Seattle Symphony Names Eric Garcia Assistant Conductor

Music Director Gerard Schwarz and Interim Executive Director Mark McCampbell announce the appointment of Eric Garcia as Seattle Symphony’s Douglas F. King Assistant Conductor. Garcia will serve as Assistant Conductor for the 2010–2011 season, which celebrates Gerard Schwarz’s final season as Music Director. Garcia succeeds Thomas Hong, whose appointment as Assistant Conductor ended in May, 2010.

“I am very pleased to welcome Eric Garcia to the Seattle Symphony family,” commented Schwarz. “He won this position from a large group of highly qualified candidates. He is a fine musician with a broad knowledge base, excellent ear and wonderful technique. I have had the opportunity to work with Eric extensively as my assistant this summer at the Eastern Music Festival. My first impressions have been wonderfully confirmed and I am especially excited to have our Orchestra and our local musical community share the pleasure of working with Eric.”

Garcia’s duties as Assistant Conductor will include leading concerts—especially neighborhood, family and education concerts; covering rehearsals and performances; editing concert recordings for radio broadcast and grant support; and working with the artistic staff on programming ideas. Serving as assistant or associate conductor at a major orchestra is a key professional development opportunity for young conductors.

Garcia begins his post as Seattle Symphony Assistant Conductor at the start of the 2010–2011 season. Garcia also serves as Assistant Conductor of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina for the 2010 season. Most recently, he was conductor of the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and director of orchestral activities at the University of Evansville.

Eric Garcia

Eric Garcia formerly served as orchestra director and professor of music theory at St. Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago, Garcia held several conducting positions and appeared as guest conductor with numerous orchestras. Among these, he guest conducted the Northwest Festival Orchestra of Illinois, working with principal members of the Chicago and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras. In addition, he served as assistant conductor of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra in Elmhurst, Illinois, and associate conductor of the Sherwood Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra in Chicago. As a doctoral student at Northwestern University, he conducted performances with the Contemporary Music Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia.

Garcia received a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in music theory and composition from the University of Texas where he studied with Dan Welcher and Stefan Kostka.

Garcia has attended the International Conducting Workshop and Festival in Zlin, Czech Republic, working directly with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic. Most recently, Garcia was invited for a second time to attend the distinguished American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School. This invitation comes with a full fellowship that allows him to study for nine weeks at the prestigious festival. His principal conducting teacher is Victor Yampolsky. Additional conducting teachers include Peter Bay, Dan Lewis, Larry Rachleff, Donald Schleicher, Murry Sidlin and David Zinman.

September 5th 2010: KUOW: Symphony Begins Farewell To Schwarz With American Composers Series

September 5th 2010: Crosscut Tout: At the Symphony, premieres and adieux

September 5th 2010: Seattle Times: Seattle Symphony opens season — Gerard Schwarz's last

September 2nd 2010: Video: Ludovic Morlot conducts

August 31st 2010: Boston Globe reviews Maestro Morlot at Tanglewood

August 30th 2010: Philly.com :: Orchestral Bravery in Tough Times

August 18th 2010: NY Times on Maestro Morlot :: Inventive Back and Forth Between Old and New

August 6th 2010: Orchestra and conductor garner impressive Tristan and Isolde reviews

July 30th 2010: William Schuman cycle released as box set

July 29th 2010: Seattle Symphony Names Eric Garcia Assistant Conductor

July 29th 2010: Alex Prior Watch: Tanglewood Review

July 23rd 2010: Peter A Klein: From the symphony to the chamber

July 14th 2010: Video: Ludovic Morlot at his SSO introduction

July 13th 2010: Ludovic Morlot interview on Q13 FOX News

July 10th 2010: Zach Carstensen :: Questioning the conductors: Meet Morlot!

July 10th 2010: NY Times on the "Youth Movement" in US orchestras

July 9th 2010: Seattle Times: Morlot, incoming Seattle Symphony maestro, is 'ready to build something'