The internationally known conductor Stephen Gunzenhouser, music director of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, considers himself a musical tour guide of sorts. Makes sense when you look at his discography and see just how many recordings he's made with orchestras and ensembles worldwide. The Capella Istropolitana, the Slovak Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Argentina, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony of Ireland, the Polish National Radio Symphony, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Bogota Philharmonic, and the list goes on and on.
Having sold over two-million discs from the 70 or more recordings he's made for Naxos and Marco Polo, Maestro Gunzenhouser's got a lot of miles logged on his passport - musical and otherwise - so he knows just where to lead an audience to make them happy.
Gunzenhouser's been putting that ability to good use on this side of the Atlantic as well. He learned from two of the best, having worked with Igor Markevitch and Leopold Stokowski. In 1979, after a five-year stint as the executive director and music director of the Wilmington Music School, he was named music director for both the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. He stayed with Delaware for 23 years before deciding to concentrate on Lancaster. In 2004, he added duties as artistic advisor and principal conductor of the Bogota Philharmonic in Colombia.
Maestro Gunzenhouser is a graduate of New York City's High School of Music and Art, received a bachelor of music degree from Oberlin College, a master of music degree from the New England Conservatory, and a diploma from the Salzburg Mozarteum in Austria following three Fulbright scholarship grants. He was also awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters by Widener University.
Jill speaks with Stephen Gunzenhouser about his recording career, his work with Leopold Stokowski, and where he'll be leading audiences in the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra's 66th season this year. We'll also listen to excerpts from last season's LSO concerts.
More information on the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and its 2013-2014 season can be found at lancastersymphony.org. The LSO performs in the historic 1852 Fulton Opera House, named after Lancaster County's own Robert Fulton, the steam engine pioneer. The box office number is 717-397-7425. Tell 'em we sent you!
And stay tuned to WRTI to hear the LSO's concerts from last season, to be broadcast throughout this year.
Crossover airs Saturday morning at 11:30 am on WRTI, with an encore the following Friday evening at 7 pm on HD-2 and the All-Classical web stream at wrti.org.
