Carl St.Clair

Carl Ray St.Clair (born June 5, 1952) is the music director of Pacific Symphony in Orange County, California, the Komische Oper of Berlin and the German National Theater and Staatskapelle Weimar. Originally from Lavaca County, Texas, he studied conducting with Leonard 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 and Essen. He was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart from 1998–2004, where he successfully completed a three–year recording project of the Villa–Lobos symphonies. He has also appeared with orchestras in Jerusalem, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South 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, including Richard Danielpour’s An American Requiem on Reference Recordings and Elliot Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio on Sony Classical with cellist Yo-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 the San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver 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]