| Dino Anagnost |
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Dino Anagnost, Music Director of
The Little Orchestra Society since 1979, has conducted the Society in
over 1,000 concerts. He has brought to the organization not only his
musical gifts, but also his remarkable programming innovations for
adults and children alike. Through Happy Concerts for Young People, for ages 6 to 12, and the Lolli-Pops series for ages three to five, which he created in 1986, Mr. Anagnost continues his zealous commitment to bringing classical music to young audiences. To that end, in 1980, he initiated Chance for Children, a community outreach and arts education program that offers children from pre-kindergarten through high school the opportunity to hear and learn about classical music through student and teacher workshops integrating the live concert experience into the curriculum. Since this program began, Maestro Anagnost has introduced the glories of classical music to over one million metropolitan area young people. In 1993, Mr. Anagnost created Sound Discoveries, a series dedicated to the music of the 20th century, which has presented American and New York premieres of such composers as Rolf Lieberman, Ned Rorem, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Mikis Theodorakis, Max Bruch, Gian Carlo Menotti, John Corigliano, Silvestre Revueltas and Benjamin Britten. In addition, these programs have offered New York concert premieres of the best of 100 years of film music, including Rachel Portman' s Chocolat, John Williams ' Schindler s List, Franz Waxman 's Sunset Boulevard, Hugo Friedhoffer' s The Best Years of Our Lives,, Miklos Rosza' s Spellbound Concerto, Erich Wolfgang Korngold' s The Prince and the Pauper, Dmitri Tiomkin' s Cyrano de Bergerac, Maurice Jarre' s Lawrence of Arabia, and Camille Saint-Sae ns' The Assassination of Duc de Guise. With its centennial productions of The FortuneTeller, Cyrano de Bergerac, Mlle Modiste and an upcoming Eileen, Sound Discoveries has started the process of restoring the music of Victor Herbert to the modern repertoire. In 1990, Mr. Anagnost conceived a festival series based on the musical genius of Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi' s Venice, still thriving in its 13th year, presents the composer 's works in the dazzling Venetian style of the 18th century. In this series, Maestro Anagnost has conducted American premiere performances of a trilogy of Vivaldi' s operas, Arsilda, regina di Ponto, L' Olimpiade and Tamerlano, all specially reconstructed for The Little Orchestra Society by the noted English Vivaldi scholar and musicologist, Dr. Eric Cross. In both adult series, Sound Discoveries and Vivaldi' s Venice, Anagnost' s informative and entertaining commentary on the music and its milieu, another innovation, enhances each concert. Equally at home in the musical repertoire of the 18th or 21st century, on the concert stage or in the opera house, in the classical or Broadway idiom, Mr. Anagnost has conducted operas by Mozart, Strauss, Bizet and Puccini; operettas of Sousa, Herbert, Strauss and Sullivan; the Asian premieres of Menotti 's The Medium and Amelia Goes to the Ball; and on PBS, Poulenc' s La Voix humaine for " Great Performances." For an IBM special, he conducted a recreation of Rodgers ' ballet Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, with New York City Ballet' s prima ballerina Allegra Kent, and Gershwin' s original version of his American classic, Rhapsody in Blue. As Music Director and Conductor of The Little Orchestra Society, he has collaborated with some of the 20th century s major composers - Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Gian Carlo Menotti, David Diamond, John Corigliano, Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein - as well as outstanding personalities in related disciplines - Lynn Redgrave, Claire Bloom, Robert Cuccioli, Mia Farrow, Joel Grey, Michael Medved, Jeffrey Lyons, Estelle Parsons, Irene Pappas, Rita Moreno, Cyril Ritchard and Glenn Close. As Dean of Music at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of North and South America, Anagnost created Great Music Under a Byzantine Dome, a concert series which has presented some of the conductor s own compositions and arrangements as well as New York premieres of works by Serg Rachmaninoff, Christopher Rouse and John Tavener. A native of Manchester, New Hampshire, Dr. Anagnost was graduated from Boston University and The Juilliard School. For his musical achievements throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, Maestro Anagnost has received numerous honor and citations, from governments, patriarchates, states, universities, and civic and arts organizations. He has received three advanced degrees, including a doctorate from Columbia University where he is currently adjunct professor of music. He was nominated for a Grammy by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and was conferred the honor of Commendatore in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his service to Italian music in the United States. |
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| ©2007 - The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony,
Inc. | Photographs © Steve J. Sherman |
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