Westchester Philharmonic, Guest Conductor to Visit Port Chester High School

From the Westchester Philharmonic:

Guest conductor Kwamé Ryan will visit with Yonkers and Port Chester high school students to speak about his journey from performer to conductor, what it’s like to have a career as an international musician and teacher and how he prepares to lead large orchestras like the Westchester Phil. Many of the students are members of the school orchestra or band and will also play for Maestro Ryan in a master class format during his visit.

The event is scheduled for Tuesday, April 8, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Port Chester High School, 1 Tamarack Road.

Young Trinidadian-Canadian conductor Kwamé Ryan is drawing world-wide attention for his work with Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine for Mirare and the Orchestre Français des Jeunes. Many of the students will already have watched Maestro Ryan make his NY-area debut at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College as guest conductor for the Westchester Philharmonic on Sunday, April 6th. During his week-long residency with the orchestra, in addition to his main stage performance and visit to local schools, he will lead the orchestra’s culminating concert for its classroom music education program for 3rd-5th graders on April 8.

Information also available at: www.westchesterphil.org/outreach2014.asp  

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

About Conductor Kwamé Ryan
Kwamé Ryan has worked with such orchestras as City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden Baden und Freiburg. Past engagements have also included Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Bamberger Symphoniker, Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. 

Kwamé Ryan's recordings with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine for Mirare include Schubert's Symphony No. 9, praised by Le Figaro as “an individual approach to Schubert, clear, transparent, flowing”. The orchestra has also recorded Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2, described by Classic FM Magazine as a “...modern, sophisticated reading...rich in detail and clarity”, and Beethoven's Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2 with Shani Diluka. 

As a result of his successful work in Bordeaux, in 2009 Kwamé Ryan was invited to become Musical Director of Orchestre Français des Jeunes. Last season saw Kwamé's final concerts in this role at Salle Pleyel, Paris, subsequent to which he was awarded the title of Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres - given for significant contribution to art and literature - by Frédéric Mitterrand, the French Minister of Culture. 

Kwamé Ryan held the position of General Music Director of Theater Freiburg and the Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg between 1999 and 2003, having previously been Assistant Conductor of the Staatsoper Stuttgart where he gave the premiere of Gérard Pesson's Pastorale and a criticically acclaimed filmed production of Hartmann's Simplicius Simplicissimus (DVD-Arthaus). His close association with his mentor Peter Eötvös has seen him conduct the first French revival of the composer’s Tri Sestri at Opéra de Lyon and the German premiere of Le Balcon. Kwamé Ryanhas also conducted Salome for English National Opera, Honneger's Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher for the Edinburgh International Festival and the world premiere of Pintscher's L’espace dernier for Opéra National de Paris (Bastille). 

About the Westchester Philharmonic

Now in its 31st season, the Westchester Philharmonic is the oldest, continuously running professional symphony orchestra and largest performing arts organization of any kind in Westchester County. The Philharmonic’s main stage concert series makes its home at the 1,300 seat Concert Hall at the Purchase Performing Arts Center, with outdoor concerts, chamber concerts, children’s programs, and special events throughout the area, attracting savvy music-lovers from Rockland, Bergen, Fairfield, and Putnam counties, New York City, and beyond.

In November 2013 the Philharmonic proudly announced the concurrent appointments of Jaime Laredo and Ted Sperling as the orchestra’s Principal Conductors, commencing with the 2014-15 season.

Founded in 1983 as the New Orchestra of Westchester under the leadership of Music Director Paul Lustig Dunkel (who became Music Director Emeritus in 2008), the orchestra was later re-named the Westchester Philharmonic. Renowned artists who have performed with the Phil include Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk, Branford Marsalis, Midori, Garrick Ohlsson, Itzhak Perlman, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Gil Shaham, Isaac Stern, and André Watts.

Among the many new works commissioned and premiered by the Westchester Philharmonic is Melinda Wagner’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. A new commission by Christopher Theofanidis is scheduled for debut during the 2015 – 2016 season.

The orchestra’s award-winning education program reaches thousands of elementary school students each year and culminates in a full orchestra concert. The Phil also partners with local organizations to present free and low-cost chamber concerts, as well as to provide subsidized seating at main stage concerts, welcoming hundreds of area residents each year who might not otherwise have an opportunity to attend.

The orchestra is comprised of the finest professional free-lance musicians from around the greater metropolitan area, who also perform regularly with the New York City Ballet, Orchestra St. Luke’s, Orpheus, Mostly Mozart, and for many Broadway shows. Members of the Phil hold faculty positions at Juilliard, Mannes, Manhattan School of Music, Purchase Conservatory, Vassar and Bard Colleges, and at local public schools.