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Vlad Vizireanu

conductor

Described as a conductor with “ample gestures, clarity, precision, and genuine passion,” Vlad Vizireanu continues to make an impressive and dynamic mark on the music world as an international conductor and educator. A regular presence on the competition circuit, Vizireanu came to international attention when he won Second Prize in the 2013 Cadaqués Conducting Competition in a televised concert at Auditori Hall, Barcelona. He then made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall as a finalist in the 2016 Donatella Flick Competition. He was invited to the 2018 Malko Competition with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and was also invited among 14 conductors (out of 400 applicants worldwide) to participate in the renowned Mahler Conducting Competition with the Bamberg Symphony. 

As the recent winner of both the Only Stage and Hans von Bülow Conducting Competitions in 2021, upcoming debuts include the Orchestra di Milano La Verdi, Orpheus Academy Orchestra (Oregon Music Festival), Orchestra della Magna Grecia, Varna State Opera, Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV, Brașov Philharmonic, and Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina. Other orchestras he has conducted include the Tonhalle-Orchester, Lucerne Festival Strings, New World Symphony, and the Manhattan School of Music Symphony. He has also served as cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and Sarasota Orchestra. Recent and upcoming engagements include the Wiener Kammerorchester, Orchestre National de Lille, Romanian Radio National and Chamber Orchestras, Moldova Iași Philharmonic, Sibiu State Philharmonic, Ploiești Philharmonic, and Targu Mureș Philharmonic. He has been invited to conduct at the Gstaad Festival, Castleton Festival, and Chautauqua Music Festival. 

In fall 2013, he was invited to debut at the renowned Enescu Festival in Bucharest where he conducted a side-by-side concert with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Royal Camerata. He conducted the Royal Camerata again in the 2015 edition of the Enescu Festival with soloist Rebekka Hartmann. He has since been reinvited to the 2019 and 2021 editions with the Orchestre National de Lille and Wiener Kammerorchester. 

His primary conducting teachers were David Effron, Arthur Fagen, Timothy Russell, and William Reber. He holds degrees in conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Master of Music) and Arizona State University (Doctor of Musical Arts) and studied musicology and piano performance at the University of California Los Angeles (Bachelor of Science). Additionally, he studied with David Zinman at the 2016 Tonhalle-Orchester Masterclass, with Kurt Masur at the 2015 Manhattan School of Music Conducting Seminar, and was selected for two consecutive years as one of seven conductors from around the world to study with Bernard Haitink at the 2013 and 2014 Lucerne Easter Festivals. Vizireanu was one of the last students of Lorin Maazel under full fellowship at the 2014 Castleton Festival. He also received the prestigious 2013 Chautauqua Conducting Fellowship in New York, where he assisted Timothy Muffitt. Among his other mentors are Michael Tilson Thomas (2014, New World Symphony Masterclass), Neeme Järvi (2016, Gstaad Music Festival), Franz Welster-Möst (2010, IU Cleveland Orchestra Residency Masterclass), and the late James DePriest (2011, ASU Conducting Masterclass). 

An ardent advocate of new music, Vizireanu is the Founder and Executive Director of Impulse New Music Festival (INMF), which brings together young composers and instrumentalists to study and perform new compositions. Besides INMF’s numerous world premieres, Vizireanu has showcased new compositions with the Castleton Festival Orchestra, Cadaqués Symphony, and Hebrides New Music Ensemble. Some new works he has recently recorded include Light Show by Max Grafe, Scherzo for Orchestra by Joshua Groffman, and Evelyne Davis’s Concerto for Two Percussionists. He recently commissioned several new compositions by renowned Los Angeles composer Michael Glenn Williams and conducted the world premieres with the Arizona Pro Arte Ensemble and Sibiu Philharmonic. 

Vizireanu made his operatic debut in 2013 with Arizona State University Opera and Die Fledermaus. He served as assistant conductor to Lorin Maazel and Timothy Muffitt with productions of Dialogues des Carmélites, Madama Butterfly, and Don Giovanni. 

Vizireanu was recently appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Ploiești Philharmonic. He served as Music Director of the Knox Galesburg Symphony in Illinois and the North Shore Symphony in New York. He previously served as Assistant Conductor for the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic and Conductor for New West Symphony’s Harmony Project, which is aimed at inspiring young children to develop a lifelong love of music through education and exciting musical experiences. He also served as Artistic Director of Enescu and the Americas, an organization that fosters cultural exchange between Romania and the United States through the music of Romania’s greatest composer, George Enescu. 

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Meet the Musicians

FIRST VIOLIN
Carmelo de los Santos
Karen McKinnon Concertmaster Chair
Sarah Tasker •••
Assistant Concertmaster
Ana María Quintero Muñoz
Joan Wang +
Heidi Deifel ++
Juliana Huestis
Barbara Rivers
Nicolle Maniaci
Barbara Scalf Morris

SECOND VIOLIN
Rachel Jacklin •
Carol Swift •••
Julanie Lee
Jessica Retana ++
Liana Austin
Lidija Peno-Kelly
Sheila McLay
Brad Richards

VIOLA
Laura Chang
Kimberly Fredenburgh •••
Allegra Askew
Christine Rancier
Laura Steiner
Michael Anderson
Lisa DiCarlo
Joan Hinterbichler
Laura Campbell

CELLO
Amy Huzjak
Jonathan Flaksman •••

Carla Lehmeier-Tatum
Ian Mayne-Brody
Dana Winograd
David Schepps
Lisa Collins
Elizabeth Purvis

BASS
Mark Tatum •••
Katherine Olszowka
Terry Pruitt
Marco Retana
Frank Murry

FLUTE
Valerie Potter
Esther Fredrickson
Jiyoun Hur ••+
Noah Livingston ••++

PICCOLO
Esther Fredrickson

OBOE
Kevin Vigneau
Amanda Talley

ENGLISH HORN
Melissa Peña ••+
Rebecca Ray ••++

CLARINET
Marianne Shifrin
Lori Lovato •••
Jeffrey Brooks

E-FLAT CLARINET
Lori Lovato

BASS CLARINET
Jeffrey Brooks

BASSOON
Stefanie Przybylska •
Denise Turner

HORN
Peter Erb •+
Allison Tutton
Andrew Meyers
Maria Long ••••

TRUMPET
John Marchiando
Brynn Marchiando
Sam Oatts ••

TROMBONE
Aaron Zalkind
Byron Herrington

BASS TROMBONE
David Tall +
Robinson Schulze ++

TUBA
Richard White

TIMPANI
Micah Harrow •+

PERCUSSION
Jeff Cornelius
Kenneth Dean
Emily Corneliu

Principal •
Associate Principal ••
Assistant Principal •••
Assistant ••••
Leave +
One-year position ++
Half-year position +++