The West Virginia University Chamber Winds, under the direction of guest conductor Grant Cooper, will present a concert of very challenging and enjoyable chamber music at the Creative Arts Center Tuesday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre.
The Chamber Winds ensemble is made up of some of the most talented musicians in the College of Creative Arts. The concert is free, and the public is cordially invited to attend.
Maestro Cooper is the conductor and artistic director of the West Virginia Symphony in Charleston and a former conductor and teacher at Ithaca College in New York. He will conduct the Chamber Winds ensemble in Serenade No. 12 in c minor for wind octet by Wolfgang Mozart; Woodchoppers Ball by Woody Herman; and two works by Igor Stravinsky-Ebony Concerto and Symphonies of Wind Instruments. Ebony Concerto will feature clarinet soloist John Weigand of the WVU music faculty. Weigand is professor of clarinet and also directs the WVU Chamber Winds.
Cooper became the ninth conductor of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra in July 2001. He is also resident conductor of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, where he has given more than 400 performances. He served as music director of the Fredonia Chamber Players from 1983 to 1999 and held the same position with the Penfield Symphony Orchestra. He is also artistic director of two summer festivals-the Bach and Beyond Festival and the Anchorage Festival of Music in Alaska.
Cooper was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of a professional opera singer. He sang and acted in his first opera at age four and studied piano and music theory prior to college. After completing his degree in pure mathematics at the University of Auckland, he performed in the major concert halls of the world, from Beijing to London. Following a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Cooper was invited by Maestro Claudio Abbado to join the orchestra of La Scala as solo trumpet. Instead, he accepted a fellowship from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council for study with Gerard Schwarz in the United States.
He performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall and with the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler. In 1978, while holding a fellowship at Tanglewood, Cooper performed as principal trumpet under conductors Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Sir Neville Marriner, among others. He was the principal trumpet of the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra before devoting himself to conducting.
He has been guest conductor for the XIVth Commonwealth Games closing ceremonies, as well as for the Mozart Wochen of the Heidelberger Schlossfestspiele in Europe. He also appeared regularly as guest conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestras of Buffalo and Rochester, and the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. In recent years, he debuted with the Spokane Symphony, the Erie Philharmonic, the Kansas City Symphony, the Syracuse Opera, the Stamford Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, among others.
His appearances with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra have generated considerable enthusiasm and acclaim across the whole gamut of programs, showing his deep affinity for repertoire of enormous stylistic range. A commissioned composer, Cooper has also been especially active creating works designed to introduce young audiences to the orchestra.
For more information, contact the College of Creative Arts at (304) 293-4841, ext. 3108.