David Chester Itkin (born May 2, 1957) is an American conductor and composer. He served as music director and conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2010, and currently holds the title of conductor laureate of that orchestra. [1] [2] He is music director and conductor of the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra [3] and professor of music and director of orchestral studies at the University of North Texas College of Music. University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra. [4]
As a composer, Itkin's most notable works are Jonah, a tone poem for narrator and orchestra, [5] and an oratorio called Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts . [6] Exodus premiered in April 2005 in Little Rock, with William Shatner narrating. It was released on CD in 2008. [7]
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra recorded Itkin's first film score in 2006 for the film Sugar Creek, released in 2007. [1]
From 1988 to 1993, Itkin served as associate conductor of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, during which time he was made Honorary Lieutenant Governor of the State of Alabama for outstanding service to the arts. [1] He was conductor of the Birmingham Opera Theatre and the Kingsport [Tennessee] Symphony from 1992 to 1995, music director for the Lucius Woods Festival Concerts in Solon Springs, Wisconsin from 1993 to 2000, and music director of Chicago's Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2000. [1]
In 1993, Itkin began his 17-year tenure as conductor (and later conductor/music director) of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed music director/conductor of the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005, [3] and music director/conductor of the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007. [6] In autumn 2008, Itkin became professor of music and director of orchestral studies at the University of North Texas College of Music.
In May 2009, Maestro Itkin was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Lyon College. [1]
In 2012, Itkin was involved in a contentious departure from the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra. When he announced that he would not be renewing his contract, which ended in 2013, members of the board of directors flew to Dallas to complete a buyout of his remaining contract, effectively keeping him from returning for his final year. [8] Itkin called the actions "unprecedented and personally insulting". [8]
Itkin has been a guest conductor with more than 40 symphony orchestras, opera and ballet companies worldwide, including the San Diego Symphony, the Winnipeg Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Slovenska Filharmonija, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Shanghai Broadcast Symphony, the Illinois Symphony, the Delaware Symphony, the New Hampshire Symphony, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Annapolis Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, and the Reno Chamber Orchestra. [1]
Itkin is the author of Conducting Concerti: A Technical and Interpretive Guide, published in August 2014. [9]
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. Born in the Soviet Union, he has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972 and has been a resident of Switzerland since 1978. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, he has recorded a large repertoire of classical and romantic works. His recordings have earned him seven Grammy Awards and Iceland's Order of the Falcon.
Gerard Schwarz, also known as Gerry Schwarz or Jerry Schwarz, is an American symphony conductor and trumpeter. As of 2019, Schwarz serves as the Artistic and Music Director of Palm Beach Symphony and the Director of Orchestral Activities and Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Walter Hendl was an American conductor, composer and pianist.
Toshiyuki Shimada is a Japanese-born American orchestral conductor. He is Music Director of both the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra in New London, CT; the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes in Corning, NY; and the New Britain Symphony Orchestra. He had been Music Director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra of Yale University from 2005 to 2019, and currently he is Director of Orchestral Activity at the Connecticut College. He is also Music Director Laureate of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, in Portland, Maine, of which he was Music Director from 1986 to 2006. Prior to Portland, he was Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for six years, beginning in 1981. He also serves as Principal Conductor of the Vienna Modern Masters, in Austria since 1998.
Samuel Jones is an American composer and conductor.
Daniel Hege is an American orchestral conductor. He is currently the music director of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and the Binghamton Philharmonic, and is the principal guest conductor of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. Hege previously served as the music director of the former Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He also makes numerous guest appearances with orchestras and music festivals across the country.
Adam Oscar Stern is an American conductor. Born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, Stern was trained at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. He received his MFA in conducting in 1977 at the age of twenty-one, the youngest music student in CalArts' history to receive a master's degree.
Harold "Hal" Leighton Weller is an American conductor and music educator.
The University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra was established in 1920s at the University of North Texas College of Music—then known as North Texas State Teachers College School of Music. In 2008, the student musicians in the orchestra represented 25 states and 12 countries.
Thomas M. Sleeper was an American composer and conductor. He was the Orchestra Conductor at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida from 1985 to 1993, and Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor of the University of Miami Frost Symphony Orchestra until his retirement in 2018. He was also the director of the Florida Youth Orchestra from 1993 to 2020.
The Las Vegas Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded in 1998 by Music Director and Conductor Laureate Harold Leighton Weller and long-time Las Vegas arts supporters Susan Tompkins and Andrew Tompkins.
Paul Hostetter is an American conductor, the Ethel Foley Distinguished Chair in Orchestral Activities for the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, the Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the Sequitur Ensemble, and the Founder and Artistic Adviser to the Music Mondays chamber series in New York City. He has held appointments as the Director of the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University where he also was the Director of Orchestral Studies/Associate Professor, the Music Director of the Colonial Symphony, the Music Director of the High Mountain Symphony, Artistic Director of the Winter Sun Music Festival, Music Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, and the Associate Conductor for the Broadway productions of Candide and George and Ira Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm.
C. Myron Flippin is an American conductor and cellist, best known for conducting the North Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra in a performance at Carnegie Hall on April 6, 2008, and as guest conductor for MidAmerica Productions on June 6, 2010, in a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City of Mozart's Mass in C, the "Coronation" mass, K317. He currently resides in Northwest Arkansas where he is music director for the Ozarks Philharmonic Youth Orchestras, Inc. and conducts the Youth Symphony of the Ozarks. Flippin is also a professional bass vocalist specializing in the requiems, oratorios, and orchestra solos.
Robert Davidovici is a Romanian-American violinist. He took First Prize honors in the Naumburg Competition in 1972. In 1983 Davidovici tied, with Maryvonne Le Dizès, for first place in the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. The prize was $77,000 and Davidovici received half.
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) is an orchestra based in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
Stephen Anthony Simon was an American conductor, composer, and arranger. He was a noted proponent of the music of George Frederic Handel, serving as music director of the Handel Society of New York and recording several of Handel's operas and oratorios for the RCA label. Simon also became known for his pioneering programming of works for orchestra and narrator for young people, including his own Casey at the Bat and The Tortoise and the Hare.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts (2008) is the third album by William Shatner. It is a dramatic biblical reading in which he is accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. The recordings used to produce Exodus came from back-to-back evening performances by Shatner and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in April 2005. In addition to Shatner and the 75 member orchestra, a choral group of 350 singers accompanied the reading of Bible and Haggadah passages.
Jonathan Leshnoff is an American classical music composer and pedagogue.
John Alexander Georgiadis was a British violinist and conductor. He was twice Concert Leader with the London Symphony Orchestra during the 1960s and 70s, a member of both the ensembles London Virtuosi and the Gabrieli String Quartet as well as conductor for both the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and as Director of Orchestral Studies at the Royal Academy of Music.