News – June 2009

Bruce Kiesling, Resident Conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and Music Director and Conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestras has been appointed Artistic Director and Conductor of the Tulare County Symphony in Visalia, California. For the story, click here [media link inactive 8/09].
 

The orchestra moved quickly to announce Kiesling’s interim replacement, who comes from not very far away:
 

“June 19, 2009: The Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (GSO) appointed Fouad Fakhouri, as their Principal Guest Conductor effective August 3, 2009 for a one-year period. Fakhouri currently serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestraand will retain that position and his residence in Raleigh, NC. Fakhouri’s duties with the GSO will include conducting the Symphony’s Education and Holiday Concerts, and the first half of the October Masterworks Concerts when Music Director, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, picks up his violin to play Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Fakhouri will also take charge of the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestras (GSYO) which is comprised of six ensembles and four conductors. He will conduct the most advanced group which is comprised of highly gifted High School students. The GSYO has recently performed at Carnegie Hall and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston. In April, 2010, Fakhouri will lead the GSYO on a European Tour to Munich, Germany, and Salzburg and Vienna, Austria. Concerts will be held in Salzburg and Vienna and feature French Hornist, Stefan DeLeval Jezierksi, a member of the Berlin Philharmonic. The GSYO will attend a rehearsal of the Berlin Philharmonic (BPO) at the Salzburg Easter Festival, where the BPO serves as the resident orchestra for ten days. The students will receive instruction from members of the BPO in special coaching classes. In Vienna, the GSYO will attend a rehearsal of the Vienna Philharmonic, perform a concert and receive coaching from professional Viennese musicians.
 

“Regarding his recent appointment, Mr. Fakhouri notes: ‘It is the perfect position for me. I am excited to be a part of this organization and am looking forward to working with GSO Music Director, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and the musicians of the Greensboro Symphony. The high quality of the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra and their ability to perform challenging music is very impressive and I am thrilled about the upcoming European Tour in April of 2010.’ Lisa Crawford, President and CEO of the Greensboro Symphony, became aware of Maestro Fakhouri when she was asked to serve on the grant panel for the Fayetteville Arts Council in April of 2009. During her visit to Fayetteville, Crawford heard first-hand the enthusiasm and support for Fakhouri and his work with the orchestra from local art lovers and business leaders. She was very impressed with the dramatic results that Fakhouri has accomplished with the Fayetteville Symphony including increased attendance as well as a 400% increase in annual budget since 2004.
 

“Fouad Fakhouri (b. 1972) brings tremendous excitement to his performances. He has been lauded for his ability to elicit the best from his musicians and to elevate the artistic performance level of orchestras he conducts. In May 2004 he was named Music Director and Conductor of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra of North Carolina, USA. He is the fifth music director in the symphony’s fifty-two year history. Since assuming his post he has significantly raised the orchestra’s artistic standard, created novel educational and outreach programs, and dramatically increased the symphony’s audience.
 

“Since 2004, Fakhouri has been in demand as a guest conductor both in the USA and abroad. In January 2008 he conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in multiple performances in Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt, and in the summer of 2008, at the invitation of the National Music Conservatory of Jordan, he traveled with twenty members of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra and conducted a joint concert with the Amman Symphony Orchestra.

“In 2010 Fakhouri is scheduled to travel with the English Chamber Orchestra (UK) and conduct them, on tour, in a series of concerts. Fakhouri’s compositional output is diverse and his music has been heard in various countries such as the United States, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Israel, Jordan and Egypt. He has written many orchestral pieces, in addition to chamber, choral, and solo music. His orchestral works have been premiered and performed by such orchestras as the English Chamber Orchestra, Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, Mediterranean Orchestra, Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Cairo Symphony Orchestra and the Amman Symphony Orchestra of Jordan. “In early 1995, at age 22, Fakhouri made his conducting debut at the International Jerash Festival with the National Music Conservatory Orchestra of Jordan (NMCO). Between 1996-1998 he served as assistant conductor to the Penn State Philharmonic. In the summer of 1997 he was appointed conducting assistant to Pu-Qi Jiang at the Penn’s Woods Music Festival in State College, Pennsylvania. In August 1999 he was one of only three conductors selected to participate in Daniel Barenboim’s master class at the West-Eastern Divan Workshop in Weimar, Germany. In 2001 he conducted the closing concert of the Baltimore International Cello Festival in a program that included two of his own compositions. In December 2003 he conducted the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra in multiple recording sessions of his orchestral works.

“Fakhouri holds a B.M. in Music Theory and Composition from West Texas A&M, a M.M. in conducting and another in composition from Pennsylvania State University, and a D.M.A. in composition from the University of North Texas. He is married to Diane Lavelle, an advertising executive. They have a daughter – Isabella Margaux Fakhouri.”
 

(Press release courtesy of the GSO.)

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Soprano Chloe Moore Awarded First Prize in Long Leaf Opera Vocal Competition – Soprano Lindsay Davis Awarded Second Place

 

June 17, 2009, Chapel Hill, NC: The fourth annual Long Leaf Opera Vocal Competition took place on Saturday, June 13, 2009, at North Carolina State University’s Stewart Theatre. The Long Leaf Opera Vocal Competition was established in 2005 to encourage young vocalists to pursue their art form. Ten semi-finalists, all under the age of 35, were judged on their technical and musical interpretive abilities, stage presence and professional attitude by a panel of judges.

 

Soprano Chloe Moore of Philadelphia PA was awarded first prize and will be invited to perform in a future Long Leaf Opera production and also received a $1,000 cash prize. Ms. Moore most recently played the High Priestess in Center City Opera Theater’s production of Aida. She was also the 2009 recipient of the Young Artist Grande Prize from Middle Tennessee Choral Society’s Orpheus Vocal Competition.
 

Soprano Lindsay Davis from New Jersey was awarded a second place prize of $500. She was the first place winner of that state’s National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition and won an encouragement award at the Palm Beach Vocal Competition and has appeared with Augusta Opera.
 

Third Place and “Audience Favorite” soprano Colleen Daly, also from Philadelphia, is the 2009 recipient of the Gerda Lissner Foundation’s “Encouragement Award.” Her recent solos include “Jubilate!” at The Academy of Vocal Arts, Mozart’s Große Messe with the Hartford Choral Society, and Elijah with the Master Chorale of Washington.
 

Led by lead judge William Stone, Professor of Voice and Opera at Temple University, the event featured a distinguished judging panel including Robert Galbraith, former director, Opera Company of North Carolina; James Allbritten, Artistic Director, Piedmont Opera and Director of the A J Fletcher Opera Institute, NC School of the Arts; Sara Jobin, San Francisco opera conductor; Katherine Posner, opera performer, teacher and former Artistic Director, North Carolina Lyric Opera; and Long Leaf Opera founders Benjamin Keaton and Randolph Umberger.
 

About Long Leaf Opera
 

Long Leaf Opera’s 2009 Festival Season takes place June 12-21, 2009. Long Leaf Opera is a professional, nonprofit organization dedicated to works written for the operatic stage in English. Long Leaf Opera specifically highlights American composers, but also encourages the production of works from around the world. It commissions new works and actively recruits new talent.
 

PO Box 2683 Chapel Hill NC 27515 (919) 240-8782 www.longleafopera.org
 

(Press release provided by LLO.)

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Concert Singers of Cary Announces New Executive Director

 

June 2, 2009, Cary, NC: After many years of loyal and dedicated service, David Lindquist has decided to step down as Concert Singers of Cary’s Executive Director. [The CSC has] been very fortunate to have had the advantage of David’s numerous skills and capabilities in managing and guiding CSC to where it is today. We are also fortunate that David will continue to sing with CSC.
 

We are pleased to announce that we have successfully recruited a new Executive Director, who will officially take over from David on July 1, 2009. Her name is Kate Koronkiewicz…. She resides in Cary and will begin working with David to get up to speed on this new role starting on June 15.
 

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Kate Koronkiewicz has made her living for the past 10 years as a serial entrepreneur. She has owned businesses in the arenas of aviation, business consulting, procurements, privatizations, business start-ups, real estate investing, and Internet marketing.
 

She co-founded an aviation company in 1999 called World Air Leasing. This firm started as a small leasing and sales firm which brokered sales of small single engine and turbo prop aircraft and quickly moved towards larger aircraft. With the changes made to World Air Leasing came a very large and successful business with contracts in the US Government, Fortune 500 companies, and other worldwide governments.
 

In 2005 they decided to pass the WAL torch and dove into new arenas. Manheim Group was founded and initially specialized in consulting for governments around the world. She took the connections that were established with World Air Leasing and sprouted this new business. The premise of Manheim Group has mainly been as a small business consulting firm but has also included procurement and bookkeeping and accounting expertise. Kate has been an intricate part of this growth for Manheim Group and brings many skills to the table.
 

In January 2007 Kate and her family transplanted from the west coast to give her three daughters a better quality of life. She is currently the Executive Director for TiE Carolinas, which is a not-for-profit organization for entrepreneurs. TiE has 53 chapters globally and the Carolinas chapter has been established since 1999. She is also still the co-owner of the Manheim Group and is in charge of the small business consulting, executive directorship, and bookkeeping aspects of that business.
 

(Press release courtesy of the CSC.)

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Raleigh’s Subsidies to Carolina Ballet Continue to Trouble Arts Community (Continued…)

 

Updated 6/2/09: …But maybe Carolina Ballet needs a big, guaranteed subsidy (plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in in-kind concessions) after all…. Their latest 990, available at http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2008/561/445/2008-561445383-04c41c46-9.pdf, shows that the top three execs received 18% raises last year, bringing the total senior-level compensation package to over $400,000 (including payroll taxes and benefits). This is merely half of the subsidy plan proposed by the City – that comes to around $800K in cash and in-kind benefits. Under this scenario, maybe Roger Krupa (of the civic center) and his colleagues in town hall are not treating the ballet generously enough….

xxx