Press

November 7, 2014 – DENVER – After nine years with the Colorado Symphony, Scott O’Neil will leave his post as Resident Conductor at the end of the 2014/15 season.

“The Colorado Symphony is truly grateful for the excellence, personality, and dedication that Scott has brought to every single performance since he joined us nine years ago,” says Jerome H. Kern, the Colorado Symphony’s CEO and co-chair of its Board of Trustees. “Scott is a uniquely talented conductor and musician, and his contribution to the evolution of the Colorado Symphony can’t be overstated. We look forward to seeing Scott on stage at Boettcher as a guest conductor in future seasons.”

O’Neil joined the Colorado Symphony in 2005 following a six-year residency with the Utah Symphony. Named Resident Conductor in 2010, O’Neil steadily built a loyal base of fans, drawn to his accessible, often humorous, approach to conducting. Diversity, flexibility, presence, and depth are among the qualities O’Neil has brought to the podium. Audiences have seen him lead everything from traditional Masterworks to youth concerts to critically acclaimed collaborations with contemporary artists including Béla Fleck, Steve Vai, and Chris Botti, and Colorado artists DeVotchKa, the Lumineers, and Gregory Alan Isakov.

“It’s been an honor to work with this orchestra and to serve this community over the last nine years,” O’Neil says. “After fifteen years of having the type of job that demanded my full attention with one orchestra, I’m looking forward to guest conducting a wide variety of orchestras, as well as having time for more composing, arranging, and orchestrating.

O’Neil is the creator and curator of the successful Inside the Score series, a multi-media concert experience that explores themes, stories and biographies behind some of the most iconic composers and works in symphonic music. With O’Neil at the creative helm, Inside the Score has examined everything from the genius of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms to the interplay between music and nature. Inside the Score attracts both new and traditional patrons to the Colorado Symphony.

“The Inside the Score series is one of my great loves and what I am most proud of,” O’Neil says. “Others, notably Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, and Micheal Tilson Thomas, have done similar programs, but our approach has its own, unique flavor. I’m the son of two teachers, and I feel that it’s in my blood to communicate – everything from the lives of the great composers to what the notes themselves are trying to say to us in the greatest masterworks.”

An accomplished composer and arranger, O’Neil contributed his talents as a writer when, in 2013, he composed new theme music for Colorado Symphony corporate partner Arrow Electronics. His arrangements of works by jazz guitarist and composer Pat Metheny will be performed during O’Neil’s final Masterworks program in May.

The Colorado Symphony will celebrate O’Neil’s legacy and contribution during his Masterworks weekend May 9-10, with a program that includes his arrangement of Pat Metheny’s First Circle and Minuano.

The Colorado Symphony will begin a search for a new resident conductor in mid-November.


Inside the Score with Scott O’Neil:

Friday, November 14, An Evening with Pinchas Zukerman

Friday, February 20, The Art of the Dance: Tango, with Pablo Ziegler, piano

Friday, March 20 & Saturday, March 21: So Percussion

Friday, April 24, The New School of Composition

 

Scott O’Neil Conducts Victor Wooten’s Concerto for Electric Bass

Masterworks

Victor Wooten, bass

Wonderbound

Saturday, May 9, 7:30 pm & Sunday, May 10, 1 pm

 

All concerts take place at Boettcher Concert Hall, home of the Colorado Symphony.

#BetterBoettcher

 

Scott O’Neil Biography

The Colorado Symphony’s 2014/15 season is Scott O’Neil’s ninth season in Denver, and his fourth full season as Resident Conductor. O’Neil maintains a strong commitment to making music of the highest quality accessible to young audiences. He served as associate conductor for the Utah Symphony, which he joined in August 2000. O’Neil has guest conducted the Houston Symphony, Houston Youth Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, Tulsa Philharmonic, Portland Symphony (Maine), the Lubbock Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, the Salt Lake Symphony and the Columbus Symphony in Ohio. O’Neil studied piano performance at the Oberlin College Conservatory, served as the assistant conductor of the Eastman School Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestras at the Eastman School of Music, and earned a master’s degree in orchestral conducting at Rice University, where he was the director of the Campanile Orchestra, a community/university orchestra. In 1999 he served as director of orchestras at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas. In the spring of 2003, O’Neil was selected by the League of American Orchestras (LAO) to conduct an orchestra comprised of members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and advanced students from the University of Southern California in Synergy, a program created to promote young, contemporary composers. Also in the spring of 2003, O’Neil was selected by LAO to appear on the Conductor Preview with the Jacksonville Symphony. O’Neil is prominently featured with the Colorado Symphony as conductor and creator of the Inside the Score series, in addition to appearances on each of the Masterworks, Family, Pops and Holiday series.



###

 

About the Colorado Symphony

One of the leading orchestras in the United States, the Colorado Symphony performs more than 150 concerts annually at Boettcher Concert Hall in downtown Denver and across Colorado. Led by internationally renowned Music Director Andrew Litton, the Colorado Symphony is home to eighty full-time musicians, representing more than a dozen nations, and regularly welcomes the most celebrated artists from the world of symphonic music and beyond. Every season, the Colorado Symphonyserves more than 250,000 people from all walks of life, performing a range of musical styles, from traditional to contemporary. Recognized as an incubator of innovation, creativity, and excellence, the Colorado Symphony continually expands its reach through education, outreach, and programming. The Colorado Symphony partners with the state’s leading musical artists, cultural organizations, corporations, foundations, sports teams, and individuals to expose diverse audiences to the transformative power of music. To learn more, visit coloradosymphony.org.