Barry Jekowsky
Music Director
Barry Jekowsky is widely-regarded as one of America’s most innovative conductors. At a time when orchestras are struggling to fill seats, both the California Symphony and the Reno Philharmonic –where he simultaneously served as Music Directors – enjoyed their highest season-attendance ever in 2007-08, the result of Jekowsky’s flair for non-conventional programming.
Influenced by his close association with such legendary composers as Leonard Bernstein, Jacob Druckman, and Lou Harrison, Jekowsky was among the first to include at least one American composition on every program he conducts with the California Symphony – a tradition now in its 22nd year, for which he received the ASCAP Award for “Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music” in 2002.
To help ensure that there will be a next generation of outstanding composers, Jekowsky founded the California Symphony’s Young American Composer-in-Residence Program (YACR) in 1991 to nurture extraordinarily-gifted new voices. The first and only program of its kind anywhere in the world, YACR consists of three-year residencies in which participating composers are given unparalleled access to the orchestra as a laboratory to hone their craft. Notably, YACRs have gone onto win two of the three BBC International Masterprizes to date in the world’s leading competition for composers. In recognition, Jekowsky received the BMI Foundation Award “for his visionary and passionate commitment to young American composers.” BMI Foundation President Ralph Jackson announced at the time: “We know of no other orchestra anywhere in the world doing this type of groundbreaking work with young composers.”
Long before it became a trend, Jekowsky began presenting gifted young musicians in their professional concert debuts in the United States. Among those who have gone on to international acclaim have been violinists Sarah Chang, Kyoko Takezawa, and Leila Josefowicz; pianists Helen Huang and Joyce Yang ; and cellist Alisa Weilerstein. More recently, Jekowsky presented pianist/composer Conrad Tao in his West Coast debut. Considered an authority on prodigiously gifted children, Jekowsky was featured prominently in the critically-acclaimed, bestselling 2004 book, Genius Denied by Jan and Bob Davidson, published by Simon and Schuster.
In 1997, Jekowsky led the California Symphony to critical acclaim with the recording of its first CD – Lou Harrison: A Portrait, featuring Al Jarreau (DECCA/ARGO) – which garnered rave national and international reviews and was named “CD of the Month” in Gramophone magazine. The Los Angeles Times called it “a 40-minute beauty, deeply moving, but also deeply joyful…” The Atlantic Monthly rated it “superb.” Among the others, Billboard called it a “diverse, highly accessible album” and wrote: “Let’s hope there’s more.”
The year before he founded the California Symphony, Jekowsky won a prestigious Leopold Stokowski Conducting Prize and made his European conducting debut with the London Philharmonic. He has since appeared as guest conductor with many ensembles throughout North America and Europe, including the Tanglewood, Britt and Aspen Music Festivals, the London Philharmonic, the City of London Sinfonia, Manchester’s (UK) Halle Orchestra, and the Detroit, St. Louis, Louisville, Jacksonville, Oregon, Richmond (VA), Pacific, Maryland, Delaware, Akron, Kalamazoo and Oklahoma Symphonies.
For four years, beginning in 1993, he simultaneously served as Music Director of the California Symphony and Associate Conductor of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., during which Jekowsky led NSO to critical acclaim during four national tours, concerts at the Kennedy Center, young people’s concerts, family concerts and summer programs at Wolf Trap.
Jekowsky was also featured with the orchestra on “CBS Sunday Morning” and “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.” Beginning in 1998, Jekowsky spent a decade at the musical helm of the Reno Philharmonic -- where his flair for innovative programming dramatically increased ticket sales, allowing the orchestra to double its budget and performance schedule while ending each year with a cash surplus.
The former principal timpanist for the San Francisco Symphony for 17 years, Jekowsky earned both his undergraduate and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, which he entered at the age of nine. At the age of 14, he made his Broadway debut, substituting as a professional percussionist in the Tony Award-winning musical, “Man of La Mancha.” By 16, he was a substitute percussionist with the New York Philharmonic. At the same time, he performed in the live orchestras of such hits as Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning “Company” and “Sweeney Todd,” and in recording sessions for film scores, albums, television shows and national commercials. When Jekowsky filled in at the last minute for Tony Bennett’s drummer at Bennett’s annual New Year’s Eve event, he was so taken with Jekowsky’s talent that the 16-year-old became the youngest member of his jazz trio.
Barry Jekowsky lives with his wife, Rosalind, and their three children in the San Francisco area.
January 2009
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