Five Guest Conductors to Visit Pasadena Symphony Next Season
A Busy Man: James DePreist as Artistic Advisor for Pasadena Symphony has signed up four guest conductors for next season. DePreist will conduct the opening concert.
Not that the world has been hanging on excitedly awaiting the announcement of who will conduct the Pasadena Symphony in the upcoming season now that Jorge Mester, its leader for the past quarter century, has departed. But still, that the 82 year-old Pasadena institution that went aground mired in a recession and management financial difficulty is receiving the help of James DePreist, the orchestra’s Artistic Advisor. An announcement yesterday by the Pasadena Symphony Association names the five guest conductors for next season which begins in October.
In a telephone interview with Pasadena Symphony CEO Paul Jan Zdunek, we learned that these are not candidates for the position of Music Director, but rather specially selected guest conductors. “We came to these conductors with the belief that they could deliver given that the programs were already in place,” Zdunek mused. Zdunek said the conductors were invited based on their experience but also on their reputations with the music they would conduct. Many, if not most, have had some contact with DePreist. Zdunek indicated that an invitation might be forthcoming to one of the guest conductors should a “spark” ignite special interest.
Maestro James DePreist is a giant in the classical music field. The Symphony is fortunate to have DePreist use his knowledge and his reputation to attract the four conductors who will take the podium during the season that stretches from Oct. 23 to May 7, 2011.
DePreist has accepted the assignment to conduct the opening concert on Oct. 23 inaugurating not only the guest conductor program but also a new beginning at Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena which now becomes its regular home for concert performances. DePreist will lead the orchestra in music by Rossini and Brahms and the Barber Violin Concerto with Anne Akiko Meyers, violinist.
Tito Muñoz will conduct the Pasadena Symphony on Jan. 22 in a program of the music of Britton and Elgar with cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan performing the Dvorak Cello Concerto. Muñoz is currently Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, appointed by the orchestra’s conductor Franz Welser-Most in 2007. He is being sought by several U.S. orchestras following successful stints as guest conductor. His conducting style is rather gentle.
Matthias Bamert, the most experienced among the season’s guest conductors. The Swiss-born musician will conduct a program that includes one of his compositions, and Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Robert Thies, pianist, plus Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 on Feb. 19, 2011. Bamert is considered a Mozart specialist having been Music Director of the London Mozart Players for seven years. He is a prolific recording artist with over 80 discs in a wide repertoire. His musical profile stretches from his term as Resident Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra under Lorin Maazel to his early connection as a composer to modernists Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez.
George Stelluto is an American conductor with a close association to DePreist having served as Resident Conductor and Assistant to DePreist at The Julliard School in New York. In June of this year he was named conductor of the Peoria Symphony, Peoria, Ill. Stelluto told the Peoria Journal Star that he would be using his closeness to up and coming musicians and composers to introduce exciting programs there. He holds two Masters Degrees in violin and conducting from Yale School of Music and a BA in violin from West Virginia University, summa cum laude. He recently served as Music Director of the Las Vegas Music Festival. Stelluto will conduct on March 12, 2011 in a program to include Mendelssohn, Beethoven and soloist Karine Hovhannnisyan performing on the Armenian Kanun, an ancient instrument in a composition by Khachatur Avetisyan.
The season finale of the Pasadena Symphony will be conducted by Maximiano Valdés on May 7, 2011 with pianist Chu-Fang Huang playing the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 and the orchestra performing Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. Valdés is a native of Chile, but of Asturian ancestry which has led him to be involved in the musical life of Spain. His nearly 30 year career as conductor has been punctuated by appearances with many international orchestras. In the U.S. Valdés was retained as Music Director of the Buffalo Symphony for 10 years.
By Bill Peters
