The Hot Springs Music Festival Board of Directors has announced the appointment of Stefan Sanders to serve as the principal conductor for the 2018 festival.
Maestro Peter Bay, the music director and principal conductor of the Hot Springs Music Festival, is taking a year off to fulfill a lifelong dream of presenting a full performance of Leonard Bernstein's "Mass," a news release said. Next year marks the 100th anniversary of Bernstein's birth and performances of his music will be featured in concert halls and universities around the world, including the Hot Springs Music Festival.
Sanders is known as an imaginative musician, devoted educator and ardent champion of many types of music, the release said. He is the newly appointed music director for the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina, the resident conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the music director of the Round Rock Symphony in central Texas.
Prior to his career as a conductor, Sanders was an internationally renowned trombonist, having performed as a soloist in North America, Asia and Europe. He played for seven years in the Buffalo Philharmonic trombone section and performed with other leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic.
A graduate of Julliard, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Interlochen Arts Academy, Sanders was a trombone apprentice with the Hot Springs Music Festival in 1998.
"I first came to know the Hot Springs Music Festival nearly 20 years ago, as an HSMF apprentice," Sanders said. "My friends and I had an unforgettable summer performing magnificent music while truly enjoying the natural beauty and charm of Hot Springs. Needless to say, returning as principal conductor for the 2018 festival is incredibly meaningful to me. I am so excited to make music with the gifted apprentices and world class mentors of the 2018 festival and to reconnect with the vibrant community of Hot Springs."
Lynn Payette, executive director of the Hot Springs Music Festival, said one of the major works Sanders will be conducting in 2018 was one he performed as an apprentice in 1998, Gustav Holst's "The Planets."
"We are very pleased that someone of the caliber of Maestro Sanders will be with us next season and we are confident he will help the Hot Springs Music Festival to continue to reach new heights," Payette added.
Call Payette at the festival office at 623-4763 for more information.
Entertainment on 09/20/2017