Programs and Events
U.S. Orchestra Conductor Performs in Astana and Almaty
Kazakh National Music Academy, Astana, October 4, 2006
On October 4, guest American conductor Emily Freeman Brown conducted a concert of American and Kazakhstani music performed by the Academy of Soloists chamber orchestra and the Symphonic Orchestra of Astana State Philharmony at the resplendant National Music Academy of Kazakhstan in Astana. The concert program included Symphony #1 by Samuel Adler; John Corigliano's Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra from the film, The Red Violin; Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; and, Chase the Girl! by Kazakhstani composer Tles Kazhgaliyev. The internationally renowned violinist Aiman Musakhodjaeva, currently the director of Astana's Academy of Soloists, performed a violin solo for the Corigliano piece. In recognition of Kazakhstan's capital city and the friendship between Kazakhstan and the United States, Brown opened the concert with flawless renditions of the national anthems. At the conclusion of the concert with the rollicking Kaz shgaliyev piece, the crowd gave Emily a five-minute thunderous ovation, punctuated with cries of "Bravo!"
On October 11, Brown conducted a concert at the Grand Organ Hall of the Conservatory in Almaty. The program there included New England Triptych by William Schuman, Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, Appachian Spring by Aaron Copeland, and Kazshgaliyev's Legends of the Steppes. The audience in Almaty was equally appreciative of the conservatory student orchestra's masterful performance.
Brown spent a week in each city rehearsing with the orchestras and teaching master classes to music students.
Brown is currently the music director and conductor of the Philharmonia and Opera Theater at Bowling Green University. She studied at London’s Royal College of Music, where she was a two-time winner of the Sir Adrian Boult Conducting Prize. She was a 1988 finalist of the internationally known Affiliate Artists Conductor’s Program. She has conducted orchestras in the United States, Europe and South America, and now Kazakhstan.
The concert was the fourth Splash! event season marking the U.S. embassy move from Almaty to Astana. View photogallery