MARIN SYMPHONY YOUTH PROGRAMS STAFF
George Thomson, Artistic Director and Conductor
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George Thomson has been Music Director of the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra since 2001. He also conducts the Marin Symphony in their annual Family Concert.
George enjoys a multi-faceted career as a conductor, instrumentalist, and educator. From Fall of 1994 until 2007 he worked as a conductor for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. As Associate Conductor, he conducted a subscription program as well as several rehearsals each season in the absence of Music Director Kent Nagano. He directed the Symphony's "Under Construction" series of new music reading events, and was also the Music Director of the Symphony's award-winning Music Education Program, which brings the orchestra into the Berkeley Public Schools in a series of innovative performances each season. |
Raised in Sunnyvale, California, George attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he received A.B. and M.A. degrees in Music, studying conducting with Michael Senturia and Philip Brett. He was for several years Music Director of the San Francisco-based new music ensemble EARPLAY, and has appeared as a guest conductor with many new music ensembles, including the Empyrean Ensemble, Composers Inc., and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. With the latter ensemble he conducted two works by Andrew Imbrie in a recording released in 2002 on the Albany Records label. Formerly Music Director of the Prometheus Symphony, a community orchestra based in Oakland, George has also appeared as a guest conductor with the Marin Symphony, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra.
In addition to avidly championing contemporary music, George is active in the fields of historical performance and music education. He has enjoyed long associations with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the American Bach Soloists; from 1996 to 2005 he was Principal Violist of the Carmel Bach Festival, where he was a member of the Festival String Quartet. As an educator he directs the Virtuoso Program at San Domenico School in San Anselmo, a unique opportunity for high school students to pursue intensive orchestral and chamber music training in addition to a rigorous college preparatory curriculum. The San Domenico Orchestra da Camera, under Mr. Thomson's direction, won a "Grand Champion" award at the 2005 National Orchestra Festival sponsored by the American String Teachers' Association with the National School Orchestra Association. The Virtuoso Program was featured in the February 2004 issue of Strings Magazine, and was featured on the nationally-broadcast radio program "From the Top" in February of 2006. In May, 2008 Mr. Thomson received Marin Magazine’s 2008 “Editors’ Choice” Award for his superb work providing classical music instruction to Marin County’s youth. |
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In May 2004 Mr. Thomson made his conducting debut with Berkeley Opera in a production of Handel's "Acis and Galatea" at the Julia Morgan Theater; he returns to conduct Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio" in March of 2007. In January 2007 he directed the Berkeley Symphony in a program of Stravinsky, Sibelius and Berkeley composer Olly Wilson; in April 2007 he made his debut with the Santa Rosa Symphony.
Andrei Gorchov, Associate Conductor and Orchestra Manager
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Andrei
Gorchov was born in Marin County, CA, where he attended
Redwood High School and began playing the flute at age
8. He has been a soloist and an orchestral musician with
the Marin Symphony and is an alumnus of the Marin Symphony
Youth Orchestra. After receiving a degree in flute performance
from San Francisco State University, Andrei has pursued
a career in conducting which has led him from the Oakland
Youth Orchestra to Tanglewood. As a choral conductor, Andrei
has taught at SingersMarin and at Redwood High School.
As an orchestral conductor, Andrei has studied with Michael
Morgan and has been the associate conductor for the Oakland
Youth Orchestra, which included a tour to Greece in 2006.
Andrei is deeply involved in and committed to the value
of youth music and education in Marin County and currently
holds a studio of over 40 young flutists.
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Marin
Symphony Youth Programs
c/o The Marin Symphony
4340 Redwood Highway, Suite 409c
San Rafael, CA 94903
Phone:
415.479.8100
Fax: 415.479.8110 |
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