The Brockton Symphony Orchestra (BrSO) is a community orchestra based in Brockton, Massachusetts founded in 1948 as the Brockton Orchestral Society. [1] Described by the Boston Globe as "one of the region's classical jewels", [2] the orchestra performs five or six concerts each year, including its annual Holiday Pops Concert and Chamber Music Concert at local venues in Brockton including the West Middle School Auditorium and the Oliver Ames High School. [3] In the 1970s, the orchestra also produced original operas and ballets. [4] Contemporary works which have been commissioned and premiered by the orchestra include Gardner Read's Vernal Equinox (1955), [5] Beth Denisch's Golden Fanfare (1998), [1] and Thomas Oboe Lee's Sounds of The Islands (2005). [2]
The organization consists of the Chairperson of the Executive Board is Susan Caplan, conductor Emilian Badea, who holds a DMA from Boston University and has been a bassoonist with the orchestra since 1989; [2] [6] and concertmistress Kristina Nilsson, co-founder of Boston's Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. [7] Clarinetist and conductor Jonathan Cohler served as the orchestra's Musical Director from 1996 to 2006, and James Orent served as Music Director from 2007 until his death in 2021. [2]
The Brockton Symphony Orchestra also hosts the annual Vasconcellos Youth Competition, offering $1500 in prizes every year to instrumentalists under the age of 18. Winners are invited to play a concerto with the Brockton Symphony Orchestra. [8] Past Winners include Miki Nagahara, Winston Huang, Jaclyn Freshman, Kristhyan Benitez, and Meihui An.
Charles Édouard Dutoit is a Swiss conductor. He is currently the principal guest conductor for the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia and co-director of the MISA Festival in Shanghai. In 2017, he became the 103rd recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal Award. Dutoit held previous positions with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Tokyo NHK Symphony and the Orchestre National de France. As of 2017, he is conductor emeritus of the Verbier Music Festival Orchestra. He is an honorary member of the Ravel Foundation in France and the Stravinsky Foundation in Switzerland. In December 2017, following allegations of sexual assault, the Boston and San Francisco Symphonies cancelled his engagements. In a statement, Dutoit denied the charges.
Seiji Ozawa is a Japanese conductor known for his advocacy of modern composers and for his work with the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director for 29 years. He is the recipient of numerous international awards.
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
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The Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO) is a youth orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts under the artistic leadership of music director, Federico Cortese. Since 1958, BYSO has served thousands of young musicians from throughout New England with three full symphonic orchestras, two young string training orchestras, six chamber orchestras, a preparatory wind ensemble, a chamber music program and a nationally recognized instrument training program for underrepresented youth from inner-city communities called the Intensive Community Program (ICP). The 2017-2018 season marks the celebration of BYSO's 60th Anniversary. Each year, BYSO auditions approximately 850 students from throughout New England, ages 5–18, and accepts nearly 500 young musicians.
Queensland Youth Orchestras (QYO) is one of the state's organisations for orchestral training and performance and is based at the Old Museum building in Gregory Terrace, Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Leonidas Kavakos is a Greek violinist and conductor. As a violinist, he has won prizes at several international violin competitions, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation scholar. He has also recorded for record labels such as Sony/BMG and BIS. As a conductor, he was an artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and has been a guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and professor.
Kevin Matthew Puts is an American composer, best known for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera, Silent Night.
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Carl Ray St. Clair is an American conductor.
Theodore Antoniou, was a Greek composer and conductor. His works vary from operas and choral works to chamber music, from film and theatre music to solo instrumental works. In addition to his career as composer and conductor, he was professor of composition at Boston University. His education included studies in violin, voice, and composition at the National Conservatory of Athens, the Hellenic Conservatory, and conducting at both The Hochschule für Musik and the International Music Centre in Darmstadt. He was a member of the Academy of Athens.
Jonathan Cohler is an American classical clarinetist, conductor, music educator and record producer.
Jan Lisiecki is a Canadian-born classical pianist of Polish ancestry. Lisiecki performs over a hundred concerts annually and has worked closely with the world's leading orchestras and conductors, his career at the top of the international concert scene spanning over a decade. He has been a recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon since the age of fifteen.
Jeffrey Alan Kahane is an American classical concert pianist and conductor. He was music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for 20 years, the longest of any music director in the orchestra's history. He is the music director of the Sarasota Music Festival, a program of the Sarasota Orchestra, and a professor of keyboard studies (Piano) at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, California
Charlie Albright is an American pianist, composer, and improviser. He is an official Steinway Artist, 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant Recipient, 2010 Gilmore Young Artist (2010) and former Young Concert Artist. He graduated from Harvard College (AB) and the New England Conservatory (MM) as the first classical pianist in the schools' five-year AB/MM Joint Program, was named the Leverett House Artist in Residence for 2011–2012, and was one of the 15 Most Interesting Seniors of the Harvard College Class of 2011. He graduated from the Juilliard School of Music with his post-graduate Artist Diploma (AD) in 2014.
Robert Davidovici, born 1946, is a Romanian-American violinist. He took First Prize honors in the Naumburg Competition in 1972. In 1983, Davidovici tied for first place to co-win the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. The prize was $77,000 and Davidovici received half.
Benjamin Northey is an Australian conductor, musician and arranger. He has been Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand since 2015. He is also the Principal Conductor in Residence of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2020. He was previously the Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2010-2019.
The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (BPYO) is the youth orchestra of the Boston Philharmonic and is considered the premier youth orchestra in the Boston area. Created in 2012, the tuition-free orchestra consists of musicians between the ages of 12-21. The BPYO performs an annual concert series in Boston as well as international tours and has released two commercial recordings. The founder and current conductor of the orchestra is Benjamin Zander.