Conductor Shizuo Kuwahara, the Augusta Symphony’s third Music Director candidate, leads the orchestra at the Saturday, January 24 Masterworks concert. Maestro Kuwahara directs the orchestra in a program featuring Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. Augusta Symphony principal trumpeter and renowned musician James Ackley performs Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto. The 7:30 p.m. concert is at First Baptist of Augusta on Walton Way.
Tickets are $25, $40 and $50. Full-time students and military personnel with valid I.D. may purchase $7 tickets at the concert box-office on concert night only, subject to availability. To purchase tickets, call 706.826.4705 or visit www.augustasymphony.org.
Shizuo Kuwahara
Promising young conductor Shizuo Kuwahara is artistic director and principal conductor of the IPPO Philharmoniker in Tokyo, Japan. In November 2008, Mr. Kuwahara was the first prize winner in the prestigious 4th annual Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition in Frankfurt, Germany. He was the second prize winner of this competition in 2006. Klassik.com praised his performance, writing, “[I]n terms of artistic courage, musical élan, and emotional identification with the score, surely for many in the audience Shizuo Kuwahara had the edge...”
Mr. Kuwahara has held the positions of Associate Conductor of the Virginia Symphony and conducting fellow with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, Music Director of the William & Mary Symphony and the American University Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Kuwahara participates in international conducting competitions around the world. In addition to winning second prize at the Solti Competition, he received an honorable mention in the 2006 Tokyo International Music Competition for Conducting and was a semifinalist in the Prokofiev International Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is also a recipient of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Mr. Kuwahara studied conducting at Yale University, where he won the Eleozar de Carvalho Prize for students of conducting, and at the Eastman School of Music, where he was awarded the George Eastman Scholarship and certificates in performance and arts leadership. For more information, visit www.shizuokuwahara.com.
James Ackley
Principal trumpet of the Augusta Symphony since 2007, James Ackley is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and an internationally acclaimed trumpet solo artist. He has performed with numerous orchestras, wind ensembles and chamber groups in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, France, and Asia, among others. Ackley has frequently performed as a recitalist throughout North and South America as well as Europe. On a recent tour through Venezuela, critics described him as "one of the best trumpet players in the world." The Hartford Courante described him as "a true artist." Mr. Ackley is currently under Andes International Management.
Ackley received his Bachelor of Music from Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music and his Master of Music from the elite Cleveland Institute of Music in the area of performance. Former teachers include Michael Sachs, James Darling, Mary Squire and Eugene Blee. Currently, Ackley is Associate Professor of Trumpet at the University of South Carolina School of Music. Formerly principal trumpet and soloist of the Bogotá Philharmonic, Ackley has held positions as principal trumpet with orchestras throughout Mexico, the United States and South America.
Ackley maintains an active performance schedule, performing solo recitals, concerts and clinics throughout the U.S. and abroad. His musical arrangements are exclusively published under the editorial visage of Cimarron Music Press and AK Brass Press. Upcoming engagements include the 2009 and 2010 International Trumpet Guild Conferences, a recital tour in Portugal, and a recital in Puerto Rico at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. For more information about James Ackley, visit www.jamesackley.com.
For interview requests, contact the Augusta Symphony office at 706.826.4705 or email marketing@augustasymphony.org.
Music Director Candidates
Current Music Director Donald Portnoy’s August 2007 announcement that he will retire at the end of the 2008-09 season marked the start of a search for his successor. Over 200 applications from around the world were received for the Augusta Symphony Music Director position. Susan Haig, Benjamin Loeb, Shizuo Kuwahara and Diane Wittry were selected as the four candidates for the position. Each will conduct one of the first four Masterworks concerts of the 2008-09 season. All accomplished musicians and conductors, these four candidates were chosen by the Music Director Search Committee during a stringent selection process. Comprised of Symphony Board President Phil Caldwell, Chairman Peter Klacsmann, Symphony Executive Director Sandra Self, board and community members, and musicians, the Music Director Search Committee unanimously decided upon Haig, Loeb, Kuwahara and Wittry based on their expertise, experience, knowledge of musical programming, and philosophies regarding community engagement and music education.
THE MASTERWORKS SERIES SPONSOR IS MCGHEALTH. The concert sponsors for this evening’s performance are Mr. and Mrs. Charles Whitworth. Media sponsors are AT&T The Real Yellow Pages, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and The Augusta Chronicle.
For more information about the Augusta Symphony visit www.augustasymphony.org, call 706.826.4705, fax 706.826.4735 or email marketing@augustasymphony.org. Located on the second floor of the Sacred Heart Cultural Center, the Symphony office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
