Conductor Training Workshop
sponsored by the Conductors Guild, Inc.
with the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF MUSIC,
Carl Topilow, Director also sponsored, in part, by: The Arthur Judson Foundation,
International Humanities, Inc., and The National Orchestra Association
PATRICIA HANDY
Hailed in the New York Times as “a first-rate conductor,” Patricia
Handy is currently Associate Conductor of the Greenwich Symphony
(Connecticut) and Conductor Laureate of the Goliard Chorale and Chamber
Orchestra in New York. Her guest conducting engagements include the
Syracuse Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Utah Symphony, Pacific Symphony,
Louisiana Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, Colorado Springs Symphony,
Eugene Symphony, Symphony II (Chicago) and the Kiel Philharmonic
(Germany), as well as the Utah Oratorio Society, Pro Arte Chorale (New
Jersey) and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society. She has also guest
conducted the Summer Youth Ensemble at Kennedy Center, the Maryland
All-State Orchestra and the California State University Orchestra at
Northridge.
Shortly
before completion of her studies at The Juilliard School, Patricia
Handy was invited by the Greenwich Symphony to serve as the orchestra's
Associate Conductor. In addition to her regular duties, she creates and
conducts the orchestra's educational concert series, praised by
Symphony Magazine as one of the best in the country. In New York, Ms.
Handy's twelve-year tenure as Artistic Director of the Goliard Chorale
and Chamber Orchestra was marked by a commitment to 20th-century
repertoire and consistently high critical acclaim.
A member
of the National Music Honor Society, Patricia Handy has been the
recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Lila Acheson
Wallace Fellowship at The Juilliard School and a Boston Symphony
Orchestra Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she worked
with Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein. From 1974-76, she was an
apprentice conductor with the National Orchestral Association in New
York under the famous pedagogue and conductor, Leon Barzin. Ms. Handy
has been a member of the choral faculty of The Juilliard School, as
well as conductor of the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony and chorus
master of the Juilliard Opera Center.
CARL TOPILOW
Carl Topilow is conductor for three organizations, the Cleveland Pops
Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the National Repertory
Orchestra.
Topilow is founding conductor of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra,
currently in its 9th season. Now playing to large audiences in newly
renovated Severance Hall, the orchestra's diverse, innovative and
electrifying programs have been critically acclaimed. The orchestra's
CD, entitled Music to Grow On, is an exciting collection of music for
children and adults of all ages. In addition to conducting, Topilow
often performs as clarinetist with the orchestra, usually finding
occasion to include a number on his patented red clarinet.
Topilow
is also Conductor and Director of the Orchestral Programs at the
Cleveland Institute of Music. Currently in his 23rd year as conductor
of the CIM Orchestras, he is also head of the Masters program in
orchestral conducting, and conducts for the Institute's opera
productions.
Topilow celebrated his 26th anniversary this past
summer as Music Director and Conductor of the National Repertory
Orchestra, a summer music festival based in beautiful Breckenridge,
Colorado. He has assisted in the training of talented young musicians
for positions in symphonic orchestras in the United States and abroad.
He
is also Principal Pops Conductor for the Southwest Florida Symphony
Orchestra (Fort Myers). As guest conductor, Topilow has appeared around
the world with orchestras in China, England, France, Germany, Italy,
Korea, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela. Concerts this season
include performances with the orchestras in Abilene (TX), Little Rock
(AR), Richmond (VA), and Youngstown (OH). A Yamaha Concert Performing
Artist, Topilow is represented by Stanton Management.
JACQUES VOOIS
Jacques Voois's musical training included piano study with Joseph
Hungate, Robert Goldsand, Menachem Pressler, Leon Fleisher, Konrad
Wolff, and Lillian Freundlich, and conducting study with Hugh Ross, Leo
Mueller, Richard Lert, William Smith, and Leon Barzin, founder of the
National Orchestral Association in New York City. As a Fulbright and
French Government Scholar, he studied with Nadia Boulanger and Robert
Casadesus in Paris. He holds degrees from Oberlin College/Conservatory,
the Manhattan School of Music, and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns
Hopkins University.
Voois
served as conductor of the West Chester University Orchestra from 1969
to 1987. Under his direction the orchestra performed at three PMEA
Conferences, the 1977 MENC Eastern Regional Convention in Washington,
DC. and in numerous off-campus appearances in Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and Maryland. In 1975 the orchestra presented the world premiere of the
original version of Max Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra,
Op. 88a, in a three-university tour. From 1980 to 1990 Voois served as
Music Director of the Lansdowne Symphony, Delaware County's oldest
community orchestra, and conducted concerts throughout the Philadelphia
suburbs as well as at the United Nations. His has appeared as guest
conductor throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, the most recent as guest
conductor of the Immaculata University Symphony (November, 2002).
In
1974 he was one of a half-dozen American conductors who founded the
Conductors Guild, a service organization for conductors of all musical
ensembles. He served as the organization's first secretary, and in 1980
founded and served as editor of the Journal of the Conductors Guild
until 2001. At the Annual Conference for Conductors held in New York
City in January 2000, Voois was presented the Conductors Guild's first
Distinguished Service Award in recognition of 25 years of uninterrupted
service to the organization.
Since the inception of the
Performing Arts Medicine field, Dr. Voois has written and lectured
extensively on the subject, including: lectures at the University of
Delaware for the College Music Society's Northeast Chapter Meeting
(March 2000), at Elizabethtown (PA) College (October, 2000) and Temple
University (November, 2003) for the annual Pennsylvania Music Teachers
Association annual conference, and at The Curtis Institute of Music in
Philadelphia, PA (September 2003). During a recent sabbatical, Voois
researched and developed a graduate course titled "Music and the Body"
which had its initial offering at West Chester University in the fall
semester of 2000.
