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Conductor Eric Townell is widely recognized as a versatile and
dynamic musician. He is Music Director of the Rochester Oratorio
Society as well as Master Singers of Milwaukee. He is a frequent
guest conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Eric
continues to expand the musical activities of both choruses. This
summer the Rochester Oratorio Society will be making a visit to China
for a series of concerts. He has begun the Windy Hill Choral
Institute in Wisconsin.
Eric has appeared to critical acclaim as guest conductor of the
Silesian State Opera Orchestra in the Czech Republic and the Milwaukee,
Lincoln, Madison, Adrian, Fox Valley, Waukesha and Hershey Symphony
Orchestras and the Prince George's Philharmonic in the US.
He substituted on short notice to conduct the Hellas Soloists of
Patras, Greece in two of their Italian concerts during the orchestra’s
European tour.
Two-time winner of the International Opera Conducting
Course/Competition, he made his European debut conducting Eugene Onegin
at the Silesian State Opera of the Czech Republic and subsequently
returned to lead Die Zauberflöte with that company. He
conducted an acclaimed production of Rigoletto with L’Opera Piccola of
Chicago in 2002, and served as Artistic Director for Milwaukee Opera
Theatre productions of Hansel & Gretel and Norma in
2001-2002. Eric was assistant conductor for the Madison Opera’s
world-premiere performance of Daron Hagen’s Frank Lloyd Wright opera,
Shining Brow. He has led performances for the national touring
company of Amahl and the Night Visitors and concerts of opera scenes
and arias with the Beethoven Chamber Orchestra of the Czech Republic.
From 1993 until 2005 he held the position of Music Director of the
Festival Choir of Madison. Eric led the choir in its
inaugural CD, Wisconsin Sings!, selections from which were broadcast
nationwide by National Public Radio. Together, Eric and the
Festival Choir performed four live broadcast concerts from the Elvehjem
Museum of Art for Wisconsin Public Radio, annual subscription concerts
and statewide and international concert tours. They undertook an
impressive series of commissions, premiering and recording works by
Jean Belmont, Daron Hagen, Elam Ray Sprenkle and Stephen Paulus. Eric
has appeared as guest conductor for the Susquehanna Chorale and the
Elgin Choral Union. He was the founding director and music
director of the Central Wisconsin Symphony Chorus.
Eric Townell holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting
from Peabody Conservatory. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik
in Vienna, Austria, at Northern Illinois University, Indiana
University, at St. Louis Conservatory and privately with conductors
Georg Tintner, Frederik Prausnitz and Catherine Comet and with Helmuth
Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival’s conducting master class of 2002.
Eric’s orchestral and choral conducting were the subject of the 1994
Wisconsin Public Radio broadcast “Music from Wisconsin: A Wisconsin
Conductor.”
2/8/08
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