Ensembles Faculty

 

Adam Flatt - orchestra conductor (YAS)

Adam Flatt is a conductor who is recognized for “outstanding precision and style,” and a warm, engaging stage presence.

Music Director of the Newport Symphony, the only year-round professional orchestra on the Oregon coast, Adam also serves as Music Director of the Colorado Ballet in Denver, and is principal conductor of Emerald City Opera, a summer festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  He appears as a guest with ensembles all over the United States.

When Marin Alsop invited Mr. Flatt to join the Colorado Symphony as Associate Conductor in 2001 he began a five-year tenure during which he conducted over 250 performances with the orchestra, including classical subscription, parks, outreach, special event performances, and live broadcasts for radio and television.  He created and hosted family and educational concerts that reached tens of thousands of children and families in the region.  Adam was the first conductor for “Spirit of the Season,” a holiday concert of the Colorado Symphony and choruses broadcast on Colorado’s CBS-4, which has become a beloved annual television event.

In 2001 he also began his seven year tenure as Music Director of the Denver Young Artists Orchestra, during which the DYAO organization celebrated its 25th and 30th anniversaries.  He led the DYAO in acclaimed concerts at home in Denver and on tours to central Europe and South America.  Under his leadership, the DYAO was widely recognized as one of the most exciting and best-trained youth orchestras in the United States.

His professional career began with the position of conducting apprentice with the Oregon Symphony.

Mr. Flatt has guest conducted the orchestras of Alabama, Cheyenne, Dallas, Delaware, Houston, Lubbock, Midland-Odessa, Missoula, Monterey, Oregon, Sacramento, Saint Louis, San Juan, Santa Rosa, South Carolina, and many others.  Adam has appeared as a conductor at music festivals across the country including Bravo! Vail Valley, Cascade, Emerald City Opera, Green, Marrowstone, and Strings in the Mountains.

He has led performances with the major ballet companies of Portland and Salt Lake City as well as that of Denver.  

Also devoted to the operatic repertoire, Mr. Flatt returns each summer to conduct a production for Emerald City Opera, a festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  In addition, he has led productions for Colorado Light Opera, Eugene Opera, and  Colorado Symphony collaborations with Central City Opera and Opera Colorado, including the wildly popular “Opera on the Rocks” at Red Rocks.

Adam Flatt has his bachelor’s degree with honors in music from the University of California at Berkeley, and his master’s degree in conducting from the Indiana University School of Music.  He studied music for two years in Austria and Germany, and studied at the Aspen Music Festival.

 

Jonathan Girard - orchestra conductor (JSS2)

Jonathan Girard recently received his training from the Eastman School of Music, as a doctoral student in orchestral conducting. He served as an assistant conductor for the Eastman School orchestras under Professor Neil Varon. He also was the music director of the New Eastman Outreach Orchestra (NEO). Mr. Girard received his Master’s degree in conducting from Boston University in 2006. He has held positions as the music director of the Waltham Philharmonic (2002-2007), associate conductor of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra (1997-2006), principal guest conductor of the Boston Orpheus Ensemble (2002-2006) and assistant conductor of the Portland (ME) Opera Repertory Theatre (1997-2000).

Other ensembles he has conducted include the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, American Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Academy Symphony Orchestra, Ossia New Music, Alea III, the Cleveland Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra, the Brown University Symphony Orchestra, the Pierre Monteux School Orchestra, the Boston University Symphony Orchestras, the Cambridge Symphony, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players.

Mr. Girard's teachers have included Neil Varon, Martin Pearlman, Paul Phillips, Jonathan Cohler and Dr. Richard Rusack.

Also a classical saxophonist, Mr. Girard graduated summa cum laude in saxophone performance from the Hartt School of Music. There, he won the prestigious Emerson String Quartet Soloist Competition and became the first saxophonist to ever perform with that group. Mr. Girard is also an organist. From 2009-2010 he was the Music Director at St. Anne’s Church in Rochester, NY. From 2002-2008 he served as the Music Director and Principal Organist at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Dedham, MA.

In his spare time, Mr. Girard enjoys flying airplanes. He holds both private and instrument pilot ratings.

 

Andrew Picken - orchestra conductor (JSS1)

Violist Andrew Picken is associate principal violist of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and Principal Violist of the Pasadena Symphony as well as the Glendale Symphony. A native of Los Angeles, Mr. Picken received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California in Los Angeles and a master’s degree from Northwestern University in Chicago.  Mr. Picken has served as principal violist with the Long Beach Symphony, American Ballet Theater, the San Francisco Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet.  He has performed with numerous other orchestras in southern California including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and Orange County’s Pacific Symphony.

Mr. Picken is associate principal violist of the Los Angeles Master Choral Orchestra, with which he has appeared as a soloist in Bach’s St. John’s Passion and Britten's Cantata Misericordium. For the past several years, he has served as principal violist of the eastern Sierra Summer Festival in Mammoth Lakes. He is a faculty member at the Colburn School in Los Angeles and at Loyola Marymount University.  He is active in the television and motion picture recording industry, having performed on myriad soundtracks including “Lost,” “Ratatouille,” and “Star Trek.”  In addition, he has performed on the albums of numerous recording artists such as Barbara Streisand, Prince, and Josh Grobin.

As a conductor, Andrew has lead ensembles throughout the Los Angeles area. Recordings of his performances have been heard in live Ballet productions in New York and elsewhere. He has studied with the renowned conducting pedagogue Jorge Mester in Los Angeles, as well as Samuel Krachmalnick and Richard Rintoul.

Andrew is an active chamber musician as well.  With a string quartet, he toured the former Soviet Union, visiting Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and Estonia, as well as Finland.  He has toured in Germany, Mexico, and Taiwan and performed at the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, and the Ojai Music Festival as well as other festivals throughout the United States. He is a faculty member and frequent performer at the Chamber Music Unbound series in Mammoth Lakes, California. He is married to Pasadena Symphony concertmaster Aimee Kreston.

 

George Thomson - orchestra conductor (YAS)

George Thomson enjoys a multi-faceted career as a conductor, instrumentalist, and educator.  He recently accepted a position in the Salem-Keizer (Oregon) Public Schools, after serving eleven years as Music Director of the Virtuoso Program at San Domenico School in San Anselmo, California, and Music Director the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra.

The San Domenico Orchestra da Camera, under Mr. Thomson's direction, won "Grand Champion" awards at the 2005 and 2008 National Orchestra Festivals sponsored by the American String Teachers' Association. The Virtuoso Program was featured in the February 2004 issue of Strings Magazine, and performed on the nationally-broadcast radio program "From the Top" in February of 2006.

Mr. Thomson has also been Music Director of the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra since 2001; he conducts the Marin Symphony in their annual Family Concert. From 1994 to 2007 he worked as a conductor for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. As Associate Conductor, he conducted a subscription program as well as several rehearsals each season in the absence of Music Director Kent Nagano. He directed the Symphony's "Under Construction" series of new music reading events, and was also the Music Director of the Symphony's award-winning Music Education Program, which brings the orchestra into the Berkeley Public Schools in a series of innovative performances each season.

Raised in Sunnyvale, California, George attended the University of California at Berkeley where he received A.B. and M.A. degrees in Music, studying conducting with Michael Senturia and Philip Brett. He was for several years Music Director of the San Francisco-based new music ensemble EARPLAY, and has appeared as a guest conductor with many new music ensembles, including the Empyrean Ensemble, Composers Inc., and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. With the latter ensemble he conducted two works by Andrew Imbrie in a recording released in 2002 on the Albany Records label.

In addition to his work with contemporary music, George has been active in the historical performance movement. As a baroque violinist and violist he was a longtime member of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the American Bach Soloists. From 1996 to 2005, he was Principal Violist of the Carmel Bach Festival, where he was a member of the Festival String Quartet.

Among the Bay Area ensembles with which George has appeared as a guest conductor are the Santa Rosa and Marin Symphonies, Berkeley Opera, Lamplighters Music Theater, and the Orchestra of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is currently serving as Interim Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony's Young People's Chamber Orchestra.