LUCAS RICHMAN
Lucas Richman has served as Music Director for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra since 2003 and, beginning with the 2010-2011 season, will also serve as Music Director and Conductor for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. His command of the core repertoire, coupled with his finesse in presenting new and contemporary works, continues to illustrate Mr. Richman as a source of musical expertise and artistic excellence. The Knoxville News-Sentinel recently wrote, “Whatever the source of inspiration was, in what is approaching three decades of writing about the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, I have not heard a better total concert than the extraordinary program the KSO played Thursday night at the Tennessee Theatre…All due credit, of course, goes to maestro Lucas Richman for elevating the orchestra to new levels. It is his leadership that has made a concert of this quality possible.”
Mr. Richman has appeared as guest conductor with numerous orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, the SWR Radio Orchestra of Kaiserslautern (Germany), the Tiroler Kammerorchester InnStrumenti (Austria) and the Zagreb Philharmonic (Croatia). M° Richman served as Assistant and Resident Conductor for Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra between 1998-2004 and, from 1988 to 1991, he was the Assistant Conductor for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, he has collaborated with notable soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Garrick Ohlsson, Lang Lang, Frank Peter Zimmerman, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Mark O’Connor, Andre Watts and Radu Lupu.
Mr. Richman received a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from the University of Southern California, where he was a student of Daniel Lewis. He studied privately with Fritz Zweig and Victor Yampolsky, and was also selected as a conducting fellow in master classes with Pierre Boulez, André Previn, Herbert Blomstedt and Kurt Sanderling. Earlier in his musical journey, he toured with West Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra, for which he was one of four conductors from around the world selected by Leonard Bernstein to share the maestro’s podium for concerts presented in London and Moscow. Over the past decade, Mr. Richman collaborated with numerous film composers as their conductor, recording scores for such films as the Academy Award-nominated The Village (with violinist, Hilary Hahn), As Good As It Gets, Face/Off, Se7en, Breakdown, The Manchurian Candidate and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. Most recently, John Williams personally invited Mr. Richman to serve as the conductor for the three-month national summer tour of Star Wars in Concert.
Mr. Richman is a respected leader in the field of planning and conducting concerts for young people, having done so for nearly twenty years with various orchestras across the United States. An accomplished composer, Mr. Richman has had his music performed by over two hundred orchestras in the last ten years and his works written specifically for children have been featured in young people’s concerts presented by orchestras such as the Atlanta Symphony, the Houston Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony. In November, 2009, as the result of an NEA commission, the San Diego Symphony premiered his Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, which weaves the poetry of Jack Prelutsky into a Carnival of the Animals for the new millennium. Taking children’s concert programming and musical education to new heights for the next generation, Mr. Richman is responsible for the creation of an animated guide to classical music, which is featured in full symphonic concerts. The character, Picardy Penguin, is entering its fifth year of performances with orchestras, both at home in Knoxville and around the US.
Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony, his Concerto for Oboe was premiered in February 2006 (Cynthia DeAlmeida, oboe; Sir Andrew Davis, conductor), while the Knoxville Symphony presented his Concerto for Percussion in March 2006 (Timothy Adams, percussion). Mr. Richman’s choral work, Arise Triumphant, O Blessed Muse!, was premiered in January, 2005, with Frederica von Stade as the soloist. Recent recordings of M° Richman’s music include those made by Giora Feidman (Variations for Clarinet and Cello) and the Tiroler Kammerorchester InnStrumenti of Innsbruck (The Seven Circles of Life) while the KSO’s recording of his song for breast-cancer awareness (“We Share A Bond”) is available for download at www.komenknoxville.org. A hit with new families, his compact disc, DAY IS DONE, features original and traditional lullabies composed and arranged by Mr. Richman as an aid for parents wishing to introduce their children to the joys of music. The CD, a companion children’s book and a listing of Mr. Richman’s compositions can be found through LeDor Group, Inc. at www.ledorgroup.com.
Mr. Richman and the Knoxville Symphony were the recipients of the 2006 Bank of America Award for Excellence in Orchestra Education. The KSO “Music and Wellness Program” was recognized for its partnership with community organizations to extend the healing power of music. In addition, Broadcast Music Inc., in recognition of the workshop he has run for thirteen years on conducting for film, presented him with their Classic Contribution Award at the annual BMI Film and Television Awards Gala in 2007.
OFFICIAL BIO FOR THE 2010-2011 SEASON. LAST UPDATED JUNE 2010.
PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUSLY DATED MATERIALS.
For additional materials contact lrichman@ledorgroup.com

FERDE GROFÉ (1892-1972)
Ferde Grofé was among the first in a long list of modern Ameri-can orchestral composers who chose to exploit their talents primarily in the field of "popular" music, rather than "classical" music. Born in Brooklyn, he studied in Leipzig, then returned to America as a violist for the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. The turning point in his career came when Paul Whiteman lured him into pop music, hiring him in 1920 as arranger and occasional pianist for his band. Grofé's arrangements were partly responsible for Whiteman's pre-eminence in "symphonic jazz", the forerunner of the "big band" movement which dominated American popular music in the 30's and 40's. It was here that Grofé encountered George Gershwin, who was at that time composer/pianist for Whiteman.
Grofé's masterpiece in this "popular symphonic" idiom might be his orchestration of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (some feel that the orchestral color of the Rhapsody is as much responsible for its success as Gershwin's inventive rhythmic and melodic inspirations). But if not the Gershwin orchestration, Grofé's greatest success surely was the Grand Canyon Suite. Grofé published about two dozen orchestral works, mostly in the 30's, all of which fused elements of jazz or pop styles with the rhythmic and formal complexity of symphonic music. The Grand Canyon Suite is the only one to have made it into the standard concert repertoire of American symphony orchestras.
JEFFREY BIEGEL
Jeffrey Biegel is one of today's most revered artists having created a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer and arranger. His electrifying technique and mesmerizing touch has received critical acclaim and garners praise worldwide. In addition to Mr. Biegel's latest recording for Naxos featuring Leroy Anderson's 'Concerto in C', conducted by Leonard Slatkin with the BBC Concert Orchestra for January 2008, Koch International Classics also releases 'Classical Carols' in 2007. Mr. Biegel is currently assembling a global consortium project for William Bolcom's 'Choral Fantasy for Piano, Orchestra and Chorus' for the 2010-11 season.
Until the age of 3, Mr. Biegel was unable to hear nor speak, until corrected by surgery. The 'reverse Beethoven' phenomenon can explain Mr. Biegel's life in music, having heard only vibrations in his formative years. Born a second-generation American, Mr. Biegel's roots are of Russian and Austrian heritage. A Russian cousin, pianist Herman Kosoff, emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century, and had studied with the great Leopold Godowsky in Austria.
Mr. Biegel has transcribed Balakirev's 'Islamey Fantasy' for piano and orchestra, premiered with the American Symphony Orchestra in 2001. Charles Strouse composed a new work titled 'Concerto America' for Mr. Biegel, premiered with the Boston Pops in 2002. He further arranged the piano part for Billy Joel's 'Symphonic Fantasies' in 2006, with performances at the Eastern Music Festival, the Boris Brott Festival and with the Indianapolis, Harrisburg, and other US orchestras. His new editions for Schirmer's Performance Editions include Schumann's 'Scenes from Childhood' and a new 'Sonatina Album' with accompanying audio CDs. Mr. Biegel, with his son, Craig, composed 'The World In Our Hands', published by the Hal Leonard Corporation. Also published through Hal Leonard are 'Christmas In A Minute', a choral setting of Chopin's 'Minute Waltz', and an arrangement of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'. Carl Fischer publishes 'Ho Ho Hanukah! Ho Ho Christmas!' and 'Different Kind of Hero' in 2008. Earthsongs includes Mr. Biegel's 'Elegy of Anne Boleyn' in their catalogue. Mr. Biegel is also an exclusive recording artist for PianoDisc (www.pianodisc.com)
Mr. Biegel is currently on the piano faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, a City University of New York (CUNY), and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). he resides outside New York City with his wife, Sharon, his sons, Craig and Evan.
ROBERT STRASSBURG (1915-2003)
For many decades Robert Strassburg figured prominently in the general musical life and in Jewish cultural circles in the
Strassburg was always dedicated to teaching. He was chairman of the composition and theory department at the
In 1960 Strassburg moved to
TERRY SILVER-ALFORD
He most recently received a commission from the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association to write a song for choir and orchestra entitled “Music is the Language” which has enjoyed performances by the Oak Ridge Symphony, the

