ABBA

He is a violinist, conductor, composer and arranger who took his first lessons in violin as a schoolboy in Washington D.C. when he was ten years old and quickly moved on to take private tuition.

When he was fourteen he gave a solo performance at the Kennedy Center when he was accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra in the first of the children series of concerts given in Washington D.C.

He took further musical studies in violin and composition at the New England Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music and Boston University School of Music.

His career as a violinist has seen him performing with many American orchestras and making numerous appearances as a free-lance soloist. His orchestral positions have been many and include being a member of the Houston Symphony, a substitute for the Boston Symphony, the Assistant Concertmaster of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and the Concertmaster of the Virginia Symphony.

Not starting to conduct until later on in his music profession he has carved a niche for himself by unearthing some of the music of 20^th century American composers. These discoveries have resulted in him making several recordings of works by George Frederick McKay, John Alden Carpenter, Nicolas Flagello and Henry Kimball Hadley with the National Symphony and National Radio Symphony orchestras of the Ukraine on the American Classics CDs released by the Naxos label.

Often called upon the be a guest conductor he has led the American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Ballet, Boulder Philharmonic, the Carolina Ballet Theatre, the Cayman Arts Festival, Detroit Symphony, the East Texas Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, the Greenville Symphony, the Kirov Ballet, the Opera of North Carolina, the Pennsylvania Ballet, Portland Symphony, Suburban Symphony Orchestra and the Youngstown Symphony among others.

When he is not playing the violin or conducting he is a composer and arranger who has written and/or arranged works for Bruce Hornsby and worked with Michael Kamen on the music for a documentary about Washington D.C. for the History Channel called Mr. Dreyfuss Goes to Washington.

His recordings have been many, either as a musician or conductor, and include four Grammy Award nominations and the 2007 Grammy Award winning Olivier Messiaen: Oiseaux Exotiques where he led Angela Chang on piano and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Other recordings include the world premieres of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Chevalier de St. Georges as well as Harbor Lights by Bruce Horsnby, Deon Nielsen Price: Dancing on the Brink of the World by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Quincy Porter: Complete Viola Works by Eliesha Nelson and Northwest Sinfonia and Bloch, Lees: Violin Concertos by Elmar Oliveira.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine recordings

Naxos 8.559064 (CD: Henry Kimball Hadley: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 64; The Ocean, Op. 99; The Culprit Fay, Op. 62)

The Ocean (Henry Kimball Hadley)

Conductor – John McLaughlin Williams

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