Carnegie Mellon University
July 31, 2013

Press Release: Carnegie Mellon's School of Music Appoints Andrés Cárdenes Artistic Director of Orchestral Studies

Contacts:   
Dana Casto / Director of Marketing & Communications / School of Music / 412-268-4921 / dcasto@cmu.edu
Pam Wigley / Director, Media Relations / College of Fine Arts / 412-268-1047 / pwigley@andrew.cmu.edu

Andres CardenesPITTSBURGH—Andrés Cárdenes was recently appointed artistic director of Orchestral Studies at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Music. Cárdenes, the Dorothy Richard Starling & Alexander Speyer Jr. University Professor of Violin at CMU, is a former concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

In his new role, Cárdenes will oversee the transformation of the orchestra program into a new visionary educational model for the 21st century and conduct two concerts during the 2013-2014 season — Sept. 15, 2013, and April 23, 2014. Invited guests, all nationally and internationally renowned conductors, will conduct the remaining concerts.

Recognized as a musical artist of the first rank, the Grammy-nominated Cárdenes has combined his many talents into one of classical music's most versatile careers. An intensely passionate and charismatic artist, the Cuban-born Cárdenes has garnered international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his compelling performances as a violinist, conductor, violist, chamber musician, concertmaster and recording artist. Since capturing second prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, Cárdenes has appeared as a soloist on four continents with more than 150 orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, Sinfonica Nacional de Caracas, Sinfonica de Barcelona and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra.

He has collaborated with many of today's greatest conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Jaap van Zweden, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck. Cárdenes was appointed concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra by Maestro Lorin Maazel in 1989 and departed after the 2010 season to concentrate on his conducting, solo and chamber music careers.

"With Andrés' leadership, we can provide our students with the opportunity to work with conducting artists of the first order," said Denis Colwell, head of the School of Music. "Bringing the skills that Andrés has to our orchestra is an enormous opportunity for our students, and when combined with first-class guest conductors, our orchestra experience is innovative and, perhaps, unique among universities and conservatories. I am very excited about the future of our orchestra."

Guest Conductors for 2013-2014

Internationally acclaimed conductor and violinist Joseph Silverstein will lead the CMU Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra on Oct. 13 in Beethoven's "Leonore Overture No. 3," Stravinsky's "Pulcinella Suite" and Prokofiev's "Symphony No. 1 in D Major." Silverstein also will perform Mozart's "Concerto No. 4 in D Major." During the 1980s, Silverstein was music director of the Utah Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Chautauqua Symphony and served as principal guest conductor of Seattle's Northwest Chamber Orchestra. As a conductor and soloist, he has appeared with hundreds of orchestras in the United States, as well as the Far East, Israel and Europe.

Maria Sensi Sellner, interim director of Choirs at Carnegie Mellon, will conduct the Annual Holiday Concert on Dec. 5 at Carnegie Music Hall and on Dec. 6 in the Great Hall of the College of Fine Arts building on campus. Sellner will lead the CMU Philharmonic and Choirs in excerpts from Respighi's "Fontana di Roma," Bach's "Dona Nobis Pacem" from "Mass in B Minor," Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms," Vivaldi's "Winter" from "Four Seasons" and other well known holiday classics. Sellner is an accomplished conductor who recently made her Boston debut conducting "Orpheus in the Underworld" with the Boston Opera Collaborative. She is the director of the Akron Symphony Chorus, assistant conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and was music director of the All University Orchestras at Carnegie Mellon for 10 years.

Ian Hobson will lead the CMU Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra on Jan. 26, 2014. Hobson will perform Mozart's "Concerto in A Major, K 488," in addition to conducting Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin" and Beethoven's "Symphony No. 1 in C Major." Hobson is a versatile musician who has earned a tremendous reputation as a pianist, conductor and educator. During the last several years he has performed at Alice Tully Hall and at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival.

Gerard Schwarz will lead the CMU Philharmonic and Choirs on Feb. 20, 2014. The evening will consist of Brahms' "Schicklaslied" and Ginastera's "Harp Concerto, Op. 25" featuring concerto competition winner Natalie Severson and Holst's "The Planets." One of the leading American conductors of his generation and a champion of American composers, Schwarz was music director of the Seattle Symphony for 26 years.

The final guest conductor of the 2013-2014 season is Guy Bordo, one of three conductors for the CMU Philharmonic concert on March 5, 2014, featuring the work of student composers. Bordo is the director of Orchestras at the University of Akron School of Music. Along with violinists Alan Bodman and Amy Barlowe, Bordo founded Akron Baroque, a professional ensemble including members of the Akron and Canton symphony orchestras.

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Andrés Cárdenes (pictured above), the Dorothy Richard Starling & Alexander Speyer Jr. University Professor of Violin at CMU, is a former concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In his new role, Cárdenes will oversee the transformation of the orchestra program into a new visionary educational model for the 21st century and conduct two concerts during the 2013-2014 season.