 | This article is an orphan, as no other articles link to it . Please introduce links to this page from related articles ; try the Find link tool for suggestions. (February 2024) |
Willie Anthony Waters (born October 11, 1951) [1] is an American conductor specializing in opera. He was the first African American to become artistic director of a major opera company, [2] [3] [4] and is noted as one of the few black conductors to experience worldwide success.
Waters was born in 1951 in Goulds, Florida, Miami, and grew up there. [1]
A graduate of the University of Miami, he received his master's degree in conducting from Memphis State University in 1975. [5]
Waters made his professional conducting debut in 1979, with the Utah Symphony. [5]
He served as general and artistic director of the Connecticut Opera (1999–2009),was music director and principal conductor of the Florida Grand Opera (1986–1995), during his tenure he conducted Salome, Manon Lescaut, Die Walküre, Macbeth, Aida, Of Mice and Men, Falstaff, Bianca e Falliero, Cristoforo Colombo, La Gioconda, Turandot, Tosca, Carmen and Lucia di Lammermoor. [6] and has been the opera conductor and artistic director at the Houston Ebony Opera Guild (1995). [7] He was also the music director of the San Antonio Festival, 1983–1985
Waters was guest conductor at opera companies including the Australian Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, New York City Opera, Cape Town Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and San Diego Opera, also the Brucknerhaus Orchestra (Linz, Austria), Detroit Symphony, Essen (Germany) Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Spoleto Festival, Southwest German Radio Orchestra, and Tallahassee Symphony. In 1995 he conducted the premiere of Porgy and Bess in Cape Town, South Africa.
In 2005, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford.
Waters has been the musical director of the Martina Arroyo Foundation and the Prelude to Performance Summer Opera Training Institute.
He recorded for Phillips the recital Ol' Man River conducting bass Simon Estes with the Munich Radio Orchestra and a recital with the mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett.
He conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in 2016 in a concert dedicated to Martin Luther King at the Severance Hall.
Maestro Waters suffered a stroke around 2019 that keeps him away from professional activity and was admitted for COVID in 2020 in his hometown, where he currently resides in a care center. [8]
Waters received the Prix de Martell, which recognizes champions of classical music, in 1991. [9]
He was the recipient of the National Opera Association's "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award for 2013. [10]
Edo de Waart is a Dutch conductor. He is Music Director Laureate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. De Waart is the former chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (2011-2016), Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (2010-2014), and music director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (2016-2019).
Eduardo Marturet is a Venezuelan conductor and composer represented by Tempo Primo. He is the Music Director and Conductor of The Miami Symphony Orchestra (MISO).
Klaus Hermann Wilhelm Tennstedt was a German conductor from Merseburg. Known for his interpretation of the Austro-German repertoire, especially his sympathetic approaches towards Gustav Mahler, Tennstedt is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential conductors of the late 20th century. He worked with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, and other highly regarded ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and most notably the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he was closely associated and recorded many of his celebrated recordings under the EMI label, including a cycle of Mahler's 10 symphonies.
Bramwell Tovey was a British conductor and composer.
Leif Bjaland is an American conductor.
Stéphane Denève is a French conductor. He is currently music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the New World Symphony.
Gianandrea Noseda is an Italian conductor. He is currently the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.; general music director (Generalmusikdirektor) of Zurich Opera; principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra; and the music director of the Tsinandali Festival in Tsinandali, Georgia.
Kenneth Montgomery OBE was a British conductor active in the concert hall and opera house. He held music director positions in the UK, the Netherlands and the US.
Zoe Zeniodi is a conductor from Greece. She is currently the Artistic Director of El Sistema Greece. She is the first woman conductor to ever perform with Opera Southwest. She has been selected by the Dallas Opera for the residency of the Institute of Women Conductors, 2016. and a Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Mentee.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC is a Canadian conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), the Metropolitan Opera, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was the principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018.
The Florida Philharmonic Orchestra was a symphony orchestra based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and serving the South Florida metropolitan area. With approximately 80 full-time, tenured musicians, the orchestra was led for most of its existence by British conductor and music director James Judd. The orchestra folded after extensive financial problems, performing their last concert in Boca Raton, FL, on May 9, 2003.
Enrique Arturo Diemecke is a Mexican conductor, violinist and composer. He is currently the Artistic General Director of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and music director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and the Flint Symphony Orchestra in Michigan, United States.
Emerson Buckley was an American orchestra conductor.
Gustav Meier was a Swiss-born conductor and director of the Orchestra Conducting Program at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He was also Music Director of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, for more than 40 years (1972–2013).
Shinik Hahm is a Korean American conductor and a professor in the Practice of Conducting and Music Director of the Yale Philharmonia. Hahm has led North American, South American, European, and Far Eastern orchestras. Recent appearances include debuts in Geneva, Switzerland, and Besançon, France; at Bolshoi Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra; and reengagement with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Hall. He is an active opera conductor and has led productions with the Silesian National Opera in Poland, has collaborated with musicians including Salvatore Accardo, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman and has recorded with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra for Vision and Britstar.
Giordano Bellincampi is an Italian-born Danish conductor and trombonist. He is currently music director of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
Hannu Petteri Lintu is a Finnish conductor.
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.
Keith Alan Lockhart is an American conductor. He is the Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.
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.