The Colorado MahlerFest, the only North American musical organization other than the New York Philharmonic to receive the Gold Medal of the International Gustav Mahler Society, has announced the recipients of the festival’s 2017 Mahler Conducting Fellowships.
Established in 2016 by the Colorado MahlerFest Trustees and incoming Artist Director Kenneth Woods, the goals of the Mahler Conducting Fellowship are to identify emerging Mahler interpreters of potentially international importance, and to support their artistic and professional growth. The three 2017 Fellows will be in residence in Boulder, Colorado throughout the 30th Colorado MahlerFest from May 13-21, 2017. “Mahler was possibly the greatest conductor who ever lived,’ said AD Kenneth Woods, “and so it’s probably not surprising his music both so uniquely challenging and so rewarding for those of us on the podium. The Mahler Conducting Fellowships exist to help give outstanding conductors who’ve shown an affinity for Mahler’s music a chance to expand their skill sets and raise their professional profile. MahlerFest has always been about creating an atmosphere around the concerts which is rich with ideas and inspiration- I’m sure these young conductors will contribute a lot towards enhancing MahlerFest’s spirit of exploration and discovery.”
This year’s Mahler Conducting Fellows were chosen from an outstanding pool of applicants from major conservatories and orchestras in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Korea, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. The three Fellows will serve as Assistant Conductors throughout the festival, participate in daily seminars and score study sessions with the Artistic Director, work in classes with guest clinician David Matthews, MahlerFest’s guest composer. They will also have the chance to work with MahlerFest’s symposium speakers.
The three Fellows will also conduct in a public masterclass at Boulder Public Library on the 18th of May, where the featured repertoire will be Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen,
Meet the 2017 Mahler Conducting Fellows.
(presented alphabetical order)
Tal Samuel is a native of Israel. She is fast earning a reputation as one of the most promising young Israeli female conductors in the field, performing regularly in concerts and operas through North America, Europe and Israel.
Her recent work and appearances won her prizes by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the Sylvia Borger Fund and a grant for a promising young conductor by her hometown orchestra, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra.
Besides her guest conducting appearances, Samuel is currently serving as Music Director of the Meytar Music Festival (MMF) which she founded in 2010 in Israel and as an Assistant Conductor at the Bloomington Opera and Ballet Theater in Indiana. Samuel’s recent engagements include the Lucerne Strings Festival Orchestra, New World Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra, the Berlin Sinfonietta, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Israeli Chamber Orchestra, Israel Sinfonieta Bee’r-Sheva Orchestra and the Herzliya Chamber Orchestra.
Tal Samuel was invited to participate in highly selective conducting master classes including workshops with Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Jorma Panula, Yoel Levi, Asher Fisch, Marin Alsop, James Ross and Carl St. Clair.
Tal Samuel was born in Haifa, Israel. She studied piano since the age of six and viola since the age of ten with the latter becoming her main instrument. As an accomplished violist, she has performed with various chamber groups and orchestras in her home country and abroad and played under conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, Helmuth Rilling and others.
Samuel holds a Master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and a Bachelor’s degree in Orchestral conducting, minoring in viola performance and composition form Tel-Aviv University. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the Jacobs School of Music where she studied under the tutelage of David Effron and Arthur Fagen.
Learn more and follow Tal using the following:
www.talsamuel.com
https://www.facebook.com/Tal.Samuel.Conductor
https://www.twitter.com/Tal_Samuel
Peter Wadl is Founder and Music Director of Cambridge Camerata and has been conductor of both the Chiltern Philharmonia and Rutland Sinfonia. He is also Director of Music at St Andrews Chesterton in Cambridge where recently his choir sang the Duruflé Requiem.
He studied with George Hurst and Christopher Zimmerman and continues to study with Sian Edwards and Mark Elder.
Recent concerts with Cambridge Camerata have included the last three symphonies of Mozart, Mahler/Stein Symphony No.4 and Beethoven Symphony No.2. In 1989 he made his debut with the Chiltern Philharmonia Orchestra with two performances of Mahler Symphony No.6.
Recently named as a Mahler Conducting Fellow at the Colorado MahlerFest, he has assisted Daniel Harding (Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris), Zubin Mehta (Staatskapelle, Berlin), Markus Stenz (Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra), Nicholas Collon (Ctiy of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra) and Simon Rattle (London Symphony Orchestra).
Aside from his career as a conductor, Peter works as a free-lance music typesetter and editor, recently completing new orchestral parts of Messiaen and Mahler which have been used by orchestras worldwide.
Dean Whiteside, a native of New York City, is in his first season as the New World Symphony’s Conducting Fellow. He leads a variety of performances, including the NWS’ Encounters and PULSE series, as well as serving as assistant to Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas. Additionally, he appears on select subscription concerts at the New World Center and Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, sharing the podium with such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Peter Oundjian, Robert Spano, and Osmo Vänskä.
Mr. Whiteside is founder and director of the Nashville Sinfonietta, hailed by John Pitcher of NPR as “a virtuoso band.” He opened the Blair School of Music’s 2013-14 season directing a multi-media realization of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross called “innovative” by The Tennessean and “deeply meditative and satisfyingly original” by ArtsNash. He served as a Conducting Fellow at the 2014 Castleton Festival, where he studied with Lorin Maazel and substituted for the ailing Maestro on tour with the Castleton Festival Orchestra.
Mr. Whiteside came to international attention by winning 2nd Prize, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra Prize, and the Croatian Composers’ Society Award at the 6th International Competition of Young Conductors Lovro von Matačić in October 2015. He received the 2017 Mahler Conducting Fellowship at Colorado MahlerFest, recipient of the International Gustav Mahler Society Gold Medal, as well as the 2015 David Effron Conducting Fellowship at the Chautauqua Institution Music Festival. His European debut came in 2011 after winning the Jorma Panula Blue Danube Masterclass and Competition, and he has led the Aspen Festival Orchestra, Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Gdansk Philharmonic (Poland), Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, Rousse State Opera Orchestra (Bulgaria), Sibiu State Philharmonic (Romania), Wiener Kammerorchester, and Zagreb Philharmonic, as well as the Vanderbilt Orchestra on a five-city tour of China. He conducted the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich at the 6th International David Zinman Masterclass, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra at the Malko Competition, and the Juilliard Orchestra as assistant to Fabio Luisi.
Mr. Whiteside studied with Simeon Pironkoff and Yuji Yuasa at the famed University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he graduated with distinction. He has participated in masterclasses led by such conductors as Bertrand de Billy, Mark Elder, Fabio Luisi, Jun Märkl, Kurt Masur, and Jorma Panula. He began his conducting studies with Robin Fountain at Vanderbilt University, where he won the David Rabin Performance Prize and graduated cum laude with a double major in viola and philosophy.