E. Michael Richards - Conductor

E. MICHAEL RICHARDS, Associate Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Programs, has directed the Hamilton College Orchestra since 1984 when he arrived at Hamilton after a year as Conductor of Instrumental Ensembles at Bowdoin College. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, holds master's degrees from Yale University and Smith College, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. He has conducted the Syracuse Society for New Music, La Jolla Civic Orchestra (CA), Madison (NY) All-County Orchestra, San Francisco State University Orchestra, and Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, among others. Richards has been recognized for his work as a conductor and clarinetist with a 1990 U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship for a six-month residency in Japan, jointly sponsored by the governments of Japan and the United States (Japan-US Friendship Commission). He has also received a NEH Summer Fellowship to study traditional Japanese music, and a grant from the Camargo Foundation to complete a book - The Clarinet of the Twenty-First Century.

The HAMILTON COLLEGE ORCHESTRA was founded in 1970 and has grown to include more than 60 students. The Orchestra has undertaken five concert tours within the last 10 years - one by invitation of the governments of Romania and Bulgaria to tour those countries for fourteen days. The group has also received an invitation to perform in Japan, for which financing is currently being sought. The Orchestra has performed with internationally renowned bassist Bertram Turetzky; virtuoso performer of the koto, Nanae Yoshimura; and commissioned and premiered new works for orchestra by Masataka Matsuo (of Tokyo), Richard Boulanger, Masao Honma, Harue Kunieda, and Samuel Pellman, Professor of Music at Hamilton. The Orchestra and Mr. Boulanger's work (for radio baton, computer, and orchestra) were featured on Syracuse CBS TV (Channel 5 News), and in an article by the Associated Press. Mr. Matsuo's work was recorded by the Orchestra for an Opus One CD (released Feb. 1996). A recent review in Fanfare Magazine (an international journal) stated: Hamilton College is a small liberal arts school of only 1650 students; for them to field a seventy-piece symphony orchestra that can handle such a complex modern work is a staggering achievement. The Orchestra will premiere a new work by Vietnamese-American composer P.Q. Phan (the 1997-8 Rome Prize Winner) in April 1999.

Syracuse Society for New Music (1997- )

Repertoire includes works of:

      Mayuzumi, Phan, Zhuang, Lam, and others

Hamilton College New Music Ensemble (1986- )

(Founder, Music Director, and Conductor) -

  Repertoire includes works of:

    Yuasa, Ciardi, Lombardi, Schwartz, Druckman, Niimi, Matsushita, 

    Tsang, Fennelly, Bell, Varese, Erickson, Cage, and others

Hamilton College Orchestra (1984- )

(Music Director, Conductor) - 

  1988 - 14-day tour of Romania and Bulgaria

  Performances with internationally renowned soloists:

       Bertram Turetzky - contrabass

       Nanae Yoshimura - koto

  Commission and premieres of works by:

       Masataka Matsuo

       Samuel Pellman

       Richard Boulanger

       Jay Reise

       Harue Kunieda
   
       P. Q. Phan

  American premieres of works by:

       Akira Nishimura

       Masao Honma

Hamilton College Jazz Ensemble (1984-93) -

(Director) -

  Performance at Players Club (NYC) - April 1992

  Performance with Milt Hinton (Bass) - November 1991

  Performance at Carnegie Hall - May 1990

  3-day tour of New England - April 1987

  2-day tour of Boston - April 1993

Bowdoin College Orchestra (1983-4) -

(Music Director and Conductor)

Bowdoin College Wind Ensemble (1983-4) -

(Music Director and Conductor)

La Jolla Civic/University Orchestra (1980-3) -

(Assistant Conductor)

University of California, San Diego Chamber Orchestra (1982-3) -

(Assistant Conductor)

University of California, San Diego Wind Ensemble (1980-3) -

(Assistant Conductor)

Ensembles (as a clarinetist):

Member of East-West Quartet (1989- )

Nancy Turetzky - flutes

Kazuko Tanosaki - piano

E. Michael Richards - clarinets

Member of Syracuse Society for New Music (1987- )

Guest Principal Clarinet with Utica Symphony, Catskill Symphony (NY) - (1986- )

Member of San Diego Chamber Orchestra (1981) - [John Kuzma - cond]

Member of SONOR (1980-3) - [Bernard Rands, Tom Nee - conductors]

Principal Clarinet - La Jolla Civic Orchestra (1980-3) - [Tom Nee - cond]

Member of Yale Contemporary Ensemble (1976-8) - [Arthur Weisberg - cond]

Member of Yale Philharmonia (1976-8) - [Otto Werner Mueller - cond]

     Aaron Copland, Pierre Boulez, Georg Solti, Jussi Jalas, 

     Krzysztof Pendercki - guest conductors

Member of NEC Symphony (1974-6) - [Gunther Schuller - cond]

     Seiji Ozawa - guest conductor