| Carolyn Kuan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Taipei, Republic of China |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation | conductor |
| Instrument | piano |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Website | www |
Carolyn Kuan (born 1977) is an American conductor.
| Carolyn Kuan | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Taipei, Republic of China |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation | conductor |
| Instrument | piano |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Website | www |
Carolyn Kuan (born 1977) is an American conductor.
Carolyn Kuan's family is originally from Guangzhou, China, though Kuan was born in Taipei. When she was five years old, her older brother received a piano as a birthday gift. [1] Kuan convinced her parents to allow her to play the piano. She sang in choirs and had an appreciation for opera, and initially wanted to be an opera singer.
Kuan's middle school had an American "sister school", Northfield Mount Hermon School, where students from Asia could study. At age 14, she traveled by herself to the US to attend Northfield Mount Hermon. [2] Kuan subsequently studied economics (at her parents' request) and music, graduating cum laude from Smith College. [1] At Smith College, she first conducted an orchestra. [3] She continued her music education at the University of Illinois, where she earned a Master of Music degree, and at the Peabody Conservatory, where she earned a performance diploma. [1] Her conducting mentors have included Gustav Meier. [4]
In 2003, Kuan was the first woman to be awarded the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship, which resulted in a residency at the 2004 Salzburg Festival. [1] She won the first Taki Concordia Fellowship. She began work as a conducting assistant to Marin Alsop at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2003, and continued to work regularly at Cabrillo through 2012. In 2006, Kuan became assistant conductor of the Seattle Symphony, with a contract of 2 years. [5] In 2007, the orchestra promoted her to associate conductor.
In January 2011, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra named Kuan as its 10th music director, effective at the start of the 2012–2013 season, with an initial contract of 3 seasons. [4] She is the first female and the first Asian-American conductor to hold the post. This appointment represents Kuan's first music directorship. [6] In April 2015, the orchestra announced the extension of Kuan's contract for an additional six seasons, effective 1 June 2016, through May 2022. [7] [8] In January 2016, during a labour dispute between Hartford Symphony Orchestra musicians and management, Kuan offered to reduce her salary 'commensurate' with the pay reductions that management requested of the musicians. [9]
Kuan released her debut album with the Naxos label in 2012, in works by various Chinese composers, featuring the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Her other work in contemporary music has included conducting the North American premieres of Huang Ruo's Dr. Sun Yat-sen at Santa Fe Opera in 2014, [10] and of Philip Glass' and Christopher Hampton's The Trial at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in June 2017. [11]
The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra also serves as the accompanying orchestra for the Seattle Opera.
David Eric Robertson is an American conductor. He was chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and was formerly music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2005 until 2018. He is Director of Orchestral Studies at Juilliard.
Marin Alsop is an American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008 and to the American Philosophical Society in 2020.
Simone Margaret Young AM is an Australian conductor and academic teacher. She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra (HSO) is an American orchestra based in Hartford, Connecticut.
Dennis Russell Davies is an American conductor and pianist. He is chief conductor of the Brno Philharmonic and of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Susanna Ulla Marjukka Mälkki is a Finnish conductor and cellist.
Sirena Huang is an American concert violinist. She has received numerous awards, including First Prize at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, First Prize at the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, First Place at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, and Third Place at the Singapore International Violin Competition and the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition. She has performed with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Huang was appointed as the first Artist-in-Residence of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in 2011.
Kevin Matthew Puts is an American composer, best known for his opera The Hours and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera Silent Night and a Grammy Award in 2023 for his concerto Contact.
Xian Zhang is a Chinese-American conductor.
JoAnn Falletta is an American conductor.
Gregory Vajda is a Hungarian clarinetist, composer and conductor.
Nathalie Stutzmann is a French contralto and, in her later career, conductor.
Colin McEnroe is an American columnist and radio personality. He hosts The Colin McEnroe Show on Connecticut Public Radio, writes a weekly column that runs in eight Hearst Communications, and writes a newsletter also for Hearst.
Ludovic Morlot is a French conductor.
Tania Miller is a Canadian conductor.
Oksana Yaroslavivna Lyniv is a Ukrainian conductor, since 2022 music director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. She founded the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in 2016. She conducted on 25 July 2021 the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, a new production of Der fliegende Holländer, as the first female conductor at the festival.
Cristian Măcelaru is a Romanian conductor. He is currently chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, music director of the Orchestre National de France, and the designated music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Scott Yoo is an American conductor and violinist. He was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016. He hosts the PBS TV series Now Hear This.
Dance for cello and orchestra is a cello concerto written by the British composer Anna Clyne. The work was composed in 2019 on a commission from the Israeli cellist Inbal Segev. Its world premiere was performed at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music by Segev and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra conducted by Cristian Măcelaru at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on 3 August 2019. The piece is dedicated to the composer's father, Leslie Clyne.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
