Everett Middle School, 450 Church St between 16 & 17th St, SF 94114 (Map)(Tickets)

Alasdair Neale, Guest Conductor

Part of the BARS LGBTQ Composer & Performing Artist series Alasdair Neale, Guest Conductor

Dove - Figures in the Garden, Dancing in the Dark

Mozart - Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, arranged for Wind Octet

Part of the BARS LGBTQ Composer & Performing Artist series Copland - Clarinet Concerto

Part of the BARS LGBTQ Composer & Performing Artist series Stephen Zielinski, clarinet

Part of the BARS LGBTQ Composer & Performing Artist series Barber - Medea's Dance of Vengeance

Part of the BARS LGBTQ Composer & Performing Artist series Britten - Four Sea Interludes, from Peter Grimes

Part of the BARS LGBTQ Composer & Performing Artist series Part of BARS' LGBTQ Composer and Performing Artist Series, which strives to redefine perceptions of LGBTQ music and increase awareness of the beauty, talents, and accomplishments of fellow LGBTQ individuals and groups. Alasdair Neale, guest conductor Alasdair Neale is Music Director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony (SVSS) and Music Director of the Marin Symphony. In his twenty-two years as Music Director of the SVSS, Mr. Neale has propelled this festival to national status: it is now the largest privately funded free admission symphony in America. Among the many celebrated guest artists that Mr. Neale has brought to this festival are: Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Christine Brewer, Michelle DeYoung, Renée Fleming, Nathan Gunn, Horacio Gutierrez, Augustin Hadelich, Thomas Hampson, Lynn Harrell, Audra McDonald, Midori, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Time for Three, Deborah Voigt, Frederica von Stade, Yuja Wang and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. As Music Director of the Marin Symphony since 2001, Mr. Neale has been hailed for invigorating the orchestra and establishing it as one of the finest in the Bay Area. Under Mr. Neale’s direction, the Marin Symphony was chosen as one of several distinguished orchestras to participate in Magnum Opus, a groundbreaking, decade-long commissioning project bringing new music to the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Osvaldo Golijov, Kevin Puts, Kenji Bunch, David Carlson, and Avner Dorman were among the composers represented in the project. Mr. Neale’s appointment with the Marin Symphony followed 12 years as Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. During that time he conducted both orchestras in hundreds of critically acclaimed concerts both here and abroad. In 1999, he substituted for an ailing Michael Tilson Thomas, conducting the San Francisco Symphony in widely praised performances of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in Germany. Under Mr. Neale’s direction, the Youth Orchestra became one of the finest young ensembles in the world, receiving consistent rave reviews for performances in San Francisco, as well as on tour in Amsterdam, Leipzig, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Dublin, Copenhagen, and Vienna. From 2001 to 2011, Mr. Neale served as Principal Guest Conductor of the New World Symphony. From 2001 to 2014, he served on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has guest conducted numerous orchestras here and abroad, including the New York Philharmonic, Saint Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Nashville Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Florida West Coast Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Sydney Symphony, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, l’Orchestre Métropolitan du Grand-Montréal, Radio Sinfonie Orchester Stuttgart, Auckland Philharmonia, Orchestra of St. Gallen (Switzerland), MDR Leipzig, NDR Hannover, Trondheim Symphony, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, University of Melbourne Orchestra, and at the Aspen Music Festival. In March 2002, to enthusiastically positive reviews, he collaborated with director Peter Sellars and composer John Adams to open the Adelaide Festival with a production of the opera El Niño. In April 1994, Mr. Neale conducted the San Francisco Symphony in the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Colored Field, featuring English horn player Julie Ann Giacobassi. Following those performances, Alasdair Neale, Ms. Giacobassi, and the San Francisco Symphony recorded Colored Field for Argo/Decca; the recording was released in February 1996 and was honored with the Diapason d’or award, conferred by the French music publication Diapason harmonie. In addition to his San Francisco Symphony recording, he can also be heard on New World Records conducting the ensemble Solisti New York in a recording of new flute concertos. During his years with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra he made a number of recordings, including Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony and Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. Alasdair Neale appears on the Bay Brass recording "Sound the Bells", released in March 2011 on the Harmonia Mundi label and nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Alasdair Neale holds a Bachelor’s degree from Cambridge University and a Master’s from Yale University, where his principal teacher was Otto-Werner Mueller. He lives in San Francisco. Stephen Zielinski, clarinet Bay Area Rainbow Symphony member Stephen Zielinski, a bay area clarinetist and a graduate of the Juilliard School’s Master of Music program, is an ardent enthusiast for new music. Mr. Zielinski has worked with the Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble, conducted by Robert Craft, performing on two recordings on the Naxos label featuring chamber works of Anton Webern and Igor Stravinsky. He can also be heard on the Albany Records label performing works of Thomas Pasatieri. He has performed with the Continuum New York Ensemble touring to Jakarta, Indonesia. In New York, Mr. Zielinski has performed with the Axiom Ensemble as well as the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. In the bay area, Mr. Zielinski regularly plays with Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, Symphony Parnassus, Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, Sacramento Chamber Music Society, Nova Vista Symphony and more. In the past, Mr. Zielinski has performed in Albany Symphony, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Tulsa Opera Orchestra, Distinguished Concerts International Orchestra, New York Opera Society, et al. As a member of the Juilliard Orchestra, he toured Europe in 2005 performing in the BBC proms and performed concerts in London, Berlin, Helsinki and Lucerne. He also participated in the Festival dei Due Mondi, 2003 and 2004, in Spoleto Italy with performances broadcasted on RAI. In addition to his Master's degree, Mr. Zielinski holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He was a recipient of the Arline J. Smith Scholarship as well as the Otto G. Storm Scholarship for his studies at Juilliard. Kyle Baldwin, Assistant Conductor for Dawn Harms Bay Area Rainbow Symphony member Kyle Baldwin is an in-demand conductor and percussionist in the San Francisco Bay Area. As Dawn Harm's current assistant and director of the San Bruno School District's after-school beginning band and orchestra music programs, Kyle is dedicated to building community and promoting excellence. Kyle has acquired a diverse background in conducting that allows him to create exciting and meaningful musical experiences. Kyle's experience includes conducting symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, opera, chamber ensembles, and dance ensembles. Attending both international and domestic conducting seminars, Kyle had the opportunity to work with leading conducting educators including Paul Vermel, Peter Jaffe, Maurice Peress, and Neil Thomson. In an academic settings, Kyle studied conducting with Cyrus Ginwala, Wayne Gorder, Christopher James Lees, and Frank Wiley. Kyle strives to work with living composers and worked with distinguished composers Libby Larsen, Avner Dorman, Victoria Bond, and Samuel Jones among others. Kyle conducted the music of Dennis Tobenski with Tobenski singing and played percussion in the West coast premiere of Tobenski's piece Only Air. In addition, Kyle led rehearsals with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in preparation for the world-premiere of Andrew Lippa's I Am Harvey Milk. When not pouring over his musical work, Kyle enjoys the problem solving involved with computer programming. Kyle is always trying to expand his abilities and knowledge and is currently in pursuit of becoming a polyglot. Kyle currently lives in San Francisco with his blood fin tetras and otocinclus catfish: Sven, Kristoff, Ana, Elsa.