Bryttan appointed conductor of Vassar Orchestra and New Jersey Youth Symphony (09/28/97)

Bryttan appointed conductor of Vassar Orchestra and New Jersey Youth Symphony

by Ika Koznarska Casanova

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Adrian Bryttan has recently been appointed conductor of the Vassar Orchestra at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and of the New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS) in New Providence, N.J.

Mr. Bryttan brings to the podium extensive experience as conductor and music director of national and international orchestras and opera companies.

At NJYS, Mr. Bryttan will conduct the advanced orchestra made up of 95 superior high school students. Under his direction NJYS musicians will be working on unique and innovative programs. The NJYS premiere performance in November will include a multi-media production of Gunther Schuller's "Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee." In February the full orchestra will provide the musical score by Carl Davis for a showing of the silent film "The Flesh and the Devil" starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. The final concert of the season will be a gala concert at Rutgers University in May.

The first concert of the Vassar Orchestra will be held December 6 and will feature Haydn's symphony No. 104, his last.

Mr. Bryttan will also perform two solo violin recitals: in Vassar's Skinner Hall on October 10 and in a benefit concert for NJYS, as part of the symphony's chamber music series, at the NJYS Building, Burgdorff Hall, in Berkeley Heights, N.J., on October 18.

A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Mr. Bryttan began his conducting career with the Notre Dame Opera of which he was founder and music director (1979-1984). Since 1994 he has been conductor of the New Rochelle Opera and has served as conductor of the New Haven Opera, Tulsa Ballet, New York Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Opera Theater as well as music director of the Orchestra Nova (Pittsburgh) and La Porte Symphony in Indiana.

In addition, Mr. Bryttan has been conductor of the Kharkiv Opera since 1996 and of the Lviv Opera as well as principal guest conductor of the Lviv Philharmonic since 1992. He has also served as conductor of the Bielefeld Opera (1991) in Germany and the Sinfonia Varsovie (1989) in Poland.

His opera repertoire includes, apart from Italian, French and German classics, such works as Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti," Ulehla's, "Sybil, of the American Revolution," and Wolf-Ferrari's, "Le Donne Curiose." His conducting of Handel's "Acis and Galatea" was recorded on CD and video on the Schwann Koch label.

A solo violinist, Mr. Bryttan was concertmaster with South Bend Symphony and soloist with the Lviv Philharmonic and the Paul Price Percussion Ensemble. He was also a member of the symphonies in Memphis and Knoxville, Tenn., and Grand Teton, Wyo.

| Home Page |