Stefan Sanderling, Music Director
The Jay B. and Marsha Starkey Chair
Alastair Willis, Coffee Concert Conductor
The R.K. Bailey Chair
Randal Swiggum
Youth Concert Conductor
Stefan Sanderling, Music Director
The Jay B. and Marsha Starkey Chair
Stefan Sanderling has swiftly emerged as one of the leading German conductors of his generation. Since the beginning of the 2003/04 season, he has simultaneously occupied the positions of music director of The Florida Orchestra and principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. In 2007, he was appointed music director of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
As one of the youngest chief conductors in Germany, Sanderling first held this position at the Brandenburgische Philharmonie and the Potsdam Opera in 1990. After five years, he then went on to become music director and chief conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra and Staatstheater in Mainz until 2001. Between 1997 and 2004, he has also served as music director of the Orchestre de Bretagne in France.
Sanderling was born in East Berlin in 1964, the son of legendary conductor Kurt Sanderling. He studied musicology at the University of Halle and conducting at the conservatory in Leipzig before leaving East Germany to continue his studies in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California.
After the fall of the iron curtain, he returned to his native Germany where his career ascended rapidly. Sanderling has conducted the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, NTO (Vienna), Mozarteum Orchestra (Salzburg), Prague Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Berliner Staatskapelle, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, Bamberg Symphony, Berliner Sinfonie Orchester and St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He has also guest conducted at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Komische Oper Berlin. He made his debuts in Australia with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and in Japan with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. His highly successful debut with the NHK Symphony of Tokyo has since resulted in regular appearances with this orchestra in Tokyo and throughout Japan.
Since his North American debut at the 1989 Tanglewood Summer Music Festival, he has led such prestigious North American orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and the orchestras of Indianapolis, Vancouver, Colorado, Salt Lake City and Ottawa, to name only a few.
Sanderling made his first recording on the Sony Classics label with the London Symphony Orchestra. Three CDs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have recently been released featuring symphonies by Haydn and Mendelssohn. He has recorded the complete Tchaikovsky Orchestral Suites and Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella on the Naxos label and has also completed several discs of works by the French composers Gretry, Gossec and Mehul and Ladmirault on the ASV and Arion label. His most recent recording, symphonies and tone poems by Honegger, has been released on Naxos.
Alastair Willis, Coffee Concert Conductor
The R.K. Bailey Chair
Grammy-nominated conductor Alastair Willis served as the associate conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 2000 to 2003. He previously held the position of assistant conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras and music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra.
In the past few seasons, Willis has guest conducted orchestras around the world including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfonica de Rio de Janeiro, Graz Philharmonic Orchestra, Cologne Opera, China National Symphony (Beijing), Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, among others. His recording of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges with Nashville Symphony and Opera for Naxos was Grammy nominated for Best Classical Album in 2009.
Last season, Willis returned to Skagit Opera, Washington to lead Madama Butterfly and made his debut with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonic, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the orchestras of Memphis, Richmond and Thunder Bay.
This season he returns to The Florida Orchestra, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Tulsa Symphony, Civic Orchestra Chicago, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Houston), Rio International Cello and Marrowstone Music Festivals, and makes his debuts with Toronto Symphony, Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, and Amarillo Symphony.
Born in Acton, Massachusetts, Willis lived with his family in Moscow for five years before settling in Surrey, England. He received his bachelor’s degree with honors from England’s Bristol University and an education degree from Kingston University. He won a scholarship in 1996 to study with Larry Rachelff at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, graduating with a Master of Music degree in 1999.
The 2010/2011 season marks Willis’ third season conducting The Florida Orchestra’s Coffee Concerts series.
Randal Swiggum, Youth Concert Conductor
Randal Swiggum is looking forward to partnering again this season with The Florida Orchestra in presenting twenty performances of Beethoven Superhero, a concert designed especially for older elementary students. Beethoven Superhero features some of the composer’s most famous works, bringing to life both Beethoven’s biography and his unique musical “superpowers.”
This is Swiggum’s third season leading The Florida Orchestra youth concerts, having previously conducted Fascinating Rhythm and Humor in Music. He also serves the Elgin Symphony Orchestra (Chicago) as education conductor and works closely with their education and artistic departments in designing all education and family concerts offered by the ESO. Each year, he designs and conducts the ESO Kidz Konzerts for elementary students and Music in the Middle® concerts for middle school students as well as developing teacher guides and student materials.
Over the years, these acclaimed concerts have been praised by educators for their imaginative, energetic approach to getting young people excited about symphonic music. Drawing upon a long teaching career, Swiggum has created concerts like Dvorak in America, Traveling Music, The Amazing Mr. Copland, Symphony Small Talk: The Orchestra Speaks—Let’s Listen In, Fascinating Rhythm, and last season’s Humor in Music, exploring how music “works” by looking at humor in both music and language.
These programs have distinguished The Florida Orchestra and the Elgin Symphony as leaders in presenting truly innovative concerts for young listeners and have resulted in invitations to create and conduct educational concerts with the Boise Philharmonic, the Aberdeen (Scotland) International Festival, and the APAC Orchestra Festival in Seoul, Korea, among many others. Last season, Swiggum conducted the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland as well as the Georgia All-State Orchestra. He developed a new youth concert, What’s So Scary About a Rubber Shark?, in conjunction with the Elgin Symphony’s film music festival, Exiles in Hollywood. Focusing on concepts like tension and release, use of rhythmic devices, and how orchestral colors create mood and character, these concerts went beyond film music to show how all symphonic music works, giving young listeners real tools for listening to the orchestra. Featuring the music of, Stravinsky, Wagner, Dukàs, Holst, John Williams, and Tchaikovsky, these concerts were presented to over 10,000 enthusiastic young listeners grades K-8 from around Chicago.
Swiggum has long been an advocate of “aiming high” with expectations for music education and youth. A leader in the CMP initiative (Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance), he is the author of several books and numerous articles for teachers and musicians. Besides a busy schedule of guest conducting, lectures, and teacher workshops, he serves as artistic director of the award-winning Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra, now in its 35th season. He has served two terms on the YOD Board of the League of American Orchestras. He makes his home in Madison, Wisconsin, where he also conducts the Madison Boychoir, and he is a Ph.D. dissertator in musicology. He continues to be fascinated by music and 10 year olds, ever since his first job as an elementary general music teacher.
