A BRIEF HISTORY
© Manhattan Sinfonietta, 2007
JEFFREY MILARSKY, CONDUCTOR & MUSIC DIRECTOR
© Manhattan Sinfonietta, 2007
In June of 2004 he led an all-Ravel concert at the Musica Viva Festival in Lawrenceville, NJ. In Autumn and Spring 2004 will also conducted dates in Norway, Italy, Paris and Austria. Mr. Milarsky made his Parisian debut conducting the BIT20 Ensemble at the Olivier Messiaen Hall at Radio France, in a performance of the prize winning score of Lasse Thoresen's Lop, Lokk Og Linjar. Mr. Milarsky is the regular guest conductor of The BIT20 Ensemble, having performed with them around the globe, including Paris, Estonia, Latvia, Norway and Italy. Other recent highlights include conducting the Cygnus Ensemble in the world premiere of Milton Babbitt's Swansong, conducting the world premiere and recording Mario Davidovsky's Flashbacks, and several area premieres of the music of Gerard Grisey: Les Espaces Acoustiques (New York premiere) for Columbia University's "Music for a New Century" series and Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil (US Premiere) with Speculum Musicae.
Jeffrey Milarsky is a Professor of Music at Columbia University, where has been since 2000, and is the Music Director/Conductor of the Columbia University Orchestra. Mr. Milarsky is the leading conductor of contemporary music in New York City. In the United States and abroad, he has premiered and recorded works by many of the best contemporary composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Lasse Thoresen, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe, Tristan Murail, Ralph Shapey, Luigi Nono, Mario Davidovsky, and Wolfgang Rihm. His wide ranging repertoire, which spans from Bach to Xenakis, has brought him to lead such accomplished groups as the American Composers Orchestra (Assistant Conductor), the New York New Music Ensemble, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Speculum Musicae, Cygnus Ensemble, The Fromm Players at Harvard University, The Composers' Ensemble at Princeton University, the New York Philharmonic chamber music series, and his own ensemble, the Manhattan Sinfonietta. Highlights of the recent seasons include conducting an exciting debut with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York. In August of 2004, he made his debut with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway, conducting Ravel and Liebermann.
(photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times)
With the Ensemble Sospeso, he has conducted three United States premieres by Wolfgang Rihm, and two by Tristan Murail. Mr. Milarsky received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding leadership and achievement in the arts. He regularly conducts The Juilliard Orchestra, with whom he has premiered over 150 works of Juilliard student composers over the past fifteen years. He is also on the Pre-College Percussion Faculty at Juilliard, and has been, until recently, Director of the Composition Forum.