From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Brendan Townsend
Brendan Townsend
Brendan Townsend (b. 1968) is an Irish-born conductor, as Music Director of the Laredo Philharmonic Chorale.
educator and cellist. Since 2006 he has been a frequent guest conductor of the
Appointed as Music Director of the Laredo Philhar- Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, the Kingsville Sym-
monic Orchestra in 2003, Townsend has attracted wide- phony Orchestra, and recently the National Philharmon-
spread attention for his skill as a conductor. He won the ic Orchestra of Honduras.
“2007 ASCAP Award for Innovative Programming” pre- In recent years his concert programs have included
sented by the League of American Orchestras. works by Marion Ingoldsby, Declan Townsend, Stephen
In 2003 he was appointed to the Music Directorship Dankner, David Avshalomov, Bruce Craig Roter, Peter
of the Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra. He also holds a Boyer, Nancy Galbraith, Christoper Rouse, Henryck
concurrent teaching position at Texas A&M International Gorecki, Mikolaj Gorecki, Yoshimatsui, Behzad Ran-
University and Laredo Community College, where he jbaran, Roberto Sierra, Ross Edwards, Heather Schmidt,
teaches cello and conducting and is the conductor of and Lowell Lieberman.
Chamber Orchestra of Laredo, and Laredo Philharmonic He has worked alongside soloists Christopher O’Riley
Chorale. (piano), Wesley Baldwin (cello), Stephanie
As a guest conductor, he has worked in Florida, Ge- Sant’Ambrogio (violin), Cho-Liang Lin (violin), Herman
orgia, both Carolinas, Tennessee, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Godes (piano), Ilya Itin (piano), Luis Casal (viola), David
and California. He has also conducted concerts in Ger- Delambre (violin), Heather Schmidt (piano), Susan Liu
many, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and re- (piano and gu zheng), Suzanne Ramo (soprano), Patrick
cently, Honduras. Henkens (tenor), Paul Mc Namara (tenor), Franz Kokkel-
Growing up in County Cork, Ireland, the son of Dr. De- mans (baritone), Melinda Hughes (soprano), Roger
clan Townsend, a musician, educator and conductor. He Martin (flute), James Lotz (bassoon), James Spinazola
began his musical studies in cello and chamber music at (saxophone) and many others.
an early age at the Cork School of Music with cellist Ger- • Laredo Musical Theatre Online website
ard Kelly, and chamber musician Constantine Zanidache. Persondata
He earned his Diploma of the Cork School of Music in
Name Townsend, Brendan
1988. He further achieved a Licentiate Diploma in Cello
Performance from Trinity College, London. He spent a Alternative names
year in Essen, Germany where he took cello lessons from Short description
Young-Chang Cho at the Folkwang Hochschule before Date of birth 1968
transferring to the Conservatorium voor muziek (in
Place of birth
Maastricht), where he attained a Docerend Musicus
diploma in cello and an Uitvoerend Diploma in conduct- Date of death
ing in 1994. Place of death
He began his conducting career with the Cork Gilbert
& Sullivan Society at age 18. He made his professional
European debut with the Netherlands Promenade
Orchestra before going on to conduct over 20 orchestras,
choirs and opera companies in Europe. From 1995 – 1997
he was the Music Director for Sinfonietta Geleen and Ars
Antiqua et Nova. In 1997 he moved to the United States
where he was Music Director of the Youth Orchestras of
San Antonio and director of orchestras at the Universi-
ty of the Incarnate Word. In 2001 he became the interim
Music Director of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra and
Director of Orchestras at Tennessee Tech University. In
2004 he was invited to conduct performances by Laredo
Musical Theatre International which has led to his being
named Music Director. In September 2005 he took over
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Brendan Townsend
Categories:
• Cellists
• Irish Cellists
• Irish conductors (music)
• Irish expatriates in the United States
• Irish musicians
• Texas classical music
• Living people
• Texas A&M International University faculty
• University of the Incarnate Word faculty
• Laredo Community College faculty
• Tennessee Tech University faculty
• Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra
• Laredo Philharmonic Chorale
• 1968 births
• People from Laredo, Texas
• People from County Cork
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