Sebastian Lang-Lessing
Music Director
Hailed by both audiences and critics, German conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing is among the most talented and exciting artists of his generation. His dynamic performances have garnered praise from the international press: “[The] performance’s sophistication and sensuality comes from the pit” ( Los Angeles Times); “The evening’s musical interpretation under the baton of conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing won generous applause.” ( Berliner Zeitung); “The orchestra sparkles and glows under the heated conducting of Sebastian Lang-Lessing. Viva Carmen!” ( Houston Press); “The orchestra excelled, finding what sounded like an extra dose of inspiration in conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing, who relished every prismatic detail in Verdi's score as he applied equal amounts of momentum and sensitivity to the performance.” ( Baltimore Sun)
In February 2010, Lang-Lessing was appointed music director of the San Antonio Symphony and begins his tenure in the 2010–11 season; he will be the orchestra’s eighth director in its 70-year history. He also serves as chief conductor and artistic director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, a post that he has held since 2004.
Lang-Lessing regularly appears on the podiums of the world’s preeminent opera houses, including the Opéra Bastille de Paris, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Colorado, Opéra de Bordeaux, Washington National Opera, Hamburg State Opera, and in Oslo, Stockholm and Capetown. Among his recent opera engagements are Wagner’s Rienzi with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Falstaff at Washington National Opera, Les Pêcheurs de Perles with Opera Colorado and Porgy and Bess at Norwegian National Opera in Oslo.
Sebastian Lang-Lessing was awarded the Ferenc Fricsay Prize in Berlin at the young age of 24, and he subsequently took up a conducting post at Hamburg State Opera. His other previous posts include eight years as resident conductor at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and chief conductor and artistic director of the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy for seven years. Under Maestro Lang-Lessing’s direction, the Opéra de Nancy was elevated to national status, becoming the Opéra national de Lorraine. His early music studies were at the Hamburg State Conservatory.
Equally renowned for his work on the concert stage, Lang-Lessing has led performances with major orchestras across the globe, including the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Toulouse, Orchestre de Bordeaux, Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon and top orchestras in Australia, among others. He also conducts an annual season in Sydney with his Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, including a regular concert series in Australia and on tour.
Sebastian Lang-Lessing also has an extensive discography with the Tasmanian Symphony, highlighted by the complete symphonies of Mendelssohn and Schumann as well as recordings of music by Saint-Saëns, d’Indy, Franck, Ravel, Bruch and Australian contemporary composer Brett Dean. The conductor’s rediscovery of the music of French composer Joseph-Guy Ropartz and CD releases of his symphonies with Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy have been greeted enthusiastically by the press.
Photo © 2010 markmoorephotography.com
Ken-David Masur
Resident Conductor
Ken-David Masur first attracted international attention in 2007 when he won the audition of the San Antonio Symphony and became its Resident Conductor beginning in the 2007-2008 season. During the San Antonio Symphony's 08-09 season, Masur will conduct the complete Pops, Young People's Concerts, Interactive Family Concerts and neighborhood series concerts, as well as concerts for New Year's Eve, the Nutcracker with the San Antonio Ballet, and all other special events such as Veterans Day and the Tobin Endowment Memorial Day Concert, which is annually broadcast live on public television.
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 Chœur 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 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. 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 São 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.
Ken-David Masur currently makes his home in San Antonio with his wife, pianist Melinda Lee Masur, and their daughter, Magdalena.
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, 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 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. In May 2008, he returned to Carnegie Hall to conduct the San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers in a performance of Mozart’s Vespers.
