Guest Artists

Conductors
· Joel Smirnoff
· Tomasz Golka
· Robert Moody

Composers
· Behzad Ranjbaran
· Brad Sayles

Soloists
· Simone Dinnerstein
· Adam Golka
· Michael Zuraw

Tomasz Golka, Conductor

Since winning 1st Prize at the 2003 Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition, 33-year-old conductor Tomasz Golka has appeared with orchestras in the Americas and Europe to great critical acclaim.

Golka is in his third year as Music Director of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, which has seen a resurgence of growth and vitality under his direction. He is also in his second season as Music Director of the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra.

An avid supporter of living composers, Golka commissioned and premiered the Symphony of Mathew Fuerst, a work written especially for the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra during his first season there. He has conducted the world premieres of Fabian Panisello's Cuadernos for orchestra and Eleanor Trawick's Triple Play. Golka has also brought works by Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Bruckner, and the rarely-heard early 20th century tone poems of Karlowicz to Lubbock audiences, including the American Premiere of the composer's final completed work A Sorrowful Tale.

As a conducting fellow at the 2006 Tanglewood Music Festival, he worked with James Levine, shared the podium with Bernard Haitink, and conducted a historic performance of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale with legendary composers Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and John Harbison as narrators.

He made his European debut in his birth city - Warsaw, Poland - conducting Sinfonia Varsovia in National Symphony Hall with his brother, pianist Adam Golka, as soloist. Tomasz Golka has served as Cover Conductor for the Cleveland Orchestra as well as the Houston and Dallas symphony orchestras.

In the US, Golka has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Seattle, Fort Worth, Charleston, Louisville, and Spoleto Festival USA. He has also appeared with Buffalo Philharmonic, where he replaced the ailing scheduled conductor on just a few hours notice and led the orchestra in an enthusiastically-received performance.

He has toured Mexico several times, appearing with virtually all of the country's top orchestras, including those of UNAM, Xalapa, Queretaro, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, and Yucatan.

As an operatic conductor, his recent credits include Die Fledermaus and Madama Butterfly.

Past positions held by Golka include Music Director of the Ball State Symphony Orchestra and Opera and the Bakersfield Youth Symphony (2003-04), Founder and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music at All Saints (2000-02) and the Bloomington Chamber Orchestra (1998-99), and as a violinist, Concertmaster of Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra and the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra (1999-2000).

Golka, who lives in New York City, studied conducting with David Effron at Indiana University and Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar at the Peabody Conservatory. He also holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Rice University. His violin teachers were Sergiu Luca, Kenneth Goldsmith, Marina Yashvili, and Tadeusz Wronski. He was a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival in 2002 and has conducted in Master Classes for such distinguished conductors as Yuri Temirkanov and David Zinman.

Links: www.tomaszgolka.com/