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Harwood-Management

Brian Salesky
Conductor
 




Brian Salesky, General Director and Conductor of Knoxville Opera, has enjoyed a highly versatile, international career as a conductor of symphonic and chamber music, opera and operetta, ballet and modern dance, Broadway musicals and popular music.  During his three decades working in the performing arts, Mr. Salesky has also engaged in a wide variety of work as a producer/manager of opera, concerts, television, radio and videos, and has distinguished himself as a pianist, music arranger, fund-raiser, educator, lecturer, author and consultant.
   
In March of 2008, Maestro Salesky will conduct Cavalleria Rusticana an I Pagliacci at Treasure Coast Opera in Florida.
                   
Following his 1986 concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Executive Director Henry Fogel nominated Brian Salesky for the National Endowment for the Arts Conducting Award - the most prestigious prize of its kind in the United States.  Fogel lauded him as "an excellent conductor and musician with solid musical ideas communicated well in rehearsal and performance...a fabulous musical and cultural mind...strong in a wide range of repertoire who treats musicians very well...a pleasure to work with in all ways."  A year earlier Mr. Salesky had made his European debut at Barcelona's Gran Teatro del Liceo (L'Elisir d'amore with Alfredo Kraus and Bernd Weikl).  Mr. Salesky was then immediately invited to conduct the Orquesta Sinfónica Radio/TV Española in Madrid and Granada concerts which starred Mr. Kraus and Renata Scotto.  Outside of the United States he has since returned to Barcelona (Madama Butterfly with Catherine Malfitano) and has appeared with Opera Australia (Adriana Lecouvreur, Sweeney Todd), the Spoleto Festival (Falstaff), the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Canada) and the National Symphony of Peru.

Mr. Salesky, also Executive and Artistic Director of Holiday Concert Productions, has appeared extensively throughout the United States including engagements with the symphony orchestras of Denver, San Diego, Syracuse, the Kennedy Center, Chicago's Grant Park, Napa (with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet), South Bend, Greensboro and Utica, the chamber orchestras of L.A., Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Woodstock, and the opera companies of Chicago (Simon Boccanegra), Cincinnati (Voix Humaine/7 Deadly Sins/Medusa[stage premier] with Ms. Malfitano), Washington National (Der Schauspieldirektor, Abu Hassan, Christopher Columbus), Atlanta (Black Widow), Dayton (Tosca), Central City (Così fan tutte, Lucia), Knoxville (Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Malfitano Gala) and Montana (Butterfly, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Lucia, L'Elisir).  In his native New York City, Mr. Salesky has served as Music Director for the Congress of Strings, Musique à la Mode Chamber Orchestra (including Ida Kavafian's first Four
Seasons), the Jamaica Symphony Orchestra, the Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha (Raul Julia) and as Resident Conductor for George Abbott’s Tony Award production of On Your Toes (Galina Panova and Kitty Carlisle).

Mr. Salesky first won critical plaudits during his six-year tenure as a resident conductor and administrator with the New York City Opera where he was a three-time recipient of the Julius Rudel Award.  With the company in New York City and on tour in Los Angeles, Washington and Mexico, his repertoire included Andrea Chénier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Attila, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Bohème, Cavalleria Rusticana, Les Contes d'Hoffman, Don Giovanni, Falstaff, La Fille du Régiment, Die Fledermaus, Die lustige Witwe, Manon, Mefistofele, Naughty Marietta, Le Nozze di Figaro, Pagliacci, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, I Puritani, Rigoletto, The Student Prince, Tosca, La Traviata, Il Turco in Italia and the world premiere productions of Bernstein's operatic Candide and the Silverman/Foreman Madame Adare.  During this period he made his U.S. television debut conducting the "Live From Lincoln Center" telecast of La Cenerentola and was the Director of the N.Y.C. Opera National Company conducting Carmen and La Traviata in 45 cities.

Away from the podium, Mr. Salesky's eclectic range of activities have included various education positions with Indiana University, Hunter College and the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, serving as Artistic Adviser to the symphony orchestras of Denver and Utica, Walt Disney Studios (Fantasia 2000), the American Guild of Musical Artists, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation and the N.Y.C. Performing Arts Education Advisory Commission. He has produced videos for the American Express Co. and from 1996 to 2001 served as co-founder, Executive Producer and fund-raiser for the Raul Julia Ending Hunger Fund.  At his RJEHF galas in NYC, LA and San Juan (which raised c. $4 million) Mr. Salesky collaborated with Ruben Blades, Sonia Braga, Jeff Bridges, Justino Diaz, Kallen Esperian, Andy Garcia, Valerie Harper, William Hurt, Anjelica Huston, Catherine Malfitano, Edward James Olmos, Susan Sarandon and Jimmy Smits.
               
The Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Indiana University took graduate studies at The Juilliard School, has assisted conductors Leonard Bernstein, Daniele Gatti, Gianfranco Masini and Simone Young, and has accompanied hundreds of singers including Robert Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Joan Sutherland and Richard Tucker.


12/15/07