Paul Hostetter

Conductor Paul Hostetter is currently the Music Director of the Colonial Symphony, a professional orchestra based in Morristown, New Jersey with a fifty-six year history. He is their sixth music director. He is also the Director of Orchestral Studies at Montclair State University, where he directs the University Symphony as well as productions for the Opera and Musical Theatre. He was previously the Music Director of the High Mountain Symphony, the Artistic Director of the Winter Sun Music Festival, the Music Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, and the Associate Conductor for the Broadway productions of Candide and The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm."

Mr. Hostetter has appeared as a guest conductor with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the New York City Opera, Philharmonia Virtuosi, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, the Genesis Opera Company, the Prism Chamber Orchestra, the Daylesford Sinfonia (Bermuda), the Performing Arts Institute Festival Orchestra (Kingston, PA), the Family Opera Initiative, and the Stony Brook Summer Music Festival Orchestra among others. Recently he conducted the co-premiere of Robert Aldridge's opera Elmer Gantry to glowing reviews for Peak Performances.

He has had a tremendous impact on the world of contemporary music having premiered over sixty works by composers including Pulitzer Prize winners David Del Tredici, Lewis Spratlan, and Ned Rorem with groups including the Sequitur Ensemble, Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Ensemble 21, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Music from China, The Society for New Music, the Glass Farm Ensemble, and Phillip Glass’s Music at the Anthology series. Recently he conducted the world premiere of Brent Michael Davids' film score to the 1923 classic The Last of Mohicans as part of the Syracuse Film Festival with members of the Syracuse Symphony.

As a recording artist he has collaborated with jazz greats Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, and Joe Lovano, with strings from the Orchestra of St. Lukes, as well as with Heidi Grant Murphy and members of the Metropolitan Opera. His recording, Where Crows Gather, featuring the music of Lewis Spratlan, was listed by the New York Times chief critic Anthony Tommasini as one of the top five of 2005. His extensive discography includes recordings on many labels including: Conductor - Telarc, Koch, Mode, CRI, Albany, Zadick, and Naxos; Instrumentalist - Argo, Decca, Delos, Deutsche-Grammaphon, Naxos, New World, Polygram, Pro-Arte, RCA Victor, Sony Classical, and Warner Brothers labels. He is most known for his solo vibraphone album titled "Puttin' on the squeeze, PH's way" which has sold over 10,000 copies world wide.

In the world of education he has served as an advisor to Carnegie Hall for their successful Link-up Series as well as for the Lincoln Center Institute. He is the conductor of the New York Premiere Ensemble, with whom he has given numerous performances of Raphael Mostel’s The Travels of Babar to critical acclaim in both English and French. An advocate for minority representation in classical music, he helped to found and create the Music Advancement Program of the Juilliard School, which provides holistic musical training for children of color. He has been a guest conductor for the Manhattan School of Music’s Graduate Orchestral Performance Program and has presented master classes at the Mannes School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, the Juilliard School of Music, the University of Michigan, William Paterson University, and San Paulo State University. In addition he recently conducted the 2006 NJ All-State Orchestra.

An avid instrumentalist, Mr. Hostetter performed as a percussionist/timpanist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with whom he toured and recorded extensively (including a Grammy Award) as well as with the American Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. As a soloist he has appeared with the Little Orchestra Society, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Florida State University Symphony, and the contemporary music ensemble Music Mobile. He has performed on numerous movie soundtracks, jingles, and Broadway shows.

He holds degrees in performance from the Florida State University and the Juilliard School of Music and has appeared in master classes with Christopher Wilkins, Larry Rachliff, and Leonard Slatkin.

Sources

*www.colonialsymphony.org
*www.musicmontclair.com
*www.sequitur.org