David Commanday, conductor

Artistic Director David Commanday has a distinguished record of achievement as conductor, cellist, and educator. He was appointed Artistic Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony in 2009, as he concluded his tenure as Music Director of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. He is also the founding Artistic Director and Conductor of the Heartland Festival Orchestra in Illinois, a prestigious and innovative professional chamber orchestra now in its second successful season. He led the PSO through a decade of artistic, financial, and institutional milestones; in its rise to an orchestra of regional distinction, its imaginative and innovative programming, in appearances by world-class soloists, and in significant and steady endowment growth.

He has conducted orchestras around the world, including the National Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, American Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Belgian Radio Orchestra, Vienna Pro Arte Orchestra, and the Seattle, Atlanta, and Richmond Symphonies. His recent guest-conducting schedule included the South Carolina Philharmonic, Flagstaff Symphony, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, Joffrey Ballet, and Ballet West. His conducting schedule this season will include the Boca Raton Symphonia as well as the HFO, in addition to engagements as educational consultant.

Commanday’s early posts included; Music Director, Boston Ballet, Assistant Conductor, San Diego Symphony, and Music Director of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO). He brought BYSO to the forefront, earning three ASCAP awards for programming and unprecedented critical acclaim for concerts and CD recordings. Commanday commissioned and led the BYSO world premiere of the Double Concerto by Ivan Tcherepnin, with soloists Lynn Chang and Yo-Yo Ma. The performance earned the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for the composition and its composer.

He served as Associate Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 1996-1999, conducting throughout the Garden State and leading the orchestra in the Gala Opening of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Commanday has held faculty positions and conducted at Harvard University, Boston University, MIT, Montclair State University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. He is active as teaching and conducting clinician and adjudicator, conducting All-State and regional student orchestras around the country (including the 2010 Connecticut All-State Orchestra), and teaches a private cello studio as well.

David Commanday graduated cum laude at Harvard University, studying psychology, music and languages. He played principal cello at Tanglewood under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Aaron Copland, and their influence led him toward conducting. At the Vienna Hochschule fuer Musik he studied with Otmar Suitner and earned the Austrian Staatsdiplom with highest honors in orchestral conducting. Distinctions achieved in his early career included Finalist in the Stokowski Conductor’s Competition and Conductor in the ASOL’s inaugural American Conductor’s Program.

(2011)

Longwood Symphony Orchestra
www.longwoodsymphony.org

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra was established in 1982 by members of the Harvard Medical School community. The dual mission of the LSO is to provide opportunities for advanced amateur musicians to strive for musical diversity and artistic excellence while supporting health-related nonprofit organizations through public performances.

In this way, the LSO utilizes music as a healing force to bring the community together. Thousands of people have benefited each year from LSO performances through its "Healing Art of Music" program. Since 1991, the orchestra has helped raise over $700,000 for the medically underserved, by performing every concert as a benefit for a medical charity in greater Boston. Today, the orchestra is 90 members strong. The orchestra ranks musically among the top community orchestras in Greater Boston.
The LSO performs four concerts in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall during its regular concert season, drawing an average of 600-700 audience members per concert. There are two concerts in the fall and two in the spring. The orchestra also performs an open air concert every summer at the Hatch Memorial Shell on the Esplanade.

LSO is an orchestra of musicians playing at the highest level, dedicated to community service through music. All are artists; most are also scientists and humanists, living and working in the greater Boston area. Over half of LSO musicians work in the health sciences: this year, there are fifteen full-time physicians, eight research scientists, twelve medical students, four visiting physicians from Europe, two nurses, three physical therapists, a genetics counselor, and a chiropractor.

Guest artists of the Longwood Symphony are drawn from the rich community of internationally recognized artists that live in and around New England. They include violinists Lynn Chang, Irina Muresanu, and Vali Phillips; cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Clancy Newman, sopranos Joanna Porackova and Diana McVey; baritones Mark Aliapoulios and Stephen Salters, and pianists Dr. Richard Kogan, Hung-Kuan Chen and Randall Hodgkinson, among many others.
 



Thank you for your generous contribution to
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts


中華表演藝術基金會
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
Lincoln, Massachusetts