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Support provided by Lillian and Don Bauder
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 | Michael Morgan - 2012
Michael Morgan was born in Washington, DC, where he attended public schools and began conducting at the age of 12. While a student at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, he spent a summer at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, studying with Gunther Schuller and Seiji Ozawa. It was during this summer that he first worked with Leonard Bernstein. His operatic debut was in 1982 at the Vienna State Opera conducting Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio. In 1986, Sir Georg Solti chose him to become the Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for five years under both Solti and Daniel Barenboim. In 1986 he was invited by Leonard Bernstein to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic. As a guest conductor he has appeared with most of America's major orchestras as well as the New York City Opera, St. Louis Opera Theater and Washington National Opera. In addition to his duties with Oakland East Bay Symphony, Maestro Morgan serves as Artistic Director of Oakland Youth Orchestra, Music Director of Sacramento Philharmonic, Artistic Director of Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, Artistic Advisor to the Peoria Symphony in Illinois and teaches the graduate conducting course at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As Stage Director he has led productions of the Bernstein Mass at the Oakland East Bay Symphony and stagings of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Gounod's Faust at Festival Opera. As a chamber musician (piano) he has appeared on the Chamber Music Alive series in Sacramento as well as the occasional appearance in the Bay Area.
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| | Michael Morgan - 2011
See 2012
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 | Anthony Elliott - 2010
Maestro Elliott was first encouraged to pursue conducting by the late Karel Ancerl, of the Czech Philharmonic. His conducting studies were under the direction of Vilem Sokol and Derrick Inoyue. He has participated in conducting master classes sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra League under the direction of Pierre Boulez and Andre Previn. Mr. Elliott was also invited to give a workshop for conductors at the Midwestern Conference of Music Education at the University of Michigan. He also conducted the Plymouth Symphony and the Washington, Texas, North Carolina, Alaska and North Dakota All State Orchestras. His activities as a conductor also include choral works, ballet and collaborations with Pinchas Zukerman, Nathaniel Rosen and Alice Neary. He has worked with the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra and served as Assistant Music Director of the Marrowstone Music Festival and Music Director of the Houston Youth Symphony and Ballet. Mr. Elliott was the Grand Prize winner of the Feuermann International Solo Cello Competition in 1987 and has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute Symphony Orchestra and the CBC Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He is a Professor of Music at the University of Michigan and a member of the performing artist faculty at the Aspen Music Festival.
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 | Damon Gupton - 2009
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Damon Gupton held the post of Assistant Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony from 2006-2008. Gupton received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Michigan, then went on to earn a diploma from The Drama Division of the Juilliard School in New York. He studied conducting with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music Festival and with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. He served as American Conducting Fellow of the Houston Symphony for the 2004-2005 season, and has made conducting appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra (as part of a Blossom program with David Zinman), the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Princeton Symphony, the Toledo Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmonica de UNAM, the New York University Orchestra, and the Kinhaven Music School in Weston, VT.
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 | Tito Munoz - 2008
An alumnus of the National Conducting Institute, Mr. Muñoz made his professional conducting debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in May 2006. He made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Music Festival in August 2006. In February 2007, he made his critically-acclaimed Cincinnati Symphony subscription debut replacing an ailing Krzysztof Penderecki. Other appearances include the Cincinnati Pops, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Concert Orchestra, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, and his European debut with the Orchestre Lyrique de Région Avignon-Provence. He attended the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen where he studied with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin. Also an accomplished violinist, Mr. Muñoz has performed in many of New York's leading ensembles including the New York Virtuosi, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and Princeton Symphony, as well as numerous Broadway shows. He is currently Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra/American Symphony Orchestra League Conducting Fellow, appointed in April 2007 by Franz Welser-Möst. He previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.
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 | Kay George Roberts - 2007
Active as a guest conductor, Kay George Roberts has conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisiana Philharmonic, Nashville, and National Symphony Orchestras, among others. Dr. Roberts made a highly-acclaimed debut at the Lugano Festival with the Orchestra Svizzera Italiana. An advocate for new and overlooked music, she has been praised by critics for her "precision and passion" and for leading audiences "to make new discoveries." A champion of music education, she is a professor of music at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and director of a new string training program for elementary school students that fosters diversity in classical music. She is the founder and music director of the ensemble-in-residence, String Currents, which promotes American music. Dr. Roberts studied at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier, Seiji Ozawa and at the Bachakademie Stuttgart with John Eliot Gardiner. A graduate of Fisk University, Ms. Roberts is an accomplished violinist with master degrees in violin performance and orchestral conducting from Yale University. She is the first woman to earn the Doctor of Musical Arts in orchestral conducting from Yale University where she studied with Otto-Werner Mueller.
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 | Chelsea Tipton, II - 2006
Chelsea Tipton, II, celebrates his second season as Resident Conductor with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. Committed to building a solid musical foundation for audiences both young and old, Mr. Tipton has been taking an active role in developing and implementing educational programs for the TSO in the community. Mr. Tipton’s guest conducting engagements have included the Chicago, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Houston, Atlanta Symphonies and the Boston Pops and New York Philharmonic, among many others. Prior to his appointment with the TSO, Mr. Tipton was Associate Conductor with the Savannah Symphony Orchestra for four seasons. He has held faculty positions at Central Michigan University (CMU) as Director of the CMU Symphony and a Visiting Professor in clarinet and chamber music at Western Michigan University. He has served on the faculty of the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival in New Hampshire, and as Assistant Conductor with the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina during the summers. Mr. Tipton earned a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from Northern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance from the Eastman School of Music, where he was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate. He has also studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine. As a clarinetist, Mr. Tipton has performed with several orchestras, including the Rochester Philharmonic, the Heidelberg Festival Opera Orchestra (Germany), and the Chicago Sinfonietta. He has appeared on the NBC Today Show with Wynton Marsalis and has performed with James Galway and Wynton Marsalis. He has recorded with CA Classical, CBS Masterworks and Pro Arte labels.
|  | Paul Freeman - 2005
Born in Richmond, Virginia, Maestro Freeman has established himself as one of America's leading conductors. The founding music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, he also serves as director and chief conductor of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague. From 1979 to 1989, he served as music director of the Victoria Symphony in Canada, principal guest conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic in Finland, associate conductor of the Dallas and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, and music director of the Opera Theatre of Rochester, New York. Among 200 releases to his credit, his nine-LP series tracing the history of Black symphonic composers garnered attention of the Columbia label in the mid-1970s. Maestro Freeman has conducted over 100 orchestras in 28 countries, including the National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, London Philharmonic, among others. Dr. Freeman received his Ph.D. from Eastman School of Music and studied on a US Fulbright Grant at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He also studied with the renowned conductor Pierre Monteux and has received numerous awards including a top prize in the Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition
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 | Guillermo Figueroa - 2004
Conductor and violinist Guillermo Figueroa is one of the most renowned and
versatile musicians of his generation. A member of Puerto Rico's
distinguished musical family, he was named Music Director of the Puerto Rico
Symphony Orchestra in 2000, after serving as that orchestra's Principal Guest
Conductor for several seasons. In 2001 he was also named Music Director of the
New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first Puerto Rican-born
conductor to lead an important orchestra in the United States.
In 1994 he made his Lincoln Center conducting debut with the New York City
Ballet. In his dual role as soloist and conductor he has appeared with the Kansas City, Colorado Symphony and the Iceland Symphonies. He has been guest conductor of the New Jersey, Memphis, El Salvador Symphonies, the Orquesta del Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, and with Ballet Memphis and Ballets de San Juan. This season marks his debut with the Phoenix Symphony. For ten years he was Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet, appearing in over a hundred performances of the violin concerti by Stravinsky, Berg, Prokofieff, Brahms, Barber, Adams and Glass. Figueroa is a Founding Member of the world-renowned conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2003.
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| Kay George Roberts - 2003
See 2007
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 | Leslie B. Dunner - 2002
Music Director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Leslie B. Dunner ended his 11-season association with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, having held the posts of Resident, Associate and Assistant Conductor. His live recording performance of Alvin Singleton's Blueskonzert with pianist Ursula Oppens and the DSO was released to critical acclaim on the album Ellington and the Great Masters. He has also served as music director of Symphony Nova Scotia, assistant conductor to Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic, the Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Civic and Dearborn Symphony Orchestras and a cover conductor for Erich Leinsdorf at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has guest conducted the New York and Louisiana Philharmonics and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Hartford, Indianapolis, Madison, Nashville, National, New Haven, New Jersey, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Saint Louis, San Antonio, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Seattle Symphony Orchestras as well as the Cleveland, Minnesota and Louisville Orchestras and the New York City Ballet, among other ballet companies.
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 | Anthony Elliott - 2001
Maestro Elliott was first encouraged to pursue conducting by the late Karel Ancerl of the Czech Philharmonic. His conducting studies were under the direction of Vilem Sokol and Derrick Inoyue. He has participated in conducting master classes sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra League under the direction of Pierre Boulez and Andre Previn. Mr. Elliott was also invited to give a workshop for conductors at the Midwestern Conference of Music Education at the University of Michigan. He also conducted the Plymouth Symphony and the Washington, Texas, North Carolina, Alaska and North Dakota All State Orchestras. His activities as a conductor also include choral works, ballet and collaborations with Pinchas Zukerman, Nathaniel Rosen and Alice Neary. He has worked with the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra and served as Assistant Music Director of the Marrowstone Music Festival and Music Director of the Houston Youth Symphony and Ballet. Mr. Elliott was the Grand Prize winner of the Feuermann International Solo Cello Competition in 1987 and has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute Symphony Orchestra and the CBC Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He is a Professor of Music at the University of Michigan and a member of the performing artist faculty at the Aspen Music Festival.
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 | Michael Morgan - 2000
Music Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Michael Morgan began conducting at the age of 12. While a student at the Oberlin College, he spent a summer at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood as a student of Gunther Schuller, Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein. He was the first prize winner in the Hans Swarowsky International Conductors Competition in Vienna, Austria and became Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. In 1986, Sir Georg Solti chose him to become the Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was invited by Leonard Bernstein to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic and has returned to conduct that orchestra several times since. His other guest appearances have included the Berlin State Opera, St. Louis Opera Theater, Washington Opera, and New York City Opera. He has conducted the National, Baltimore, Houston, Seattle, Vancouver, Detroit, Rhode Island and Oregon Symphony Orchestras as well as the Los Angeles, Buffalo and Warsaw Philharmonics and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He also makes over 100 appearances in schools each year, particularly in the East Bay area, and gives many speeches on the importance of arts education and minority access to, and participation in, the arts.
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 | Sebrina Alfonso - 1999
Sebrina Maria Alfonso made her New York debut conducting the American Symphony Orchestra at the finals of the Stokowski International Competition in 1994. Ms. Alfonso is currently music director of the Key West Symphony Orchestra, a unique group of musicians representing the diversity of the community. While completing her doctoral studies at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, she was invited to become the conductor and music director of the Goucher Symphony. Within the year, after appearing as a guest conductor with the John Carrol Opera Company, she was appointed by the John Carrol Opera as Artistic Director and Conductor. The Frederick Symphony Orchestra chose Ms. Alfonso to become their new Music Director and Conductor following an extensive search in 1991. She has also conducted the concert of American music with the Prague Radio Symphony, sharing the podium with Czech conductor Vladimir Valek, Music Director of the renowned Czech Philharmonic.
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| Michael Morgan - 1998
See 2000
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