Currently in his sixteenth season as Music Director of the Helena Symphony Orchestra & Chorale, Maestro Allan R. Scott is one of the most dynamic figures in symphonic music and opera. He is widely recognized for his outstanding musicianship, versatility, and ability to elicit top-notch performances from musicians. SYMPHONY Magazine praised Maestro Scott for his “large orchestra view,” noting that “under Scott’s leadership the quality of the orchestra’s playing has skyrocketed.”
Maestro Scott has also become closely associated with the works of Gustav Mahler. He has conducted all of Mahler’s symphonies nationally and internationally with companies such as The National Orchestra of Romania and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra of New Zealand. New Zealand National Radio noted “A concert with Maestro Scott is as intoxicating as you could wish…, and has an all-too-rare feeling of risk-taking spontaneity.”
In addition to making his debut with Marble City Opera this Season, Maestro Scott has appeared with such companies as The Tanglewood Music Center, Royal Opera of Netherlands, Portland Opera, Fairfax Opera Company, Kent Opera, The Bucharest National Opera, The National Radio Orchestra of Romania in Bucharest, New Zealand’s Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Firelands Symphony in Cleveland, Pottstown Symphony (PA), Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, New Artists Philharmonic (CO), and Fairfax Symphony.
Dividing his time between residences in Helena and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia native also begins his seventeenth season as Music Director of Pennsylvania’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony in addition to serving as the Principal Conductor of the Wilmington Ballet Company in Delaware for the past decade.
Having studied piano since the age of five and his conducting studies at the age of fifteen, Maestro Scott developed his artistry under the guidance of some of the most prolific conductors of our time including Seiji Ozawa, and Charles Dutoit. He further refined his craft with Luis Biava, Zdenék Macal, Sir David Willcocks, and Jorge Mester at renowned institutions, among them the Tanglewood Music Center, California Conducting Institute, The Keene Music Festival, Ogontz Music Festival, and the Conducting Institute of South Carolina.
Artist courtesy of Athlone Artists.
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Conductor Ovidiu Marinescu, one of the outstanding musicians of his native Romania, brings to the podium great charisma, precise technique, and a powerful musical inspiration. His guest engagements include the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow, the National Radio Orchestra in Romania, “New Russia” State Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica de Gaia in Portugal, Orquesta de Extremadura in Spain (both as conductor and soloist), and the Philharmonics in Bacau, Targu-Mures, Craiova, Ploiesti, Botosani, Targoviste, and Brasov (Romania). In the United States, he has appeared as guest conductor with the Helena, Newark, and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestras. Her regularly conducts the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia. Other engagements include Montana All-State Festival Orchestra and the Vidin Sinfonietta (Bulgaria).
Marinescu was the Director of the West Chester University Symphony, which under his leadership made a sold-out debut at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, toured Europe and was invited to participate in the prestigious Catania International Festival in Sicily, Italy. He served as the conductor for the Wilmington Orchestra, Music Director of the Immaculata Symphony and Manalapan Orchestra in New Jersey, and conductor of the Goppisberg Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. Marinescu has conducted the world premiere of the ballet Helen Keller by The Rebecca David Ballet Company in Philadelphia. Ovidiu Marinescu is a frequent guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra Society.
Marinescu has several recordings as a conductor with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra music by Tchaikovsky, Samuel Barber, Michael Cunningham, Rain Worthington, Stephen Limbaugh III, David Laganella, and Andrea Clearfield. A recent recording for International Musicians Network with the “New Russia” State Symphony saw a collaboration with trombone soloist Haim Avitsur in concerti by Maurice Wright, David Loeb, Carson Cooman, Diane Jones, and David Brown. A Parma Recordings artist, Marinescu has recorded “La Leyenda del Kakui” by Osias Wilenski conducting the Tapestry East Ensemble and Symphony no. 3 “Shaker Hymns” by Alan Beeler with the Targu-Mures State Orchestra and Choir (Romania). Marinescu is a frequent guest conductor for student festivals, including PMEA Districts 10, 11 and 12, Central Region and Region VI in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Montana All-State Orchestras, Double AA Regional Orchestra in Montana, All-Catholic Schools Festival in Philadelphia, among others.
Equally outstanding as a cellist, Marinescu was chosen to play at Carnegie Hall for Romanian President Constantinescu on an official visit to the United States. Soon after, he made his debut with the New York Chamber Symphony in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, followed by recitals in Merkin Hall (New York), Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. This year he recorded 8 new cello concertos with London Symphony, commissioned by Parma Recordings. In collaboration with Parma, Marinescu is a frequent performer at Weill Hall in New York, with two upcoming engagements in 2023. After his debut with the National Radio Orchestra of Romania in the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto, which was broadcast live across Romania, he returned several times to perform works by Mozart and Iorgulescu, followed by an appearance soloist and conductor with the Radio Chamber Orchestra in works by Boccherini, Beethoven, and Glinka. Other notable performances include Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the Slobodkin Center, Elgar Concerto with Helena, Newark, and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphonies, Shostakovich and Lalo with the Cleveland Philharmonic, and Mozart Concerto with Orquesta de Extremadura in Spain. Recent guest appearances include Limeira Orchestra in Brazil, Great Falls Symphony (Montana), Portsmouth Symphony, Independence Sinfonia (Philadelphia), as well as Craiova and Botosani Philharmonics in Romania. His critically acclaimed first recording “Fiesta Latina” was followed by a recording of the complete Miaskovsky cello works with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Kenneth Boulton released by Cambria. His recording of the Bach Cello Suites, released by Navona Records, has received international critical acclaim. The recording of the Arthur Gottschalk Sonata for Cello and Piano has received the Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards for 2014 and the recording of “The Sea Knows” by Michael Kurek made its debut as no. 1 on the Classical Billboard list in July 2017. Upcoming projects include the recording for 8 new cello concerti with London Symphony.
Marinescu has performed at festivals in Luzerne, Bayreuth, Chautauqua, Portsmouth, South Bohemia, Orlando and Brasov, the New Hampshire Music Festival, and Magie Barocche in Italy. Active as a chamber musician, between 1995 and 2002 Marinescu was a member of Adirondack Ensemble, a year-around resident group in New York State that performed over 200 concerts, presented school programs and founded Adirondack Music Camp. Currently he is a member of Trio Casals.
A product of the illustrious Romanian National Academy of Music, he won first prize and Music Critics’ Award in the George Dima Cello Competition. In the United States, he studied with Wolfgang Laufer at the University of Wisconsin, and with Orlando Cole, at Temple University. Marinescu has been honored in Romania with invitations to perform with many renowned orchestras including the orchestras of Cluj, Iasi and Brasov. In addition, he has toured with Bucharest Symphony. Mr. Marinescu premiered with Newark Symphony a new work for cello and orchestra, “Anecdote,” by Hilary Tann, and he presented the first performance of “Ostinato” by Liviu Marinescu with “Orchestra 2001” in Philadelphia. In January 2015 Helena Symphony presented Marinescu in the world premiere of a new concerto by Kyle Smith, followed by the world premiere of “The Sea Knows” by Michael Kurek in Brazil, later recorded with the Vanderbilt Orchestra. “Penn Presents” featured Marinescu in a multi-media program at the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, in works for solo cello, film and electronics by four local teams of composers and filmmakers. An ASCAP member, Marinescu has composed several works for solo cello, chamber music, and has many arrangements from small ensembles to full orchestra. He is Professor of Cello at West Chester University.