The search for a new music director for Hartford Symphony Orchestra will take place during the next two seasons, 2009-10 and 2010-11, and will include seven guest conductor appearances . Four candidates in the 2009-2010 season and three candidates in the 2010-2011 season.
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Four Candidates to Conduct in 2009-2010
We are pleased to announce the selection of our first four Music Director candidates, who will be joining us during the 2009-2010 season to display and share their talents. Each of these candidates will be with us in Hartford for approximately a week for rehearsals, performances and other engagements.
HSO Music Director Edward Cumming will continue to lead the orchestra through the conclusion of the 2010-11 season in June of 2011. His successor is expected to be announced by January 2011.
Constantine Kitsopoulos will be conducting Masterworks Three: Brahms Requiem, November 12-15, 2009
Mr. Kitsopoulos’ versatility spans the worlds of symphony, opera and musical theater. Currently, he is serving his third season as Music Director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra and serves as the General Director of the Chatham Opera, which he founded in 2005. He has conducted with Baltimore, San Francisco and Detroit Symphonies, Blossom Festival Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic and many more. He also conducted members of the Philadelphia Orchestra for a complete performance of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. Mr. Kitsopoulos studied conducting with Vincent La Selva, Gustav Meier, Sergiu Commissiona and Seymon Bychkov. In addition to his orchestral and classical experience, Mr. Kitsopoulos has conducted Tony-nominated musicals A Catered Affair and Coram Boy. He also served as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Baz Luhrmann’s acclaimed production of Puccini’s La Bohème. During the 2007-08 season, Mr. Kitsopoulos conducted the HSO’s performance of music from The Wizard of Oz as part of our POPS! series.
Andrew Grams will be conducting Masterworks Four: Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, December 3-6, 2009
Maryland Native Andrew Grams is one of America’s most promising and talented young conductors. Mr. Grams began conducting at the age of 17, and received his Bachelor of Music in violin performance from the Juilliard School in 1999. In 2003, he received his conducting degree from the Curtis Institute of Music where he worked with Otto Werner Mueller. He has served as the Resident Conductor of the Florida Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and has made appearances with orchestras all over the world including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia Rome.
Tito Muñoz will be conducting Masterworks Five: The New Year Begins – Romantic Chopin, January 7-10, 2010
Lauded by the Cincinnati Enquirer for his “natural facility and convincing musicianship on the podium,” Tito Muñoz is increasingly recognized as one of the most gifted conductors of his generation. Currently in his final year as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, he previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Eugene and Princeton, among many others in the United States and Europe. Born in 1983 in New York City, Mr. Muñoz began his musical training on the violin in the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program. An alumnus of the National Conducting Institute, he also attended the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen where he won top conducting prizes and served as the festival’s Assistant Conductor.
Tania Miller will be conducting Masterworks Seven: Beethoven Violin Concerto and Dvořák New World Symphony, March 18-21, 2010
Tania Miller last appeared with us in February of 2008 for a Masterworks concert run which included Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini featuring Anne-Marie McDermott (piano soloist) and Brahms’ 4th Symphony. Vibrant and dynamic, Ms. Miller is currently serving her seventh season as Music Director of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. This role deemed her the first Canadian woman to be appointed to such a significant position in Canada. Originally from Saskatchewan, Ms. Miller received her Master’s and Doctorate degrees in conducting from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Ms. Miller has served as Assistant and Associate Conductor with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Assistant Conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival where she worked with internationally renowned conductor Bruno Weil. Ms. Miller has worked with orchestras across the world from the United States to Munich and Switzerland. Her first passion is opera, as she served as the Artistic Director of the Michigan Opera Works in Ann Arbor for four seasons.
Three Candidates to Conduct in 2010-2011
Carolyn Kuan
Carolyn Kuan recently concluded a successful and impressive tenure as Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Previously, Ms. Kuan held positions as Artist in Residence with the New York City Ballet, Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Opera Company and Assistant Conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the last of which she still holds. Guest conducting appearances include the Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and a special performance with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande for the Swiss President, 20 European heads of state and dozens of Nobel laureates. Ms. Kuan was the first female to be awarded the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship and has received many other awards including the first Taki Concordia Fellowship. She graduated cum laude from Smith College and received a Master of Music from the University of Illinois and a Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory.
Marcelo Lehninger
Acclaimed by The Washington Post as “an alert, dynamic figure”, Brazilian-born Marcelo Lehninger holds his Master’s degree from the Conductors Institute at Bard College in New York. He is currently associate conductor of the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor of the Dell’Arte Sinfonieta. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with many leading orchestras in South America, and in the United States he led the Conductors Institute Orchestra in New York, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Fairfax Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. Mr. Lehninger was appointed Music Advisor of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas for the 2007/2008 season and he served as cover conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra’s subscription concerts. He was also Kurt Masur’s assistant for the National of France, Gewandhaus and New York Philharmonic orchestras.
Kevin Rhodes
American conductor Kevin Rhodes has had a career marked by versatility and variety. His work extends from the major opera houses of Europe to the concert stages of the U.S. He has collaborated with such diverse artists as Andre Watts, Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg, Peter Serkin, Glenn Dicterow and Lorin Hollander on the concert stage as well as being a regular guest at the top European opera houses such as the Paris Opera, La Scala and the Vienna State Opera.
This season he celebrates his ninth year as Music Director of both the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts and the Traverse Symphony Orchestra in Michigan. His tenure at these orchestras has been marked by critical acclaim as well as sold out houses and unprecedented audience passion for classical music. In addition to returning to the Paris Ballet for 3 productions this season, he will make his debut with the Dutch National Ballet conducting the Holland Symfonia and returns to the La Scala Opera House for a production of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
In the course of his nearly 20 year career Rhodes has conducted the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (the Vienna Philharmonic), the Berlin Staatskappelle, La Scala, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Düsseldorf Symphony, The Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Jacksonville Symphony, the orchestra of the Verona Opera, the orchestra of the Teatro San Carlo, the Wiesbaden Philharmonic, the Duisburg Philharmonic, the Swiss Chamber Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of Madrid and the Basel Symphony Orchestra.