Olympia Symphony Orchestra

Our Conductor

Huw Edwards, Conductor Dear Supporters of Community Art:

I am thrilled you have found our website and that the Olympia Symphony Orchestra (OSO) has caught your attention. One of this region's oldest and most treasured organizations, the OSO is flourishing at the moment, with many recent sold out houses at the Washington Center, the addition of several new players and as we come off a very successful "Emotional Encounters" season this past year. Our last concert in April was amazing, one which broached new heights and I am very much looking forward to our new season, "Come, Explore with Us..."

I and the Orchestra plan on continuing our success, growth and rewarding music making during the 2008-9 concert season. Our musical explorations include performing a great symphony on each concert by some of the most lauded masters who ever lived: Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Sibelius, Mendelssohn and Dvorak--we end our season with his popular "Symphony from the New World". Landmark symphonic works by Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Sousa and Rimsky-Korsakov will also be investigated, as well as a recent work by a young Northwest composer, Amber Gudaitis.

The OSO will present an attractive variety of soloists as we explore great concertos and solo works: mezzo-soprano Angela Niederloh of Portland will sing the ravishing "Songs of a Wayfarer" by Mahler; University of Washington Doctoral Student, Tonya Siderius, will perform Beethoven's poetic Piano Concerto No. 4 on an all-Beethoven program; our excellent concertmaster and principal cellist--Aaron Inglin and Holly Reeves--will be highlighted in Brahms' melodic "Double Concerto"; young keyboard sensation Angie Zhang will travel from New York's famed Juilliard School for a Mozart Piano Concerto; and our former principal clarinetist and Olympia HS graduate, Megan Watson, will return home from Indiana University for the jazzy Clarinet Concerto by Copland--which was written for the legendary Benny Goodman.

We kick-off our "Come, Explore with Us" season at the end of July with our second annual Concert-at-the-Capital--where we had over 4000 people at last year's inaugural concert--and we are proud to present two education concerts in October, a new and exciting expansion to our overall program this year.

I hope you will subscribe and come to our concerts; please do come and explore great symphonic music, right here in Olympia, Washington, and see how it will change your lives! I look forward to performing for you,

Huw Edwards, Conductor

Huw Edwards has completed five successful and memorable seasons as Music Director of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, having been selected after a yearlong audition process during the 2002-3 season. There has been a palpable sense of excitement in Olympia following Huw's appointment and Edwards is credited with greatly improving the Orchestra, selecting challenging yet rewarding programs and being very active in the community. Last season's highlights included performances of Dvorak's 8th Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto with Charlie Albright, Elgar's Enigma Variations, a notable collaboration with the Olympia Choral Society and an engaging evening of music inspired by Shakespeare, which included narrations with lead actors from the Harlequin Productions.

Mr. Edwards is also the Music Director of the Columbia Symphony in Portland, Oregon--a post he has held since 2000--and has consistently received critical acclaim from audiences, guest soloists and the press for his intense performances and daring programming. Recent highlights have included performances of Elgar's First Symphony, Richard Strauss' tone poem Death & Transfiguration, the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Jun Iwasaki, as well as world premiere performances of commissioned works by several Pacific Northwest composers.

From 2002-5 Mr. Edwards was Music Director of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras and was a faculty member at the Marrowstone Music Festival from 1998 to 2005. Mr. Edwards moved to Seattle after seven memorable seasons (1995-2002) as Music Director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) in Oregon, which included numerous innovations and landmark tours to Canada, as well as to New Zealand and Australia.

Active as a guest conductor, Mr. Edwards has performed with the Oregon Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, worked with the symphony orchestras of Dallas and Memphis, as well as with ensembles in Illinois, New York, Idaho, Vermont, Minnesota, Oregon, Nebraska, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and throughout the United Kingdom. In recent seasons Mr. Edwards has guest conducted the Montana Festival Orchestra, the All-State Orchestras of Texas, Utah, Washington and Nebraska, the Sapporo Philharmonic, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, CWU Orchestra in Ellensburg, and has served as cover conductor for the Seattle Symphony. This past spring Huw was invited back to the PYP to conduct for three months, which included concerts in Portland, Newberg, Forest Grove and at the majestic St. Mary's Cathedral (Bruckner Symphony No. 4). In July Huw was invited back to conduct the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison--for a third time--before 20,000 people at one of their famous "Concerts on the Square" and in June completed his fifth successful residency at the YMA Camp in Salem. Huw made a notable debut with the Eugene Symphony in November 2006 and deputized in Eugene, at very short notice, in a difficult program of works by Shostakovich and the American composer, Michael Daugherty. Huw was the conductor at the inaugural Annas Bay Music Festival in August 2006, where he conducted two 20th-century American operas. This season has been invited to be the clinician/conductor with the New York All-State Orchestra, as well as conduct the Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra.

Born in Wales, Great Britain, Mr. Edwards holds degrees from the University of Surrey in England and Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Mr. Edwards came to the Northwest from Chicago, Illinois, where he was a lecturer at Northwestern University and a Doctoral candidate. Mr. Edwards has been active as a conductor since the age of 17 when he was appointed Music Director of the Maidstone Opera Company in England--a post he held for six years--and came to the United States in 1988 on scholarship to attend SMU in Texas. His principal teachers have been Simon Johnson and Barry Wordsworth (London), Anshel Brusilow and Eduardo Mata (Dallas), and Victor Yampolsky (Chicago).