Ken-David Masur
Resident Conductor
Ken-David Masur has been recently appointed San Antonio Symphony’s new Resident Conductor for the 2007-2008 season. He will conduct twenty-four performances in the San Antonio Symphony’s Young People’s Concert Series, four performances in the Interactive Family Classics series, the Sounds of Summer concerts and assorted other Pops, Educational and Community concerts.
As a “brilliant and commanding” [from the Leipziger Volkszeitung] conductor with “unmistakable charisma” [from the Bild], high praise has followed Ken-David 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. 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.
During the 2004-2005 season, Masur served as Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France. Masur has also been a frequent guest conductor of the Chœur 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.
Upcoming concerts this season include Masur’s debut with the Orchestre National de Toulouse, the Rio de Janeiro Symphony, as well as with the Fort Bend Symphony in Texas.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, Ken-David 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. 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.
Christopher Wilkins
Music Director Emeritus
As a guest conductor, Christopher Wilkins has appeared with many of the leading orchestras of the United States, including those of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. He also appears frequently overseas, with regular concerts in recent seasons in New Zealand, and with many of the principal orchestras of Spain.
In September on 2005, he was appointed Music Director Designate of the Orlando Philharmonic, and will become their Music Director in the fall of 2006. For ten seasons he was Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony, and since 2001 has served that orchestra as Music Director Emeritus. He served as Music Director of the Colorado Springs Symphony from 1989-1996, and is currently Artistic Advisor to the Opera Theatre of the Rockies in Colorado Springs. Recently he was resident conductor of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, helping in the formation of that orchestra in its inaugural season, and subsequently leading it on tours throughout the Americas.
During his tenure in San Antonio, the orchestra made extraordinary gains artistically, increased its profile and reputation within the community, and gained national acclaim for several new programs. Together they received six programming awards from ASCAP, including the first-ever Morton Gould Award for creative programming.
In 1992 Mr. Wilkins was winner of the Seaver/NEA Award, designed to identify exceptionally talented American conductors in the early stages of major careers. He served as the associate conductor of the Utah Symphony from 1986-89, assisting his former teacher Joseph Silverstein, and was assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1983-86, as assistant to Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi. Previously, he was conducting assistant with the Oregon Symphony under Music Director James DePreist, and a conducting fellow at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.
Born in Boston, Mr. Wilkins earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1978. As an oboist, he performed with many ensembles in the Boston area, including the Berkshire Music Center Orchestra at Tanglewood, and the Boston Philharmonic under Benjamin Zander. He studied at Yale University with Otto-Werner Mueller, receiving his master of music degree in 1981. In 1979-80, he attended the Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin, as a recipient of the John Knowles Paine traveling fellowship, awarded by the Harvard music department.
Dr. John Silantien
Conductor - San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers
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 and as Director of the San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers. 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 over 18,000. 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, and the 2006 edition of Who’s Who in America.
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 São 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.
