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.
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Thank you for
your generous contribution to
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
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中華表演藝術基金會
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
Lincoln, Massachusetts |
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