Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra

Chelsea Tipton II

Chelsea Tipton's website

Entering his seventh and final season as Resident Conductor of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, American conductor Chelsea Tipton II has won over audience and critics alike with his vibrant musicality, accessibility, versatility, and extraordinary commitment to education outreach. In the fall of 2009 Tipton will be starting his tenure as Music Director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas in Beaumont. As a sought-after guest conductor, Tipton has appeared with major orchestras in the United States, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philhannonic, the Louisiana Philhannonic Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra among others. In 2004, Tipton led the Boston Pops Orchestra in their annual Gospel Night Concert that the Boston Globe called an "impressive debut".

The 2009-10 season will include guest conducting engagements with the Atlanta Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival in addition to regular Toledo Symphony season appearances that feature him in the Classics, Pops, and Family Cpocert series. Last season marked Tipton's return to Carnegie Hall conducting the Sphinx Competition Showcase gala concert that was the culmination of a ten city tour with the orchestra. Other highlights include a last minute replacement for Robert Spano to conduct an all Gershwin season finale with the Brooklyn Philhannonic. The New York Times applauded Tipton for "[leading] sweeping and vibrant performances of 'Rhapsody' and 'An American in Paris.'"

His strong commitment toward education is shown though his dedicated work with the Sphinx Competition to promote African American and Hispanic emerging artists in classical music, in addition to working with the New World Symphony to involve local high school students in concerts. Prior to his appointment with the Toledo Symphony, Tipton was Associate Conductor with the Savannah Symphony Orchestra for four seasons and Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra for three seasons. He has held faculty positions at Central Michigan University (CMU) as Assistant Professor where he was Director of the CMU Symphony and a Visiting Professor in clarinet and chamber music at Western Michigan University. He has served on the faculty of the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival in New Hampshire, and served four seasons as Assistant Conductor with the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina during the summers.

Tipton earned a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from Northern lllinois University and a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance from the Eastman School of Music, with additional studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine. As a clarinetist, Mr. Tipton has perfonned with several orchestras, including the Rochester Philharmonic, the Heidelberg Festival Opera Orchestra (Germany), and the Chicago Sinfonietta. He has appeared on the NBC Today Show with Wynton Marsalis and has performed as a section clarinet player with James Galway and the Eastman Philharmonia, Wynton Marsalis and the Easnnan Wind Ensemble and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra on recordings with RCA Classical, CBS Masterworks and Pro Arte labels.

Martin Majkut

Recent conducting engagements of Martin Majkut include: Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 with the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra; Bella’s Mass in Eb Major with the Slovak Sinfonietta; and the March 2009 series of concerts with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra featuring Jon Lord, legendary keyboardist with the rock group Deep Purple. Based on the success of those performances, Majkut was given the honor to lead the Slovak Radio SO in the concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the fall of Communism. The concert will take place in Bratislava in November 2009, following his stay with the Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra. Majkut complements guest conducting commitments with employment at the Arizona Opera where he was initially appointed Studio Artist in Conducting for the 2007/8 season. He continues with the Opera as Accompanist, Orchestral Keyboardist and Assistant Chorus Master.

A native of Bratislava, Slovakia, Majkut still performs frequently with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the State Philharmonic Orchestra and the Slovak Sinfonietta. In 2000, he was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic at the age of 25, thus being one of the youngest Assistant Conductors of a major European orchestra. Competing in 2004 for the position of Assistant Conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra (currently ranked ninth in the world according to Gramophone magazine), he was one of two final candidates. The position went unfilled.

Majkut’s recording credits include the 2001 recording of Slovak orchestral music with the Slovak Sinfonietta and the 2007 recording of Bach’s Magnificat and Charpentier’s Te Deum with the early music orchestra Solamente Naturali. He also recorded CDs with medieval and renaissance music with his own early music choir Voci Festose.

The recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, Majkut holds two doctorates in conducting: Ph.D., University of Music and Performing Arts in Bratislava (2007); D.M.A., The University of Arizona (2008). He also studied with Gianluigi Gelmetti at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy and Salvador Mas Conde at the Wiener Meisterkurse in Vienna, Austria.

Acclaimed as a Conductor as well as a chorus master, pianist and accompanist, Majkut resides in Tucson, Arizona and Bratislava, Slovakia.

Darko Butorac

Darko Butorac 's website

Darko Darko Butorac began his tenure as Music Director of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra this season, and also in 2009, served as Principal Conductor of the Northwest Mahler Festival in Seattle. His inspired performances, imaginative programming and passion for working with musicians have earned him international acclaim.

Butorac is the 2004 Grand Prize Winner of the Fourth Vakbtang Jordania International Conducting Competition where he was selected out of24 competitors from 17 different countries for the Gold Medal and Grand Prix. He also was awarded the Audience Favorite Prize. This led to professional engagements across three continents during the 2006-2008 seasons.

Throughout his career, Butorac has worked with such orchestras as the National Ans Centre Orchestra in Onawa, the Trondheim Symphony in Norway, the Mendoza Symphony in Argentina, the Xiamen Philharmonic in China, the Kharkov Symphony Orchestra and Kharkov Philharmonic in the Ukraine and the Canton Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Danish National Radio Symphony as part of the prestigious Nikolai Malko Conducting Competition. An avid opera conductor, he has worked with the Fidenza Opera Festival in Italy and the Montana Lyric Opera. Future guest conducting engagements include performances with the Charleston Symphony, the Rogue Valley Symphony and a return engagement with the Xiamen Philhannonic. Previously, Butorac served as the Director of Orchesrras at Northern Arizona University. During his tenure the orchestra program expanded significantly - the concert season grew to eight concerts plus two fully staged operas. He also helped estahlish a visiting guest artist residency and presented numerous concerts that featured enhanced use of multi-media.

In March 2005, be was invited to participate in the American Symphony Orchestra League National Conducting Preview with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. The preview showcased eight young conductors from across the world "carefully chosen for their talent, accomplishments, and qualifications who are ready to assume important professional conducting responsibilities with American orchestras."

Butorac studied at the renowned American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival in 2003 and 2004, and was named the Assistant Conductor of the Aspen Opera Theater Center during his second summer, assisting noted opera conductors Arnold Oestman and Julius Rudel.

Darko Butorac received his Master of Music degree from lndiana University, where be conducted over thirty concerts with the school's five major ensembles. He has also worked extensively at the Brevard Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and the University ofToronto, his alma mater. His principal mentors are David Effron, Jorma Panula and David Zinman.

Peter Rubardt

Peter Rubardt's website

Now in his thirteenth season as Music Director of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Peter Rubardt continues to inspire artistic excellence and to create innovative programs for the Pensacola community. During his tenure with the PSO, Peter Rubardt is credited with significantly raising the orchestra's artistic level, and with serving the Pensacola community by initiating pops, chamber orchestra, and family concerts. Rubardt's current season includes guest conducting engagements with the Orchestre de Chamhre de la Gironde in France and the Sioux City Symphony in Iowa, as well as a return to Japan's Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra, where he previously performed for the Imperial Highness Princess Hitachi of Japan.

Prior to his appointment in Pensacola, Peter Rubardt served four seasons as the Associate Conductor of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, which followed three seasons as Resident Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He conducted numerous subscription and Pops performances, educational programs and regional tours with both orchestras, and led the New Jersey in a highly praised evening of operatic favorites at Ireland's Adare Festival. He has also conducted the Utah Symphony, Louisiana, Rochester, and Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestras, The Louisville Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symppony Orcbestra, The Ricbmond Symphony, Japan's Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Century Orchestra Osaka, Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra and Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra and Nova Filarmonia Portuguese, with which he toured Portugal several times, as well as the orchestras of Acadiana, Anchorage, Annapolis, Bangor, Lubbock, Peoria, Portland, Quad Cities, South Dakota, Southwest Florida, Spokane, and Youngstown. He has also conducted The Nutcracker for Kaleidoscope & Ballet Pensacola and Northwest Florida Ballet. From 1991-1996, be served as Music Director of the Rutgers Symphony; during the 2002-2003 season, he was Principal Guest Conductor of Pensacola Opera.

A native of Berkeley, California, Peter Rubardt holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting from The Juilliard School, where he was the recipient of the Bruno Walter fellowship. A Fulbright scholar in 1984, he studied piano and conducting at the Vienna Academy of Music, and pursued further studies at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. He has participated in the masterclasses of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn and Herbert Blomstedt, and his major teachers have included Otto-Werner Mueller, Sixten Ehrling, Michael Senturia and David Lawton. He is listed in Who's Who in America In 2005 he was selected by the American Symphony Orchestra League to perform in the National Conductor Preview with the Jacksonville Symphony.

Peter Rubardt has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School and the State University of New York at Purchase. He has received awards and degrees in music from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Rubardt has recorded for Pantheon Records International.

His wife is harpsichordist Hedi Salanki, who teaches piano and harpsichord performance at the University of West Florida. They have two children.

Kyle Wiley Pickett

Kyle Pickett is recognized as one of America's most exciting and charismatic young conductors as well as an acclaimed orchestra builder.

Following his doctoral studies at the Peabody Conservatory with the renowned conducting teacher Frederik Prausnitz, Kyle Pickett was appointed Music Director by both the Redding and Chico symphony orchestras in Northern California. Within a year of these appointments, he spearheaded the merger of the two ensembles into the North State Symphony, creating a single professional orchestra that bridges two communities and ensures the future of symphonic music in Northern California. Now in its ninth season, this orchestra plays a full season of concerts in three cities, sells out nearly every performance and ends each season with a balanced budget.

Kyle Pickett's talents, energy and impressive results also extend to his work with another orchestra, Alaska's Juneau Symphony. In seven seasons as Music Director, he has increased the complement of the orchestra, raised the artistic standard, doubled the audience, tripled the budget, instituted a popular pre-concert "Conversation with the Conductor" series and established an annual summer Pops concert. He has also created a symphonic chorus, collaborated with local opera companies and instituted live radio broadcasts and webcasts of the Sunday matinee performances. Dr. Pickett's leadership in fundraising has lead to annual budget surpluses of more than 15% of the operating budgets.

A native of California, Kyle Pickett holds a Bachelor's degree in music from Stanford University and a Master's degree in choral conducting from the California State University at Chico. His Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting was conferred by the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Dr. Pickett is also an accomplished flutist, having studied with Frances Blaisdell and Roben Willoughby. He also trained in voice with Wayne Connor and Judith Bettina.