr. Ling is the first and only conductor of Chinese descent who has conducted all of the major symphony orchestras in North America including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. In recent and upcoming seasons Mr. Ling returns as guest conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Jakarta Symphony, Malaysia Philharmonic, Macao Symphony, Philharmonia Taiwan(National Symphony of Taiwan), Rochester Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic of London, Shanghai Symphony, Singapore Symphony, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Ling made his European debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1988 to great acclaim. His other engagements abroad have taken him to the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, the China Philharmonic in Beijing, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Guangzhou Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra, the Malaysia Philharmonic, the Macao Symphony, the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the NDR Radio-Philharmonie in Hannover, the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, the Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic of London, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Shanghai Symphony, Singapore Symphony, the Sydney Symphony, the Stockholm Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. In May 1997, Mr. Ling led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on tour to Hong Kong as part of the celebrations marking the return of Hong Kong to China. In May 2000, his debut performance with the St. Louis Symphony and cellist Yo-Yo Ma was featured on the ABC News program 20/20. In 2001, Mr. Ling was invited to conduct the Super World Orchestra, an orchestra comprised of top principals of 30 of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, America, and Asia for performances in Osaka and Tokyo. In 2009 he also conducted the Worldwide Chinese Festival Orchestra in the new National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, an orchestra comprised of the best Chinese musicians who hold major positions with world’s most prestigious orchestras around the world. His performance was telecast by Chinese Central Television (CCTV) and was available for streaming in internet video on their website. The Phoenix Television in China also telecast an hour of profile of his musical journey to the worldwide audience.
Mr. Ling is acclaimed not only for his interpretation of the standard repertoire, but also for the breadth of contemporary music included in his programs. Among the world premieres he has conducted are works by William Bolcom, Paul Chihara, Gordon Chin, Daniel Kellogg, George Perle, Bright Sheng, Alvin Singleton, Augusta Read Thomas, Michael Torke, Mark Anthony Turnage and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, with orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony, among others.
Mr. Ling holds one of the longest continuous relationships with one of the world greatest orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra. In 2008-09 season, he celebrated his 25th anniversary season with that esteemed ensemble with performances at Severance Hall and Blossom Festival. He first served as Associate Conductor in the 1984-85 season, and then as Resident Conductor for 17 years from 1985-2002 and as Blossom Festival Director for 6 seasons (2000-2005). Since then he has continued to appear as guest conductor of the Orchestra in every season for the last 28 years. In his tenure with the Orchestra, he has conducted over 450 concerts and 600 works including many world premiere performances. Among his distinguished services as Resident Conductor, Mr. Ling led the orchestra’s annual concert in downtown Cleveland, heard by more than a million people since first presented in 1990. His telecast of A Concert in Tribute and Remembrance with the Orchestra for 9/11 received an Emmy® Award. The U.S. House of Representatives presented a Congressional Record of his outstanding achievements in the U.S. Capitol in September 2006. Prior to his Cleveland appointment, Mr. Ling served as Assistant and Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. Deeply committed to education, Mr. Ling served as founding Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (1986-1993) and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (1981-84). Mr. Ling also demonstrates a strong commitment to working with young musicians and has conducted the orchestras of the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute and the Aspen Music Festival.
His tenure as Music Director of the Florida Orchestra (1988 -2003) was a notable artistic success, both in the Tampa Bay region and beyond. The significant contribution he made to the cultural life of the area was recognized by the mayors of Tampa and St. Petersburg, who presented him with keys to the city in April 2002 and further honored him through a declaration of “Jahja Ling Day” in February 1998, With the Florida Orchestra, Jahja Ling was the first conductor ever invited to appear at the Superbowl (XXV in 1991) with Whitney Houston performing the National Anthem, and the audio and video of that performance earned platinum records. He was named Music Director Laureate in 2002. Additionally, Mr. Ling served as Artistic Director of the Taiwan Philharmonia (National Symphony Orchestra) from 1998-2001 and was named their honorary conductor thereafter.
Mr. Ling’s recordings for Telarc include the Dupré Organ Symphony and the Rheinberger Organ Concerto with soloist Michael Murray and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and two albums of baroque works with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (the first of which, with trumpeter Rolf Smedvig, was nominated for a Grammy® Award). In 1998, Azica Records released a disc with Mr. Ling and the Florida Orchestra entitled Symphonic Dances, featuring Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite, and Ravel’s Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloé. Mr. Ling and the Florida Orchestra have also recorded Stephen Montague’s From the White Edge of Phrygia for Continuum. His performance with the New York Philharmonic of the world premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Third Symphony is featured in a recent compact disc collection of philharmonic performances entitled American Celebrations. Also, The Cleveland Orchestra has released a special edition compact disc featuring Mr. Ling and the orchestra performing Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony for the rededication of Severance Hall’s Norton Memorial Organ.
Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, of Chinese descent and now an American citizen, Mr. Ling began to play the piano at age 4 and studied at the Jakarta School of Music. At age 17, he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and, one year later, was awarded a Rockefeller grant to attend The Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Mieczyslaw Munz and conducting with John Nelson. After completing a master’s degree at Juilliard, he studied orchestral conducting at the Yale School of Music under Otto-Werner Mueller and received a doctor of musical arts degree in 1985. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Wooster College in 1993. In the summer of 1980 Mr. Ling was granted the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood and, two years later, was selected by Mr. Bernstein, who became one of his most influential mentors, to be a Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. In 1988 Mr. Ling was a recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductor’s Award, a career development grant made to American conductors of extraordinary promise.
As a pianist, Mr. Ling won a bronze medal at the 1977 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Israel and was awarded a certificate of honor at the following year’s Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. He made his Cleveland Orchestra debut as a pianist in 1987 and has appeared as both soloist and conductor with a number of orchestras in the United States and internationally.
Mr. Ling makes his home in San Diego with his wife, Jessie, and their young daughters Priscilla and Stephanie.