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JoAnn Falletta Conductor Full Length Biography Few artists are as important to the fabric of their communities as JoAnn Falletta. Acclaimed by The New York Times as “one of the finest conductors of her generation”, she serves as the Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. An effervescent and exuberant figure on the podium, she has been praised by The Washington Post as having “Toscanini’s tight control over ensemble, Walter’s affectionate balancing of inner voices, Stokowski’s gutsy showmanship, and a controlled frenzy worthy of Bernstein.” Both on and off the podium, she is a vibrant ambassador for music and an inspiring artistic leader.
Ms. Falletta has been invited to guest conduct many of the world’s finest symphony orchestras. Highlights of her recent and upcoming guest conducting appearances include the Seoul Philharmonic, the Orchestra National de Belgique, the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, Ensemble Kanazawa (Japan), the Orchestra of Asturias (Spain), the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestre National De Lyon, the Northwest German Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Lisbon Metropolitan Symphony, and the orchestras of Dallas, Toronto, New Jersey, Seattle, Honolulu, Utah, Colorado Louisville and San Antonio. She has guest conducted over 100 orchestras in North America, including the orchestras of Philadelphia, Montreal, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Houston, Rochester, Edmonton and Quebec, and the National Symphony. Abroad she has appeared with the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Nurnberg Philharmonic, Orchestre de Bretagne, Orquestra Filarmonica de la UNAM, Mexico City Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Mexico, China’s National Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Michoacan, and the orchestras of Dortmund, Capetown, Bilbao, Singapore, Tokyo Metropolitan, Wuppertal, Mexico City and Shanghai, and the Mannheim Orchestra. Ms. Falletta’s summer activities have taken her to numerous music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Hollywood Bowl, Grand Teton, Wolf Trap, Eastern Music, Cabrillo, OK Mozart International, Lanaudiere, Peter Britt, Breckenridge, Brevard and Interlochen, among others.
Both on and off the podium, Falletta is a dedicated advocate for her orchestras. She was named Buffalo’s most influential community leader, and Buffalo and Erie County’s Artist of the Year. During her tenure, the popular summer Artpark series has been reestablished, attendance and outreach activities have increased, and the BPO has regained its national prominence through recordings and broadcasts. The JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition has brought international acclaim and attention to the classical guitar, the Buffalo region and the BPO. Falletta is a member of the Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame, and received the Human Relations Award from the Buffalo/Niagra Chapter of the American Jewish Committee. In Virginia, she earned a star on Norfolk’s Legends of Music Walk of Fame in recognition of her effect on the appreciation of classical music in Hampton Roads and Virginia.
Earlier discs of note include Burchfield Gallery, with music by Morton Gould and Jean Sibelius (BPO), Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, a recording of the Orchestra’s June 2004 performance in New York City with music of Kodaly, Smetana and Zemlinsky, The American Cello, with the Virginia Symphony (Albany), Behzad Ranjbaran—Persian Trilogy, with the London Symphony (Delos), The Music of Frederick Converse (Naxos American Classics), Pictures at a Gallery by the Buffalo Philharmonic (Beau Fleuve), John Powell’s Virginia Symphony, with the Virginia Symphony (Albany), The American Clarinet, with the Czech National Symphony (Albany), Schubert’s Guitar (Koch), featuring Ms. Falletta as guitarist and arranger, Impressions of French Music and Rhapsodie with the Buffalo Philharmonic, and Peter and the Wolf and the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, with the Virginia Symphony and celebrities from National Public Radio, released under the NPR label.
Ms. Falletta’s radio and television credits include numerous appearances on NPR’s Performance Today, Fresh Air, and From the Top, WQXR, WNCN, CBS Sunday Morning, the Charlie Rose Show, the MacNeil Lehrer News Hour, BBC Radio, and several nationally televised performances on PBS, including Live from Lincoln Center—Juilliard at 80, Seasons of Life with Mark O’Connor and the BPO, and a special PBS TV documentary about music with Penn & Teller. As a writer, Ms. Falletta has contributed articles to Symphony Magazine, the New York Concert Review, the Virginian Pilot, Portfolio Magazine and Traffic East Magazine. Ms. Falletta’s first poetry book, Love Letters to Music, was published in the fall of 2004. In addition to her current posts with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony, Ms. Falletta has held the positions of artistic advisor to the Honolulu Symphony, music director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, associate conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and music director of the Denver Chamber Orchestra, the Queens Philharmonic and the Women’s Philharmonic. Ms. Falletta received her undergraduate degree from the Mannes School of Music in New York, and her master’s and doctorate degrees from The Juilliard School. JoAnn Falletta Conductor Condensed Biography Few artists are as important to the fabric of their communities as JoAnn Falletta. Acclaimed by The New York Times as “one of the finest conductors of her generation”, she serves as the Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Falletta is the recipient of many of the most prestigious conducting awards, including the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award for exceptionally gifted American conductors, the coveted Stokowski Competition, and the Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter Awards for conducting, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League’s prestigious John S. Edwards Award. She is an ardent champion of music of our time, introducing over 400 works by American composers, including more than 80 world premieres. Hailing her as a “leading force for the music of our time”, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored JoAnn Falletta with her 10th ASCAP award in 2008. Maestro Falletta will celebrate her 10th season with the Buffalo Philharmonic in 2008-09. The season will be highlighted by the release of four new discs on the Naxos label and the recording of two additional Naxos CDs, bringing the total number of Naxos discs by the BPO to ten under her leadership. Recordings to be released include a world premiere of John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man, based on the poems of Bob Dylan, and discs of the music of Schubert and Richard Strauss. Falletta, who has established a reputation for conducting artistically important, but seldom-heard works, is embarking on a multi-year recording project of the lost works of Marcel Tyberg, the brilliant Austrian composer and Holocaust victim. The first release in this series will be Tyberg’s Symphony No. 3. Works to be recorded this season include discs of the music of Dohnanyi and John Corigliano’s Red Violin, featuring violinist Michael Ludwig. In addition, both the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony will release Holiday CDs. Continuing to raise the BPO’s national and international prominence, Ms. Falletta will once again lead the orchestra in a number of concerts to be broadcast nationally on NPR’s Performance Today and SymphonyCast, and international broadcasts through the European Broadcasting Union. She will also lead the BPO in its second appearance on NPR’s From the Top, and host a national PBS televised special, Bernstein’s “Ode to Freedom”, with broadcasts beginning in August 2008.
Ms. Falletta received her undergraduate degree from the Mannes School of Music in New York, and her master’s and doctorate degrees from The Juilliard School.
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