Since stepping up to the podium as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the fall of 1999, Maestro Falletta has been credited with bringing the Philharmonic to a new level of national and international prominence. With subscription numbers steadily increasing, she has led the orchestra in numerous concerts broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today and SymphonyCast, and by the European Broadcasting Union, as well as a nation-wide broadcast on PBS television. In 2004, the BPO received the ASCAP/ASOL award for Adventurous Programming.
 

Falletta and Michael Ludwig, BPO Concertmaster   (Photo: John Lindberg)

Under her leadership, the BPO has made an unprecedented number of highly acclaimed recordings, and has entered into a multi-disc contract with Naxos, representing the first commercial recording contract the orchestra has had with an international label in over 20 years. The orchestra’s most recent release on the Naxos label is a collection devoted to the works of Aaron Copland, inspired by the spacious landscape of the American prairie, including The Red Pony Suite, Rodeo, Prairie Journal, and Letter from Home. The disc honors the Buffalo historic landmark Darwin D. Martin House, one of architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s premier prairie houses. “From the brash ‘Circus Music’ to the gentle ‘Grandfather’s Story’ (both from The Red Pony), the disc presents a dream of America as expressed by Copland and by the prairie-style architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. It can make us think deeply, as both theses artists wanted us to, about our place in the world,” says the Buffalo News, which called the disc “sparkl[ing] with life and wit.” The BPO’s 2004 recording of Griffes Orchestral Music, on the Naxos label with the Buffalo Philharmonic, was selected as an Editor’s Choice Recording by Gramophone. The 2004/05 season saw the release of 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. Other recent recordings include The Music of Frederick Converse (Naxos American Classics); and Pictures at a Gallery by the Buffalo Philharmonic (Beau Fleuve).
 
Both on and off the podium, Falletta is a dedicated advocate for the BPO and the Buffalo region. 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. In 2006, Falletta was inducted into the Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame; received the Human Relations Award from the Buffalo/Niagra Chapter of the American Jewish Committee; and guest conducted the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Buffalo’s Japanese sister city, leading a delegation of Buffalo representatives who served as goodwill ambassadors for tourism, education, economic development and the arts.