Robert Spano

Credit: Chris Lee

Robert Spano, as Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, has enriched and expanded its repertoire and elevated the ensemble to new levels of international prominence. In 2012, Robert Spano became Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and School and is also a Fellow of the Aspen Institute as part of the Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence Program.

Spano has appeared with Seattle Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony and Orchestra of St. Luke’s among many others. Respected as a collaborative pianist and composer, Spano joins bass-baritone Eric Owens for three recitals in Denver, CO, Davis, CA and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York. Maestro Spano conducts the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra as well as the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Philadelphia and at the Dresden Music Festival. Spring 2012 marks the third, and final, year of Spano’s three-year residency at Emory University, a testament to Spano’s communicative abilities and passion for education. In its 165-year history, Emory University has honored only seven other individuals with such expansive residencies, including the Dalai Lama, President Jimmy Carter and author Salman Rushdie.

With a discography of 16 critically-acclaimed recordings for Telarc and Deutsche Grammophon, Robert Spano has garnered six Grammy Awards. In February 2011, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Naxos created ASO Media and the label’s first recording was released in April 2011. Musical America’s 2008 “Conductor of the Year,” Mr. Spano is on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory, and has received honorary doctorates from Bowling Green State University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Emory University, and Oberlin. For more information, visit www.robertspanomusic.com.