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Michael Palmer
Eugene
Lee
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Instructor
Michael
Palmer is best known to audiences as artistic director of the Bellingham
Festival of Music, a post he has held since 1993. Under his
leadership, the Festival has become internationally recognized, and live
recordings from its annual concerts have been heard across the United States
on National Public Radio, featuring some of the world's finest orchestral
musicians and major guest artists.
In 2006, he also assumed the post of artistic director of the
Orchestral Institute at the new Quartz
Mountain Music Festival in southwestern Oklahoma.
Michael Palmer has long been considered one of this country's finest
conductors. His professional career began at age 21, when he was
invited by Robert Shaw to become assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra, where he was soon promoted to associate conductor.
In 1975, Palmer became one of the first five young conductors in the United States
chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts for its newly-established
EXXON/Arts Endowment Conductor fellowships. As part of the EXXON/Arts
Endowment program, Palmer was part of an exchange of conductors that summer
between the ASO and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington,
DC, where he conducted the NSO's summer
classical series at the Kennedy
Center. The
following year, the NSO independently invited Palmer back to lead a more
extensive series of summer concerts.
In 1977, after 10 years in Atlanta
with the ASO, Palmer accepted the position of music director of the Wichita Symphony
Orchestra. While at Wichita,
he also served as guest conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for three
consecutive seasons (1978-1981), and was co-principal guest conductor of the
Denver Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1982.
In 1989 Michael Palmer assumed the post of music director of the New Haven
Symphony Orchestra, which he held until 1997. In 1994,
Carnegie Hall invited Palmer and the NHSO to perform in New York City as part of their esteemed
Visiting Orchestras Series.
Palmer founded the American Sinfonietta in 1991, which brought him more
prominent international attention through ten seasons of European tours under
his leadership, playing to critical acclaim in the major concert halls of Germany, Austria
and Switzerland.
Over the course of his career, Michael Palmer has made appearances as guest
conductor with many US
orchestras, including the Rochester Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra,
Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City
Philharmonic, and the San Diego Symphony, as well as orchestras in Austria, Poland,
Greece and China.
His recordings include an all-Mendelssohn disc (Summit Records), the five
piano concertos of Beethoven with Garrick Ohlsson (Natural Soundfields), and
Ned Rorem's english horn concerto with Thomas Stacy and the Rochester
Philharmonic (New World Records).
Michael Palmer has long been an advocate of high-quality performing
experiences for young musicians, actively including education and
adjudication as part of his overall professional vision. In 1974, under
the auspices of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he founded and was music
director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Palmer joined the faculty of Wichita
State University
in 1999 as their orchestral conductor, then returned to Atlanta
in August of 2004 as director of orchestras for Georgia State
University, which in
2006 honored him with the title of Charles Thomas Wurm Distinguished
Professor of Orchestral Studies.
Associate Instructor
Eugene Lee, conductor, was
born in Seoul, S. Korea,
His career includes work as a composer, conductor, arranger, columnist and
artist management planner.
Eugene Lee has been called “the Little Giant’ - one of the
most exciting conductors who has come into the spotlight in our time - by the
Korean Journal. As he celebrates
his 6th season as a music director with the New Atlanta Philharmonic
Orchestra, he is recognized for his dynamic leadership, distinguished
musicality and incredibly wide orchestra repertoire.
Mr. Lee began his career as a church music composer at age 14,
and at 16 he became a choral conductor at Yoido Full
Gospel Church,
the world’s largest church having 700.000 congregation members. By the time
he was 24 years old, he had conducted over 100 concerts in Korea, Japan,
Israel, and Egypt with
his own chorus, Do-Sol Concert Choir, and chamber orchestra. Also he founded
“Psalm 23”, one of the top artist management companies in Korea and presented over 200 concerts in the
world including Korea, Japan and Russia.
Eugene Lee has had six composition recitals featuring
contemporary music since 1990. He appeared in the Seoul Arts
Center and conducted
the Soregi Chamber, and the String and Bow Festival. His dedication to the
development and performance of new works by contemporary composers and
various genres of music is demonstrated in his concerts. He has played with
distinguished soloists such as Helen Kim, and William Pritchard. He also
conducted the gorgeous, but rarely played pieces, Tuba Concerto by David
Sampson and Vaughn Williams’ Tuba
Concerto.
He won 1st Prize at the 25th NANPA Music Competition during
which he conducted many orchestras. In addition, he became a renowned music
critic and composer. He was awarded “The Critic of the Year 2001” from the SE
Korean-American Association Coalition. Because of his efforts and devotion to
the Youth Orchestra, he was awarded the “Leader of the Year” award from the
Atlanta Korean–American Youth center. He also received a special scholarship
from the Korean-American scholarship foundation in 2007, and he is invited as
the member of the Golden Key Club by the Georgia State
University in
2008.
In 1998, Lee moved to Atlanta, GA and began to contribute to the mainstream and Asian
communities as a critic of the Dong-A
Daily News, the Korea
Southeast News, the KTN-TV and the AM KOREA Radio.
He has served as a guest conductor with various school
orchestras, including Dunwoody High school, Atlanta
Clark University,
Morehouse College, and Spellman Women’s College.
In 2001, he founded the Peach Prim Orchestra consisting of professional
members. In 2002, after 10 concerts with PPO, Lee became music director of
the New Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra (NAPO). Under his leadership, the NAPO
has become one of the most venerable orchestras in Atlanta, presenting successful concerts for
many audiences. Mr. Lee founded the New Atlanta Youth Orchestra under the
NAPO as well as his own music school, the New Atlanta Conservatory in Johns Creek
and in Duluth
for the education and advocacy of young musicians. Since 2007 Lee has hosted
“The Michael Palmer International Conducting Workshop” in Atlanta.
He is pursuing a
Master’s degree with instrumental conducting from the Georgia State University
School of Music where he had served as a graduate assistant conductor under
Maestro Michael Palmer, and he earned B.M. as a valedictorian, majoring in
composition. Also he studied orchestral conducting at St. Petersburg
Conservatory of music, Russia.
In 2008, he began to serve with the Atlanta Sinfonia as music director.
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