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OUR MUSIC DIRECTOR

Brian Stone

“Stone is a passionate conductor. He eschews the baton, preferring to use his hands and, indeed, his whole body, to direct the players. He often appeared to be dancing ecstatically to the music, even as he was utterly focused on the players. They responded magnificently, giving this big, warm symphony (Dvorak #6) the treatment it deserves.” Chico, (CA) News and Review

“Conductor Brian Stone had everyone’s attention;” Boston Globe

“The hero was conductor Brian Stone ...(who) galvanized the Boston Conservatory Orchestra and made musical sense of every bar.” Boston Phoenix

Prize-winning conductor and award-winning teacher Brian Stone has worked both in the opera pit and on the concert stage with professional orchestras in California, Missouri, Indiana, Utah, Maryland, Florida, Alaska, Washington, Kansas, Connecticut, Romania, Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria, and students at The University of Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University, Ohio University, Boston Conservatory, University of Mobile, San Diego State University, Stanford University, the National Conservatory of Colombia, The Claremont Colleges (CA), The Catholic University of America, and the All-State Honor Orchestras of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Southern California, to both public and institutional acclaim.

As a young conductor, Brian was chosen to conduct in the League of American Orchestras’ well- known elite Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview with the Utah Symphony, The Festival at Sandpoint’s Young Conductor Showcase with the Spokane Symphony and, was awarded the “Special Prize” at an international conducting competition in Romania. In 2008 he received the prestigious Jessie B. DuPont Award in Music Education in recognition of his work and in 2009 he was awarded the “First Honours Diploma” in the 29th MasterPlayers Music Competition. Upon stepping down as Music Director of the Santa Clarita Symphony, Brian was honored with a Certificate of Appreciation by the City Council.

In a decade as director of the University of Delaware Orchestras, Stone developed a three- ensemble area of orchestral activities that doubled the enrollment, tripled the number of performances, and quadrupled the audience. His sophisticated programs, ranging from Baroque to Contemporary, and the Classics to Jazz, Broadway and Hollywood received national recognition. In 2009 the UD Symphony was invited for the first time in their history to perform at the Music Educator’s National Conference convention.

Brian began music playing saxophone in the public schools of Santa Monica, California. Already an exceptional player as a youth, he went on to win several competitions. Later, he took up viola and piano, and started composing as well. Stone is a graduate of Bennington College in Vermont, where he studied composition, viola, and literature. In a diverse musical life, he has been thrilled to work with many extraordinary and highly regarded musicians including: Branford Marsalis, George Perle, Bethany Beardslee, Gilbert Kalish, Leon Fleisher, Karel Husa, Eddie Daniels, Walter Ducloux, Gerard Schwarz, Marvin Hamlisch, Leonard Slatkin, Piero Weiss, John Shirley-Quirk, and Ivan Fischer.

Dr. Stone received a Master of Music degree and a Doctorate in conducting from the Peabody Conservatory where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier. Additional studies in conducting took place at Le Domaine Forget in Canada with Otto-Werner Mueller and two summers at the Festival at Sandpoint with Gunther Schuller. He also studied with Harvey Pittel on saxophone, Jacob Glick on viola, Bill Dixon in improvisation, and Allen Shawn and Henry Brant in composition. He entered the profession as an understudy conductor at the National Symphony and as an assistant at Baltimore Lyric Opera.