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An average season for the Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra includes four concerts of classical chamber orchestra repertoire and two or three concerts with various smaller groups of players. As we are all volunteer, instead of having a full time music director, we work with a rotating pool of conductors, each of whom may do one concert a year. We have been priviledged over the years to have had a great many very talented conductors give of their time and talents to work with the orchestra. The same is true of the musicians who have soloed with the orchestra. Many have come from great distances to direct or play with the group, each offering their special insight into the music we make together. You can see what a diverse and remarkable group they are.


Our Current Conductors and Soloists


ROBERT WRIGHT is Coordinator of Vocal and Choral Music at the University of Montevallo. Our Fall Concert 2001 will be his sixth appearance with the Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra.

 

MICHAEL KIMBER is principal violist of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the string faculty of the School of Music at the University of Southern Mississippi.

 

HOWARD GOLDSTEIN is Associate Professor of Music at Auburn University.

 


Our Past Conductors and Soloists

(copied from the 20th Anniversary Program)

HENRY RUBIN, the RMCO founding conductor, was at the time on the Music faculty of the University of Alabama. Having studied with Ivan Galamian at Julliard, he was a prize winner in the 1974 Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, and has had a long career as Soloist in Europe and America. Making his home in Houston, he dedicates himself to his students, who include many competition winners.

LES FILLMER served as RMCO's music director for eight years. An accomplished composer and orchestrator, his work has been performed and recorded by the Boston Pops, St. Louis, and Alabama Symphonies.

LESLIE STEWART is Director of Orchestral Studies and Lecturer of Violin and Viola at Old Dominion University in Virginia. A guest conductor, clinician and professional violinist, she performs with the Virginia Symphony and is a former Alabama Symphony member.

THOMAS GIBBS, a 30-year Birmingham-Southern Music faculty member and Division Chair from 1980 to 1988, regularly conducts the RMCO. He was Birmingham Concert Chorale conductor for 10 years.

DAVID ITKIN , while the Alabama Symphony Associate Conductor, was RMCO's Music Director for two seasons in the early 90s. He is in his 8th year as Music Director and Conductor of the Arkansas Symphony.

HOWARD GOLDSTEIN is Associate Professor of Music at Auburn, teaching music history and violin. He holds degrees in conducting and violin from the University of California and the Peabody Conservatory.

THOMAS HINDS, a graduate of the U. of North Carolina, received training at Aspen, the Goldofsky Opera Institute, and elsewhere. He has been music director of the Montgomery Symphony for 18 seasons.

WES KENNEY is in his fifth season as the Virginia Symphony's Associate Conductor. Carmen Dragon Conducting Prize Winner, he is President of the Conductors Guild, serving the professional conductor.

TODD NORTON is in his third year as Director of Choral Activities at Jefferson State Community College. He holds degrees from Auburn and the University of Colorado.

ROBERT WRIGHT is Coordinator of Vocal and Choral Music at the University of Montevallo. He returned to Birmingham in 1996 after 14 years as Director of Vocal Activities at Tennessee Technological Univ.

Other conductors with whom RMCO has worked in the past include David Amram, Tim Banks, Al Hunt, Reinier Knetsch, Daniel Lawhon, Harry McAfee, Mark Ridings, Lester Seigel, and Victor Vallo.