- Carl St.Clair
Carl Ray St.Clair (born
June 5 ,1952 ) is the music director ofPacific Symphony in Orange County,California , theKomische Oper ofBerlin and theGerman National Theater andStaatskapelle Weimar . Originally from Lavaca County,Texas , he studied conducting withLeonard Bernstein .Debut
In June 2006, St.Clair led the
Pacific Symphony ’s debut performance in Disney Hall in Los Angeles by special invitation from the American Symphony Orchestra League (during its 2006 National Conference), receiving a standing ovation for its efforts.International career
St.Clair’s international career has him conducting abroad several months a year, and he has appeared with orchestras throughout the world including in a number of cities he revisited during the Symphony’s tour—
Munich ,Hanover ,Vienna ,Frankfurt andEssen . He was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Radio-SinfonieorchesterStuttgart from 1998–2004, where he successfully completed a three–year recording project of the Villa–Lobos symphonies. He has also appeared with orchestras inJerusalem ,Hong Kong ,Japan ,Australia ,New Zealand , andSouth America , and summer festivals worldwide.Pacific Symphony orchestra
His dedication to the development and performance of new works by American composers is evident in the wealth of commissions and recordings by Pacific Symphony during his tenure. St.Clair has led the orchestra in numerous critically acclaimed albums including two piano concertos of
Lukas Foss on the harmonia mundi label. Under his guidance, the orchestra has commissioned works which later became recordings, includingRichard Danielpour ’s An American Requiem on Reference Recordings and Elliot Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio on Sony Classical with cellistYo-Yo Ma .Work with other orchestras and festivals
In North America, St.Clair has led the
Boston Symphony Orchestra , (where he also served as Assistant Conductor for several years),New York Philharmonic ,Philadelphia Orchestra ,Los Angeles Philharmonic , and theSan Francisco ,Seattle ,Detroit ,Atlanta ,Houston ,Indianapolis ,Montreal ,Toronto , andVancouver symphonies.St.Clair is also known for the critically acclaimed annual American Composers Festivals, which most recently have included: Uncharted Beauty: The Music of Lou Harrison (2005-06), Los Sonidos de México (2006-07); and in 2007-08—The West—Music inspired by the American Frontier (2007-08).
Educational programmes
St.Clair has been essential to the creation and implementation of the symphony education programs including Classical Connections, arts-X–press and Class Act. He is also on the faculty at USC's Thornton School of Music. In 2006 he worked with the german national youth orchestra
Bundesjugendorchester .External links
* [http://www.komische-oper-berlin.de/ Komische Oper Berlin website] (in German)
* [http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/stclair/bio.html Sony Classical biography]
* [http://www.usc.edu/schools/music/private/faculty/cstclair.php USC Thornton School of Music]
* [http://pacificsymphony.entericorp.com/about_the_orchestra/conductor_detail.php?cndid=1 Pacific Symphony biography]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.