John Patrick Varineau is Associate Conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony as well as the director of the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony, an affiliate of the Grand Rapids Symphony, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Appointed Assistant Conductor in June 1985 prior to the start of the Grand Rapids Symphony's 1985–86 season, he was promoted to Associate Conductor in May 1986. In August 1988, Varineau was named director of the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony. He retired from the Grand Rapids Symphony at the end of the 2020–21 season, his 36th season on staff with the Grand Rapids Symphony and his 33rd season with the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony. [1] [2]
He has a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Wyoming, and a master's degree in music from Yale University. A clarinetist as well as a conductor, Varineau has held adjunct teaching positions at Cornerstone University, Grand Valley State University, and Grand Rapids Community College. [3] From 2013 until 2015, Varineau held a full-time position on the music faculty of Calvin University, then Calvin College, conducting the Calvin Orchestra and the Calvin Community Symphony. In 2015, Varineau became an adjunct professor at Calvin University, continuing to teach and conduct the Calvin Orchestra and Community Symphony, and has now retired fully from Calvin University except for as a private clarinet lesson instructor. [4] [5]
John Raymond Hopkins AM OBE was a British-born Australian conductor and administrator.
Westminster Choir College (WCC) is a historic conservatory of music currently operating on the campus of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rider's College of Arts and Sciences, the college under which the historic institution has been reorganized, consists of Westminster Choir College as well as three additional schools.
David Lockington, is the Music Director Laureate of the Grand Rapids Symphony located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. Lockington became the 13th music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony in January 1999 and stepped down from the post in May 2015 at the end of his 16th season with the orchestra. Prior to his tenure in Grand Rapids, Lockington served as the music director for the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (1996–2000) and the Long Island Philharmonic (1995–2000). In May 2007, Lockington was named music director of the Modesto Symphony Orchestra in Modesto, California. Since March 2013, Lockington has been the music director of the Pasadena Symphony in Pasadena, California.
Andrew Litton is an American orchestral conductor. Litton is a graduate of The Fieldston School. He studied piano with Nadia Reisenberg and conducting with Sixten Ehrling at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, receiving his Bachelor of Music degree and his Master of Music degree from in piano and conducting. He also received lessons in conducting from Walter Weller at the Salzburg Mozarteum and Edoardo Müller in Milan. His early teachers included John DeMaio. The youngest-ever winner of the BBC International Conductors Competition in 1982, he served as Assistant Conductor at Teatro alla Scala and Exxon/Arts Endowment Assistant Conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. under Mstislav Rostropovich (1982-1985), where subsequently he was Associate Conductor (1985-1986). Litton was a participant in the Affiliate Artists Exxon-Arts Endowment Conductors Program. In 2003, he was awarded Yale University's Sanford Medal.
Robert "Bob" Bernhardt is an American conductor. He is currently in his 24th season as Principal Pops Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, and in his 10th season as Music Director Emeritus and Principal Pops Conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. In 2015, Bob Bernhardt was named Principal Pops Conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony. He is also Artist-in-Residence at Lee University since 2012. For most of the 1980s, he was also associate conductor of the Louisville Orchestra.
Rudolph Ganz was a Swiss-born American pianist, conductor, composer, and music educator.
Helen Cha-Pyo is a Korean-born American conductor and organist. The Mail Tribune describes her as being "on the front edge of a lustrous career as a conductor".
Leon Burke III is an American musician, singer, and conductor from St. Louis, Missouri. He began his musical studies at age 12 and by age 16 was conducting orchestras.
Marie Speziale is an American trumpeter and the first female trumpet player to play in a major symphony orchestra. She started in the Cincinnati Symphony when she was 19 years old. She served in the orchestra in Cincinnati from 1964 to 1996. She was later professor of Music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.
The Grand Rapids Symphony is a professional orchestra located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1930, the Symphony celebrated its 90th anniversary season in 2019-20. In 2006, its recording Invention and Alchemy was nominated for Best Classical Crossover Album at the Grammy Awards. The Grands Rapids Symphony presents more than 400 performances throughout Michigan each year, reaching over 200,000 people, and is heard in West Michigan on broadcasts by WBLU-FM (88.9) and WBLV-FM (90.3). The organization also implements 18 educational and access programs that benefit over 80,000 Michigan residents.
The Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra (RSYO) is a youth orchestra that is located in Reading, Pennsylvania. It is known for its performances of classical orchestral music.
Miguel Alberto Harth-Bedoya is a Peruvian conductor. He was formerly music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra from 2000 to 2020 and chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra from 2013 to 2020. He is currently director of orchestral studies at Baylor University.
Louis Gardner Lane was an American conductor. He was born in Eagle Pass, Texas. He studied composition with Kent Kennan at the University of Texas at Austin where he earned his bachelor's in music degree in 1943, and with Bohuslav Martinů at the Tanglewood Music Center, and with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School of Music. He also studied opera with Sarah Caldwell (1950).
The Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, also known as CSO, is a combined symphony orchestra and opera company in Chattanooga, Tennessee. At the time of the merger in 1985, it was the only such combined organization in the United States.
James Meena is an American conductor and opera administrator. Formerly the General Director and Principal Conductor of Toledo Opera in Ohio, since 2000 he has been the General Director and Principal Conductor of Opera Carolina, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Tulsa Youth Symphony Orchestra (TYS) is an Oklahoma nonprofit arts organization founded in 1963 to provide advanced orchestral training and performance experience for young musicians in Northeastern Oklahoma. As of 2016, more than 200 students, ages 8 to 18, participate in the program’s two orchestras. The orchestra is composed of students from northeast Oklahoma communities and schools including Tulsa, Bartlesville, Owasso, Sapulpa, Sand Springs, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Coweta, Grove, Oologah, Jenks, and Holland Hall, as well as home schooled children.
Lawrence Golan is an American orchestral conductor and violinist. He is the Music Director of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra in Colorado, the Yakima Symphony Orchestra in Washington state, the York Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania, and the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre at the University of Denver where he is director of orchestral studies and professor of conducting at the Lamont School of Music.
Marsha Eve Mabrey is an African American conductor and educator. She was the first African American woman to be appointed and serve as the conductor of the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra.
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.
Marcelo Lehninger is music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, a professional orchestra located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.