Joshua Weilerstein to NY Philharmonic

Joshua Weilerstein Chosen to be an Assistant Conductor with New York Philharmonic for 2011-12 Season

Will Assist Music Director Alan Gilbert

Completing Summer as Assistant Conductor of Aspen Music Festival and School

Joshua Weilerstein ’05 PREP, ’09 B.M. ’11 M.M. has been named one of two, New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductors for the 2011–12 season. He, along with fellow conductor Case Scaglione will assist Music Director Alan Gilbert, who holds The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, and all guest conductors throughout the season. They will also lead educational events, including School Day Concerts and Young People’s Concerts.

The 23-year old Weilerstein will conduct the Young People’s Concert on October 15, 2011, and the School Day Concerts on May 24–25.

“We went through an extensive search and are excited to have found two such
accomplished and musical colleagues,” said Mr. Gilbert. “They are both extremely promising artists, and I look forward to welcoming them to the New York Philharmonic.”

Chosen for the first class in NEC’s prestigious orchestral conducting program directed by Hugh Wolff, Weilerstein was awarded First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 Malko International Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen. That win came just weeks after receiving his Bachelor’s degree in violin performance at NEC.  Weilerstein’s first-prize honors have included conducting engagements over a three-year period with major Scandinavian orchestras, including the Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Danish National Symphony. In June 2009 he made his professional conducting debut with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of Weilerstein’s 2010–11 season included conducting debuts with the Houston Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic, where as a Dudamel Fellow he led a series of youth and school concerts. He also appeared throughout Scandinavia, and is sharing the podium with Lorin Maazel in a concert at the Castleton Festival this month.

In the 2011–12 season Mr. Weilerstein makes conducting debuts with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio and Finnish Symphony Orchestras, Oslo Philharmonic, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in Saarbrücken, Northern Sinfonia, and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, among others.

During the past two summers he attended the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS), where he was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize. In 2010, he was named the winner of the Aspen Conducting Prize, which carried with it the honor of serving as the AMFS Assistant Conductor this summer as well as leading two programs with the Aspen Concert Orchestra. In May, he received dual Master’s degrees in orchestral conducting, and in violin, which he studied with Lucy Chapman.

In January 2010, Weilerstein made his conducting debut with the Símon Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, at which the soloist was his sister, the cellist Alisa Weilerstein, a member of NEC’s Weilerstein Trio. Weilerstein’s parents, violinist Donald Weilerstein, who holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair, and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, who directs the Professional Piano Trio Training Program, are both members of the NEC faculty.

For further information, check the New York Philharmonic website

For more information about NEC’s Orchestral Conducting Program, go here

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
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-585-1143
Ellen.Pfeifer@necmusic.edu