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Lake Placid Sinfonietta announces candidates for next music director

LAKE PLACID _ The Lake Placid Sinfonietta has announced plans for the summer of 2019, which will be a season dedicated to selecting a new music director.

During the 2017 Centennial season, Music Director Emeritus Ron Spigelman decided not to renew his contract past the 2018 season.

This allowed the board of directors the time to plan a multi- year search for a replacement, which began with a nationwide posting of the position.

After more than 100 applications were received, a search committee of board members, musicians, staff and supporters was formed to narrow the field to the three best candidates who would appear in audition during the summer of 2019. It is expected that one of these three will be selected as the next music director for the 2020 summer season.

The Lake Placid Sinfonietta can now announce that the three finalists who will appear in audition during the summer of 2019 for the position of Lake Placid Sinfonietta music director are Kynan Johns (July 3 through 14), Stuart Malina (July 15 through 28) and Peter Rubardt (July 29 through Aug. 11).

During this process, former Lake Placid Sinfonietta conductor David Gilbert was engaged to return to his affiliation with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta as interim artistic advisor to coordinate programming with the auditioning conductors.

July 3-14

Kynan Johns, a protege of Maestro Lorin Maazel, served as director assistente at the Palau de les Arts, Valencia, Spain to both Maazel and Mehta. A native of Australia he has conducted the Israel Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonica della Scala, Netherlands Radio Symphony and Sydney and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras among many others. He has worked in Opera at Covent Garden, conducted at Italy’s famed “La Scala,” Maazel’s “1984” and “Don Giovanni,” “Madame Butterfly,” Luisa Miller and Don Carlos in “Valencia;” Don Giovanni with “OperMagdeburg,” Britten’s Turn of the Screw in Rouen, and “La Boheme” and “Faust” for the State Opera of South Australia.

Johns was on the conducting staff for the final three seasons with New York City Opera, working on Ades’s “Powder Her Face,” Chin’s “Alice in Wonderland” (arr. Johns) Offenbach’s “La Perichole” and Turnage’s “Anna Nicole.”

His most recent engagements include Der Zigeunerbaron for Manhattan School of Music, (where he had conducted “Mahagonny” and “Die Fledermaus” in previous seasons), debuts with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Orquestra Metropolitana Lisboa, Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon Le-Ziyyon, New West Symphony, as well as returns to the Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia, Madrid and the Asturias Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded the inaugural ‘Centenary Medal’ from the Australian Government for his services to music and currently serves as Director of Orchestras at Rutgers University. Mr. Johns has won prizes in the Mitropoulos, Maazel/ Vilar and Besancon competitions and he is represented by CAMI, New York. Upcoming engagements include Verdi’s Requiem, Opera Gala at Teatro Real, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia, Madrid and a return to the New West Symphony and the Adelaide Intervarsity Festival in 2019.

July 15 to 28

Stuart Malina is now in his 19th season as music Director and conductor of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, where he has built a reputation for orchestra building and multi-faceted versatility.

From masterworks and grand opera to pops, Maestro Malina’s ease on the podium, engaging personality, and insightful interpretations have thrilled audiences and helped to break down the barriers between performer and listener wherever he has worked. Maestro Malina was previously music director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (1996-2003), and associate conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (1993-97). Maestro Malina also serves as principal guest conductor of The Florida Orchestra in the Tampa Bay area, where he conducts several concerts each season, including the popular Coffee Series. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in February of 2007, conducting the New York Pops in an all-Gershwin tribute including Rhapsody in Blue, which he conducted from the keyboard. He has performed as a guest conductor with many orchestras in the US and internationally. In 2016, Stuart conducted two concert tours of Russia, sponsored by the United States Embassy in Russia. Stuart Malina also performs frequently as a pianist, both as a soloist and in chamber music performances. In June 2003, he won a Tony award for orchestration with Billy Joel for the musical “Movin’ Out,” which Malina helped create with director/choreographer Twyla Tharp. Maestro Malina holds degrees from Harvard University, the Yale School of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller.

The Maestro lives in Harrisburg with his wife, Marty, and their two teenage children, Sara and Zev.

July 29 to Aug. 11

Peter Rubardt has earned wide acclaim for powerful and insightful performances that inspire passionate responses to symphonic music. Now in his 22nd year as Music Director of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Rubardt is also Music Director of the Meridian and Gulf Coast Symphonies. Recently, he debuted with the Alabama Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, and the Augusta Symphony as a guest conductor. Prior to his appointment in Pensacola, Peter Rubardt served as associate conductor of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and as resident conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, conducting numerous classical and pops performances, regional tours, and educational programs with both orchestras.

He has also conducted the Utah Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Louisiana, Rochester, and Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestras, The Louisville Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, The Richmond Symphony, Japan’s Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Century Orchestra Osaka, Yamagata Symphony, and the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra (where he performed for the Imperial Highness Princess Hitachi of Japan) among many others. A native of Berkeley, California, Peter Rubardt holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School, where he was the recipient of the Bruno Walter fellowship. A Fulbright scholar, he studied piano and conducting at the Vienna Hochschule fur Musik, and pursued further studies at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. Rubardt has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Rutgers University, and the State University of New York at Purchase.

He resides in Pensacola with his wife Hedi Salanki, a distinguished university professor in the music department of the University of West Florida, and their two children.

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