Loebel Associate Director of Orchestras

David Loebel, Music Director of Memphis Symphony, to Become Associate Director of Orchestras at NEC

(Matthew Craig photo)Conductor David Loebel, just concluding an 11-year tenure as Music Director of the Memphis Symphony, has been named Associate Director of Orchestras at New England Conservatory.  The Northwestern University-trained musician brings several decades experience conducting major orchestras in the United States and abroad to NEC, where he will serve under Hugh Wolff, Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood Director of Orchestras.  His appointment takes effect in September. 

A conductor who has championed new and American music by Ives, Copland, Adams, Thompson, Henry Brant, Gershwin, and contemporary artists, Loebel was three times recognized by ASCAP for adventurous programming with the MSO. He and the orchestra also teamed up last May with EarShot, the recently formed National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network, to give New Music Readings for the works of emerging composers. In 2000, Loebel's performance of the Copland Symphony No. 3 was praised by the Los Angeles Times for the "graciousness and zest that complemented perfectly the spirit of Copland's big, utterly characteristic symphony. Loebel gave it dignity without pompousness, wit without calculation, and revelation without indulgence. His interpretation was both logical and deeply felt, setting the sweeping melodies and kinetic explosions in carefully structured contexts."

Biography
David Loebel concluded his 11-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in May 2009. Prior to his appointment in Memphis, he enjoyed a decade-long association with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, serving as Associate and then Associate Principal Conductor, as well as Artistic Director of its summer festival, Classics in the Loop. He has also been Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

As a guest conductor, Loebel has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Brooklyn Philharmonic, among many others. Internationally, he has conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic, and toured Australia to great acclaim. He has led family and educational concerts at Carnegie Hall, and has appeared at summer music festivals including Grant Park, Eastern Music Festival, and the Woodstock Mozart Festival.

Active throughout his career in the training of young musicians, David Loebel has been Conductor-in-Residence of the New World Symphony, and Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the National Repertory Orchestra, and at conservatories including The Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Indiana University.

Loebel is a recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, and has been honored five times by ASCAP for his adventuresome programming. His writings on music include program notes for Telarc recordings.

Click here to see Memphis newspaper account of Loebel's final concert with the Memphis Symphony.

For further information, check the NEC Website.

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 720 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world.  Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars.  Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide.  Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions.  On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors.  Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.

NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 106-year old, beautifully restored concert hall.  These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes.  Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Public Relations Manager
New England Conservatory
617-585-1143
ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu