David Bernard to Conduct Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra

Noted American conductor David Bernard will lead the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra in two concerts; one, a free outdoor Summer concert "Opera Goes Pop" at Newburgh's historic Downing Park on Saturday afternoon, July 25, 2015, a program featuring operatic selections including favorites by Bizet, Rossini, and Strauss, and later during the 2015-2016 season on Saturday, January 16, 2016, in a family program entitled "Arabian Nights" featuring Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade." For information on both concerts, please visit http://www.newburghsymphony.org.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for the GNSO and the Newburgh audiences," says Greg Philips, General Manager of the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra, "we very much look forward to what David Bernard can bring to our symphony and to an exciting collaboration."

Music Director of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, David Bernard has gained recognition for his dramatic and incisive conducting in over 20 countries on four continents, including a nine-city tour of the People's Republic of China and a guest conducting assignment with the China Conservatory Orchestra. Under Maestro Bernard's leadership, the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony's membership has thrived, expanding in size and achieving critical acclaim. A two-time First Prize Winner of the Orchestral Conducting Competition of The American Prize, David Bernard was described by the judges as "a first-rate conductor. With no score, an animated and present Maestro Bernard led a phenomenal performance of incredibly difficult repertoire-masterly in shaping, phrasing, technique, and expressivity." After the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony's recent 15th anniversary concert with a monumental program consisting of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Wagner/Maazel's The Ring without Words, reviewer Alan Young of lucidculture praised Mr. Bernard's "transcendent" performance of the Stravinsky: "Segues were similarly seamless, contrasts were vivid and Stravinsky's whirling exchanges of voices were expertly choreographed." (February 2015)

Active throughout the greater New York City area, Maestro Bernard has appeared as a guest conductor with the Long Island String Festival, the Massapequa Philharmonic, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Putnam Symphony, and the South Shore Symphony. Mr. Bernard has previously served as Music Director of the Stony Brook University Orchestra, the Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, and Theater Three. Devoted to the music of our own time, Bernard has presented world premieres of scores by Bruce Adolphe, Chris Caswell, John Mackey, and Ted Rosenthal. Maestro Bernard's discography includes 17 albums spanning music from Vivaldi to Copland, including a complete Beethoven symphony cycle. David Bernard is an alumnus of The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, Stony Brook University, Tanglewood, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

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