Alasdair
Neale, conductor
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Music Director Alasdair Neale began his tenure as Music Director of the Marin Symphony in 2001. He also holds the positions of Music Director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the New World Symphony and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Mr. Neale’s appointment with the Marin Symphony followed 12 years as Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. During that time he conducted both orchestras in hundreds of critically acclaimed concerts both here and abroad. In 1999, he substituted for an ailing Michael Tilson Thomas, conducting the San Francisco Symphony in widely praised performances of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in Germany. His most recent appearance with that orchestra was in February 2007 when he replaced an indisposed Carlos Kalmar to lead the San Francisco Symphony in successful subscription performances. |
In his sixteen years as Music Director of the SVSS, Mr. Neale has propelled this festival to national status: it is now the largest privately funded free admission symphony in America. He has brought many celebrated guest artists to these annual events.
In March 2002, to enthusiastically positive reviews, Mr. Neale collaborated with director Peter Sellars and composer John Adams to open the Adelaide Festival with a production of the opera El Niño. In April 1994, he conducted the San Francisco Symphony in the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Colored Field, featuring English horn player Julie Ann Giacobassi.
In 1993, the American Symphony Orchestra League named him a Leonard Bernstein American Conducting Fellow, and he led the New Jersey Symphony in a concert at the League’s annual conference.
Alasdair Neale maintains a most active guest conducting schedule, both nationally and internationally. His recordings have been released by Arco/Decca and New World Records.
Alasdair Neale holds a Bachelor’s degree from Cambridge University and a Master’s from Yale University, where his principal teacher was Otto-Werner Mueller. He lives in San Francisco.
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