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David Robertson interview on contract extension - by Eddie Silva, SLSO Publications Manager

MUSIC DIRECTOR DAVID ROBERTSON’S CONTRACT
 EXTENDED THROUGH 2010

        ST. LOUIS, Sept. 14, 2006 – The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) announced today that Music Director David Robertson has signed a new two-year contract extension, which keeps the innovative and energetic conductor on the Powell Symphony Hall stage through August 2010. The contract includes an evergreen clause, which allows both parties to extend the contract on a yearly basis.

        “From the first time David took the stage as our music director, he has energized this entire organization,” said Randy Adams, SLSO President and Executive Director. “His presence and commitment as our artistic leader through 2010 will continue to heighten our orchestra’s musical reputation worldwide and attract new patrons.” Adams continued.

        “On behalf of the SLSO Board of Trustees, I can’t express how exciting it is for this community to know David will lead our orchestra for the next four years and possibly beyond,” said Cynthia J. Brinkley, SLSO Chairman of the Board. “David makes a vital impact as both an artistic and a community leader.”

        “After completing a very exciting first season, it pleases me to extend my relationship with the SLSO,” said David Robertson. “I believe we have a unique situation in St. Louis. We have an organization where the musicians, staff, board and patrons continue to work as one to inspire and inform this community about our art form. This organization will be setting standards in the coming years and I’m delighted and excited to be part of it.”  

        Robertson originally signed a three-year contract to become the SLSO’s 12^th music director in December 2003 and officially began his tenure in 2005-06, after serving as a consultant and music director-designate to the now 127-year-old orchestra. During his tenure with the SLSO he has introduced new series and innovative programs such as the Fusion Series at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center and this season’s Classical Detours concerts in Powell Symphony Hall. The successful and on-going collaboration with the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, features non-traditional concert format and repertoire programmed to respond to the visual art displayed in an architectural masterpiece. Robertson, a champion for arts education, introduced a Sound Check concert, which is aimed at students 16-25 years-of age and kicks off each season. He also makes regular appearances at SLSO Youth Orchestra concerts, education concerts and local schools.

        “We are incredibly lucky to have such a perfect fit in which conductor, orchestra and community are joined,” said SLSO Concertmaster David Halen. “David has brought brilliance, creativity and boundless energy to the SLSO both on and off the stage. His charismatic leadership has been tremendously successful in re-energizing the orchestra and our community. This is only the beginning.”

        In addition to leading the SLSO in subscription weeks, outreach programs and tours, Robertson is the Principal Guest Conductor of London’s BBC Symphony Orchestra, a post he assumed in October 2005. He appears as a guest conductor with major orchestras nationally and internationally. Future engagements include the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others.

        Born in Santa Monica, California, Robertson was educated at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he studied French horn and composition before turning to orchestral conducting.  He is the recipient of Columbia University’s 2006 Ditson Conductor’s Award, and he and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra received the ASCAP Morton Gould Award for Innovative Programming for the 2005-06 season from the American Symphony Orchestra League.  Musical America named him Conductor of the Year for 2000.  In 1997, Robertson received the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, the premier prize of its kind, given to exceptionally gifted American conductors.  He has two teenage sons and is married to pianist Orli Shaham.   
 

SLSO Principal Conductors/Music Directors by Year 

Joseph Otten 1880-1894                    
Alfred Ernst  1894-1907                     
Max Zach  1907-1921                         
Rudolph Ganz  1921-1927                  
Vladimir Golschmann  1931-1958        
Edouard Van Remoortel  1958-1962
Eleazar de Carvalho 1963-1968
Walter Susskind 1968-1975
Jerzy Semkow 1975-1979
Leonard Slatkin 1979-1996
Hans Vonk 1996-2002
David Robertson 2005-present

David Robertson’s full biography
Downloadable David Robertson images