Next Wednesday, May 11 at 7 pm, the Nashville Symphony and the League of American Orchestras will host the most prestigious event of its kind in North America – right here in Nashville, at Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

This is a FREE concert and is open to the public.

The 2016 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview will feature performances by the Nashville Symphony led by five conductors:

• Conner Gray Covington, Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow, Curtis Institute of Music
• Roderick Cox, Assistant Conductor, Minnesota Orchestra
• Paul Ghun Kim, Resident Conductor, Oregon Symphony
• Rebecca Miller, Music Director, Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society; Director of Orchestras, Royal Holloway University of London; Conductor, Royal Academy of Music Junior Department
• Stefan Sanders, Montante Family Endowed Associate Conductor, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; Music Director, Round Rock Symphony (TX); Music Director, Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra

The Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview has been presented by the League of American Orchestras roughly every other year since 1995. The purpose of the event is to showcase talented conductors poised for music directorships and staff conducting positions at America’s orchestras. Representatives from orchestras around the U.S will be in attendance, including members of search committees, orchestra administrators and artist managers, for this unique opportunity to meet the five featured conductors and witness their performances with the Nashville Symphony.

Bruno Walter

The event is named for the German-born conductor Bruno Walter (1876-1962) who left Nazi Germany in 1933 and settled permanently in the U.S. in 1939. Walter was one of the great conductors of the 20th century, and was a strong advocate for the music of Gustav Mahler, with whom he worked closely as a young man.

Next Wednesday’s event will be the twelfth Conductor Preview the League has sponsored since 1995. Over the years, 80 conductors have been featured at these events, and more than 50 orchestras have engaged them for appointments as a direct result – including the Nashville Symphony’s very own music director Giancarlo Guerrero, who was a featured conductor in the 2001 Preview.

Giancarlo Guerrero ~ photo: Chad Driver

It is therefore even more fitting that Maestro Guerrero will be present to provide guidance and mentoring to all of this year’s participating conductors while they are here next week, and will serve as the host of the concert.

According to the League’s description of the event:

The five featured conductors were chosen from a pool of nearly 150 applicants from eighteen countries, and were selected for their experience, talent, leadership potential, and commitment to a career in service to American orchestras…Each conductor will rehearse a 20-minute program of contrasting musical selections to be performed in a free public concert at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center that evening.

Repertoire for the concert will be selected from the following:

• Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
• Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
• Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35
• Copland: Appalachian Spring
• Daugherty: American Gothic

To learn more, visit the League of American Orchestras description of the event on their website here.

Tickets are FREE! But you must reserve them – click here to reserve seats on the Nashville Symphony website or call the Nashville Symphony Box Office at 615.687.6400.