Artists Bios: Holiday Pops December 18 & 19, 2009 8:00 p.m. Municipal Auditorium
Ken-David Masur, conductor
Ken Masur, San Antonio Symphony’s Resident Conductor, is a “brilliant and commanding” [from the Leipziger Volkszeitung] conductor with “unmistakable charisma” [from the Bild]. This high praise has followed Ken Masur since his conducting debut in 1998. He co-founded the Columbia University Bach Society Orchestra and Choir in 1999 and as its first Music Director, regularly led performances of cantatas, oratorios, symphonies, operas, chamber music and choral works from the 17th to the 20th century, appearing at such venues as New York City’s Miller Theatre, Riverside Church, The 92nd Street Y, the German Consulate and the University Club. Under Masur’s leadership, the Bach Society released its debut CD in 2002, which included works by J.S. Bach as well as symphonies by Bach’s two oldest sons, W.F. and C.P.E. Bach. The Bach Society’s 2001 concert tour of Germany was met with critical acclaim, prompting one critic from the Leipziger Volkszeitung to write about its performance and staging of Handel’s opera Acis and Galatea, “The marvellous score could simply not have been any better realized.” Masur was also music director of the Columbia Orchestra for Asian Music and in 2002 conducted the Manhattan School of Music Laureate orchestra made up of principal players of the New York Philharmonic and their students.
During the 2004-2005 season, Masur served as Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France, covering such large-scale works as Honnegger’s Jeanne d’Arc and Grieg’s Peer Gynt. When he prepared J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion in 2005 with the Chśur de Radio France and the children’s choir, La Maîtrise de Radio France, subsequent reviews of that concert repeatedly praised the choirs’ performance: “Of the entire production, it was the choruses who shined and did justice to Bach’s masterwork, . . . [delivering] a penetrating reading of [The Passion’s] heavenly polyphony and powerful balancing of voices” [ResMusica]. Masur has since then been a frequent guest conductor of the Chśur de Radio France, with whom he led its first-time collaboration with the orchestra of the Paris Conservatory in the 2005-2006 season opening concert. In 2006-2007, Masur gave a conducting master class for the choral conductors of the 4800-member Hong Kong Children’s Choir, collaborated with Sir Colin Davis in Orchestre National de France’s production of Gustav Holst’s The Planets, and led the Youth Orchestra of Opole, Poland as part of the 2007 annual EuroSilesia Festival. Concerts in prior season also have included Masur’s debut with the Orchestre National de Toulouse, the Rio de Janeiro Symphony, as well as with the Fort Bend Symphony in Texas.
As the San Antonio Symphony’s Resident Conductor for the 2009-2010 season, Masur will conduct twenty-four performances in the San Antonio Symphony’s Young People’s Concert Series, four performances in the Family Classics series, the 70th Anniversary Celebration Concert and assorted other Pops, Educational and Community concerts.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, Ken Masur began his comprehensive musical training at age 6 with the piano and at age 9 as boy-soprano in the legendary Gewandhaus Children’s Choir. As an undergraduate at Columbia University, Masur studied orchestration with French composer Tristan Murail, composition with Joseph Dubiel and conducting with Jeffrey Milarsky. He served as Principal Trumpet of the Columbia University Orchestra and of the National Youth Guild Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. Masur has also participated in master classes with conductors Jorma Panula (St.Petersburg), Zdenek Macal (New Jersey Philharmonic), George Manahan (New York City Opera) at the Manhattan School of Music, and Kurt Masur in Săo Paolo Symphony Orchestra’s first two international conducting master classes in 2001-2003. Masur is also an accomplished concert and Lied singer. After obtaining his Bachelor of Arts in music from Columbia in 2002, he studied voice for five years as a master student of renowned bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin. Masur has given numerous Lied recitals in New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Berlin, Detmold, and at the Festival “les muséiques” Basel, and has been featured both as conductor and singer on broadcasts for such stations as WKCR New York, RTHK4 Hong Kong and Radio France.
San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers
The San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers is a highly acclaimed, 120-voice chorus of volunteers from throughout the San Antonio area. Max Reiter, founding Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony, established the chorus in 1944 to support opera productions presented by the Symphony. Today’s Mastersingers are featured in every area of the Symphony’s performance schedule. The chorus also presents independent performances.
The Mastersingers’ reputation for meticulous preparation and professionalism has brought the group frequent invitations for tours and guest appearances. In 1994, the Mastersingers traveled to Carnegie Hall to present the New York premiere of Robert Levin’s edition of the Mozart Requiem. This second appearance of the chorus at Carnegie Hall received the same critical acclaim as their performances throughout Texas, in Monterrey, Mexico, in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, and in the Royal Festival Hall, London. In May 2008, the chorus performed Mozart’s Solemn Vespers at Carnegie Hall, John Silantien conducting. Later that same year, they were invited to perform a concert version of Cavalleria Rusticana, with Andrea Bocelli in the starring role. The chorus has performed under some of the world’s leading music directors—Zdenek Macal, Jahja Ling, Sixten Ehrling, Nicholas McGegan, Christopher Hogwood, and others.
The Mastersingers have produced two recordings in their history. Their first, a 1978 release on the Telarc label, is an acclaimed album of choral works including Verdi’s “Ave Maria,” John Corigliano’s “Psalm 90,” and a set of six previously unrecorded works by Hugo Wolf. In 1987 the Symphony and Mastersingers released Christmas Festival, an album of holiday music, with James Sedares conducting.
In 1994, then San Antonio Mayor Nelson Wolff proclaimed the Mastersingers “one of the crown jewels within the San Antonio Arts community.” The chorus continues to delight audiences during its upcoming sixty-fifth season.
Dr. John Silantien has taught and conducted choirs on the secondary and collegiate levels in Texas, the Washington, D. C., area, and on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois. His awards include a Rockefeller grant for choral conducting at Aspen, Colorado, and a Fulbright award for research in London, England. He presently serves as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Director of the San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers, and Choir Director at University Presbyterian Church. Between 1992 and 1998, he served as Editor of the Choral Journal, the official publication of the American Choral Directors Association, with a circulation of more than 20,000. He serves frequently as adjudicator, clin¬ician, and guest conductor. He is listed in the International Who’s Who in Music, Who’s Who among America’s Teachers, the 2006 edition of Who’s Who in America, and the 2007 edition of Who’s Who in the World. In 2009, he received UTSA’s President’s award for excellence in research and creative activity.
Choirs under his direction have been invited to perform before the Music Educators National Conference, the American Choral Directors Association, the Texas Choral Directors Association, and the Texas Music Educators Association. They have sung in New York City’s Lincoln Center and London’s Royal Festival Hall. In June 1997 the UTSA Madrigal Singers toured Brazil performing at major venues in Săo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. His UTSA Concert Choir toured to Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague during the spring of 2006 as an invited participant in the celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday. His orchestral con¬ducting credits include performances with the San Antonio Symphony, the San Antonio Pops, and New York’s West Side Chamber Orchestra, as well as CD recordings of three Mozart piano concertos with the Moscow State Radio Orchestra. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in May 1994 conducting Mozart’s Requiem. In May 2008, he returned to Carnegie Hall to conduct the San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers in a performance of Mozart’s Vespers.
Mailing
Address: P.O. Box 658 San Antonio, TX 78293-0658
Physical Address AS OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2009: 130 East Travis St., Suite #550 - San Antonio, TX 78205
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