The recent winner of the inaugural The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award in the Performance of American Music 2016, Conductor Nan Washburn, with the Michigan Philharmonic, adds to an impressive, innovative programming awards list that includes The American Prize of Orchestral Conducting Professional Division in 2013 and 19 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming from the American League of Orchestras. The repertoire for Classics in the Cohan 3 is no less adventurous as Washburn, the third auditioning conductor for the Symphony’s Music Director, leads the orchestra on Saturday, February 4 in Harman Hall. Tickets for the 8 p.m. performance are now available at PACSLO.org.
Washburn, a 7th generation Californian, grew up in Ventura (her mother still resides there) and made her professional orchestra debut as a piccolo player with the San Luis Obispo Symphony when she was just 16 years old. It was that first performance that sealed her decision to pursue a career in music. From that auspicious beginning, she has brought music to California as Artistic Director and Conductor of the West Hollywood Orchestra, Music Director of Orchestra Sonoma, the Camellia Symphony in Sacramento, Principal Conductor of the Channel Islands Symphony, the Acalanes Chamber Orchestra, the American Jazz Theater, and Director of the San Francisco State University Symphony Orchestra. She made her debut conducting opera in Los Angeles. Washburn first came to national attention as a Co-founder, Artistic Director, and Associate Conductor of the San Francisco-based Women’s Philharmonic from 1980 to 1990, during which time she became one of the leading authorities on and advocates for orchestral works of women composers.
The repertoire for Classics in the Cohan 3 reflects the type of adventurous programming Washburn likes to bring to audiences. The evening’s bold, brassy program begins with Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, a fast-paced, big brass piece inspired by Russian literary works and legend. For the first time in at least two decades, the evening’s program will feature a trumpet solo. Phil Snedecor will perform Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat, a piece written for Viennese trumpet virtuoso and inventor of the keyed trumpet, Anton Weidinger, in 1803. The Symphony will end the night playing Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G major, a lush, cheery and lyrical piece that drew inspiration for the Bohemian folk music that Dvorak loved. The symphony was composed on the occasion of Dvorak’s election into the Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts in 1889.
Phil Snedecor attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he received the prestigious Performers Certificate and was a member of the premiere brass quintet, the Canterbury Brass. Snedecor is a former member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has held one-year positions with the National Symphony, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and the Baltimore Opera. He is Principal Trumpet in the Harrisburg (PA) Symphony Orchestra and former Co-Principal Trumpet in the Concert Artists of Baltimore. Snedecor has performed and toured throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.
About the San Luis Obispo Symphony
The San Luis Obispo Symphony was established in 1954 by a small group of 11 musicians called the Morro Bay Community Orchestra. The SLO Symphony was incorporated in 1961 and, in its 56-year history, has grown significantly to become a leading arts institution in the community with 70 orchestra members, a large Youth Symphony program with six ensembles and a music education program that has eleven school-based programs that have touched more than 16,000 youth per year in it 53-year tenure.
In 2016-17, the San Luis Obispo Symphony will audition five finalists during the Classics in the Cohan concert series for the position of Music Director. For further information, please visit slosymphony.org.