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Music Director Stewart Robertson
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 2007 Grammy Award nominated conductor Stewart Robertson is equally at home in both the symphonic and operatic realms. In addition to serving as music Director of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra he is also Music Director of Florida Grand Opera in Miami and Artistic Director of Opera Omaha. He has recorded on the Verdi/EMI, Chandos and New World labels and his world premiere performance of Stephen Hartkes's opera THE GREATER GOOD with Glimmerglass Opera can be heard on Naxos and a disc of orchestral works of Alan Hovhaness with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is shortly due for release on the same label.
A busy guest conducting schedule has taken him to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, the opera companies of Philadelphia, Montreal and Detroit, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Norwegian National Opera. His many orchestral guest appearances include orchestras as diverse as the North German Philharmonic, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, the Mecklenburg Staatskapelle, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra and the Utah Symphony Orchestra, the Sicily Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Highlights have included performances at the Lille Festival in France with Igor Oistrakh as soloist, and with the Ukraine State Philharmonic both in concert in Kiev and on tour throughout Holland including an appearance at Amsterdam's famed Concertgebouw.
Recent guest appearances include Opera Theatre of St Louis, LA BOHEME at the Puccini Festival in Italy and a production of AIDA with Opera Hong Kong. Future plans include appearances with the Rome Symphony Orchestra, the Savonlinna Festival in Finland, TURANDOT at Switzerland's Avanche Festival, the Wexford Festival and a cycle of Britten operas with Opera Ireland. A champion of new music, Mr. Robertson has premiered over forty orchestral works. He led the world premiere of Bruce Saylor's ORPHEUS DESCENDING at the Lyric Opera Centre in Chicago and recently premiered Marco Tutino's opera FERDERICO II at the Jesi Festival in Italy. Last season he conducted three operatic world premieres, THE GREATER GOOD at Glimmerglass, WAKONDAS DREAM at Opera Omaha and ANNA KARENINA in Miami and at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. His performances of Britten's PAUL BUNYAN at New York City Opera and the CENTRAL PARK trilogy at Glimmerglass have been broadcast on PBS's 'Live from Lincoln Centre' and 'Great Performances' series, while his pioneering revival of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's 1965 operatic masterpiece THE MINES OF SULPHUR was recently nominated for a Grammy award. Mr. Robertson's performance of ANNA KARENINA with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra is due for release in early 2008 on the Signum label.
Stewart Robertson studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, Bristol University and in Vienna and Salzburg with such noted conducting teachers as Hans Swarowsky and Otmar Suitner. He also studied piano in London with the legendary British Mozart specialist Denis Mathews. Robertson's musical interests and repertory are wide ranging but he feels a particular affinity for Mozart, Beethoven and Britten in addition to his involvement with contemporary music. He has also been a keen commentator and writer on musical topics while his pre-concert lectures, seminars and braodcasts on NPR have gained a substantial following. Robertson was for ten years Music Director of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, for eleven years Music Director of California's San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and for two decades was Music Director of Glimmerglass Opera in New York, during which time the festival enjoyed an unprecedented growth in reputation and international visibility - a fact acknowledged in his recent honorary appointment as Music Director Emeritus of the company.
Stewart Robertson and his wife Meryl maintain homes in the USA and Scotland where they are attempting, perhaps ill-advisedly, but nevertheless enthusiastically, to restore a small castle on the west coast of Argyll and where they plan an intimate chamber music festival commencing in 2009.
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 The 2008-09 Atlantic Classical Orchestra Season is sponsored by PNC Wealth Management.
Copyright 2008 AtlanticClassicalOrchestra.org. All Rights Reserved.
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