Vlad Vizireanu
Program: From the Mothership to the Underworld
Vlad Vizireanu conducted the RSO on November 12, 2022. Listen to his pre-concert lecture, view the Digital Concert Guide, and complete the post-concert survey on the Digital Stage.
Listen to Vlad talk at Soundbites, a live luncheon with RSO principal trumpet Mark Baldin (Approximately 1 hour)
Listen to a conversation between Vlad and Podcast Host Phil Davidson (Approximately 25 minutes)
Biography
Photo Credit: Brian Thomas Photography
Described as a conductor with “ample gestures, clarity, precision, and genuine passion,” Vlad Vizireanu continues to make an impressive and dynamic mark on the music world as an international conductor and educator. A regular presence in the competition circuit, Vlad came to international attention when he won Second Prize in the 2013 Cadaqués Conducting Competition in a televised concert at Auditori Hall, Barcelona. He then made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall as Finalist in the 2016 Donatella Flick Competition. He was invited to the 2018 Malko Competition with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and was also invited among 14 conductors (out of 400 applicants worldwide) to participate in the renowned Mahler Conducting Competition with the Bamberg Symphony.
As the recent winner of both the Only Stage & Hans von Bülow Conducting Competitions in 2021, upcoming debuts include the Orchestra di Milano La Verdi, Orpheus Academy Orchestra (Oregon Music Festival), Orchestra della Magna Grecia, Varna State Opera, Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV, Brașov Philharmonic, & Orchestra Filarmonica Campana. Other orchestras he has conducted include the Tonhalle-Orchester, Lucerne Festival Strings, New World Symphony, and Manhattan School of Music Symphony. He has also served as cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Naples Philharmonic, and Sarasota Orchestra. Recent and upcoming engagements include the Manchester Camerata, Orchestre National de Lille, Romanian Radio National & Chamber Orchestras, Moldova Iași Philharmonic, Sibiu State Philharmonic, Ploiesti Philharmonic, and Târgu Mureș Philharmonic. He has been invited to conduct at the Gstaad Festival, Castleton Festival, and Chautauqua Music Festival.
His primary conducting teachers were David Effron, Arthur Fagen, Timothy Russell, & William Reber. He holds degrees in conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Master of Music) and Arizona State University (Doctor of Musical Arts) and studied musicology and piano performance at the University of California Los Angeles (Bachelor of Science). Additionally, he studied with David Zinman at the 2016 Tonhalle Orchestra Masterclass, with Kurt Masur at the 2015 Manhattan School of Music Conducting Seminar, and was selected for two consecutive years as one of seven conductors from around the world to study with Bernard Haitink at the 2013 and 2014 Lucerne Easter Festivals. Vlad was one of the last students of Lorin Maazel under full fellowship at the 2014 Castleton Festival. He also received the prestigious 2013 Chautauqua Conducting Fellowship in New York where he assisted Timothy Muffitt. Among his other mentors were Michael Tilson Thomas (2014, New World Symphony Masterclass), Neeme Järvi (2016, Gstaad Music Festival), Franz Welster-Möst (2010, IU Cleveland Orchestra Residency Masterclass), and the late James DePriest (2011, ASU Conducting Masterclass).
In the Fall of 2013, he was invited to debut at the renowned Enescu Festival in Bucharest where he conducted a side-by-side concert with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Royal Camerata. He conducted the Royal Camerata again in the 2015 edition of the Enescu Festival with soloist, Rebekka Hartmann. He has since been reinvited to the 2019, 2021, and 2023 editions with the Orchestre National de Lille, Wiener Kammerorchester, and Manchester Camerata.
An ardent advocate of new music, Vlad is the Founder & Executive Director of Impulse New Music Festival (INMF), which brings together young composers and instrumentalists to study and perform new compositions. Besides INMF’s numerous world premieres, Vlad has showcased new compositions with the Castleton Festival Orchestra, Cadaqués Symphony, and Hebrides New Music Ensemble. Some new works he has recently recorded include Light Show by Max Grafe, Scherzo for Orchestra by Joshua Groffman, and Evelyne Davis’ Concerto for Two Percussionists. He recently commissioned several new compositions by renowned Los Angeles composer, Michael Glenn Williams, and conducted the world premieres with the Arizona Pro Arte Ensemble and Sibiu Philharmonic.
Vlad made his operatic debut in 2013 with Arizona State University Opera and Die Fledermaus. He served as assistant conductor to Lorin Maazel and Timothy Muffitt with productions of Les Dialogues des Carmelites, Madama Butterfly, and Don Giovanni.
Vlad was recently appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Ploiești Philharmonic. He served as Music Director of the Knox Galesburg Symphony in Illinois and the North Shore Symphony in New York. He previously served as Assistant Conductor for the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic and Conductor for New West Symphony’s Harmony Project, which is aimed at inspiring young children to develop a lifelong love of music through education and exciting musical experiences. He also served as Artistic Director of Enescu & The Americas, an organization that fosters cultural exchange between Romania and the United States through the music of Romania’s greatest composer, George Enescu.
Vlad is represented by Only Stage Management.
