Glen Cortese
Music Director/Conductor
GLEN
CORTESE
begins his fifth season as music director of the Greeley Philharmonic in
September 2011, is in his seventh season as artistic director of the Western
New York Chamber Orchestra and will be artistic director emeritus for the
Oregon Mozart Players for the 2011-12 season. His guest engagements for the
2004–2011 seasons included the Wolftrap Opera, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra,
the Sapporo Festival Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Orchestra, the Sofia
Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Mexico City Philharmonic, Colorado
Springs Philharmonic, the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, the Lafayette Symphony,
the Greeley Philharmonic, the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, the Oberlin
Conservatory Orchestra, the Billings Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Cleveland,
and the Annapolis Symphony. He was resident conductor of the Florida
Philharmonic for the 2001–2002 season and completed twelve seasons at the
Manhattan School of Music where he was principal conductor from 1988 to 2000.
He has appeared as guest conductor both in the United States and abroad with
the Symphonies of New Jersey, Florida Philharmonic, Austin, Mexico City
Philharmonic, North Carolina, Colorado Springs, Bangor, Meridian, Queens, New
Amsterdam, The New Orleans Philharmonic, the International Chamber Orchestra,
the Belarus Sate Philharmonic, Noorhollands Philharmonisch, Orquesta Sinfonica
Carlos Chavez, San Francisco Conservatory, Cleveland Institute, and the
Altenburg Landeskappele Orchestra. Mr. Cortese covered as assistant conductor
to the New York Philharmonic in 1990–92 for Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin,
Charles Dutoit, Yuri Temirikanov, Erich Leinsdorf, Zdenek Macal and Cristof
Perick. In July of 1993 he was invited by Kurt Masur to guest conduct a reading
with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. In August of 1994, Mr. Cortese
began his tenure as music director of the East-West International Symphony
Orchestra in Altenburg, Germany, a position that he held for seven years.
He conducted over fifty concerts and two operas in seven seasons with the
orchestra, made up of advanced conservatory students from ten different
nations. His work at the Manhattan School of Music included the school’s debut
performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and City Center as well as the
MSM Orchestra’s first performance on "Live from Lincoln Center”. He received
the honor of "Recording of the Month” in STEREOPHILE magazine for his release
of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony with the Manhattan School on Titanic Records. His
recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Manhattan School was called "a
remarkable achievement” in the American Record Guide. In 2011 he will conduct
the world premiere of John Musto’s new opera, "The Inspector” at the Wolftrap
Opera, and his other opera credits include guest conductor with the Florida Grand
Opera, New York City Opera, the Cleveland Lyric Opera, the Maryland Opera
Studio, the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival Opera Theater, the Manhattan School
Opera Theater, and the East West International Opera Theater. Mr. Cortese’s
credits in the world of dance include performances with the Connecticut Ballet,
Joffrey II Ballet, the Elisa Monte Dance Company and the SUNY Purchase Dance
Corps. He appeared regularly for five years as conductor for the Erick Hawkins
Dance Company at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Joyce Theatre and on
national tours. He has conducted at numerous summer festivals including
Chautauqua, Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, American Dance Festival, The New
York Music Institute, Sewanee Music Festival and the Brevard Music Center. He
has conducted performances of large collaborative projects including chorus,
orchestra and dance at Carnegie Hall, as well as having performed in virtually
every major performance venue in New York. His work in education is extensive,
conducting community outreach programs, educational concerts and children's
videos on classical music. Mr. Cortese has conducted concerti and solo works
with many renowned performers, including Ransom Wilson, Sharon Isbin, Ruth
Laredo, Nathaniel Rosen, Glenn Dicterow, Silvia McNair, Mignon Dunn and Dawn
Upshaw. A strong advocate of new music, he has conducted over 150
premieres and has worked in direct collaboration with composers such as Milton
Babbitt, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Richard Danielpour, Peter
Maxwell Davies, Lukas Foss, Hans Werner Henze, and Ralph Shapey. In June
of 1993 through 2000, he was the 8 time recipient of the ASCAP New and
Adventuresome Programming Award for his work at the Manhattan School. Mr.
Cortese is also an accomplished composer and winner of numerous awards
including the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters, a two time winner of the Joseph E. Bearns Prize, and a CAPS Grant from
the New York Council on the Arts. He is also the recipient of the Arthur Judson
Foundation Award for a Young American Conductor and his discography includes
recordings on the Titanic, Newport Classics, Phoenix, Owl, CMS and Le
Crepuscule du Disc labels.