Rehearsal with Boise Philharmonic

Biography (Summer 2010)
 
Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic, and Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, Robert Franz is emerging as one of the most talented conductors of his generation. Eminent composer Bright Sheng has praised Franz for his “extremely musical and passionate approach towards music making” and critics have hailed his “masterly pace, emphasis and technical control” calling his conducting “viscerally thrilling”.
 
As Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic, Franz has made great strides in reaching out to the community by creating partnerships with other leading arts groups and educational institutions. This past season his collaborations included Opera Idaho, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and the Boise Ballet. He also launched a Casual Classics Series of informal Saturday morning concerts. In this third season, Franz’s collaborations will include a concert with the Boise Art Museum featuring artists creating paintings inspired by the music, and another with the National Alliance on Mental Health.
 
As Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, Robert Franz continues to lead the Symphony in a broad range of creative educational and family concerts. Franz’s emphasis on these programs has led him to a continuing relationship with Disney Radio.
 

With Sir James with Lady Jeanne Galway

With a wide and varying knowledge of symphonic and operatic works, Maestro Franz has worked with some of today’s finest classical soloists, including James Galway, Joshua Bell and Rachel Barton, as well as many of the top pops artists such as Chris Botti, Chaka Khan, and Judy Collins. He has been invited to guest conduct orchestras throughout the United States, including multiple appearances with such orchestras as the Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, and the Columbus Symphony, among others. Guest conducting appearances this season include the Asheville Lyric Opera, The Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, the Portland Symphony (ME), the Idaho Ballet, South Bend Symphony, and the Idaho Falls Symphony.
 
A champion of new music, Franz has conducted numerous world premieres and works by living composers. This season in Boise, he will conduct a world premiere by Lawrence Dillon and a work by Eric Ewanzen. He has hosted Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Jennifer Higdon and Shulamit Ran in previous seasons. As Associate Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, he re-vitalized an ASCAP award-winning new music concert series, and served as co-host of In a Different Key, a weekly contemporary classical music radio program on WUOL.
 

Mindy Duncan paints while Robert rehearses the Mansfield Symphony in Michael Torke’s “Ash“.

On two occasions, ASCAP has recognized Robert Franz for his advocacy in arts education. Under his direction, both the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008 and the Louisville Orchestra in 2001 were awarded the Leonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming. The Louisville Orchestra’s award lead to the creation an education program for Kentucky Educational Television entitled, Creating Music and Stories. Winner of the 2008 BPO/ECMEA Music Educators Award for Excellence, Franz is a strong supporter of arts education, and has created arts education programs for the Carolina Chamber Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, West End Chamber Ensemble and the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, including that organization’s innovative Bolton Research Project.
 
In addition to his current posts, Franz served as the Music Director of the Mansfield Symphony in Ohio from 2003-2010, Resident Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic from 2005-2009, and Associate Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra from 1997-2006. He has also led the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, the Louisville Youth Orchestra, and the Winston-Salem Youth Symphony. He continues to serve as Music Director Emeritus of the Carolina Chamber Symphony, an orchestra that he founded, and provides educational programming workshops at the National Repertory Orchestra during the summer.
 
Franz received his Master of Music degree in conducting from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1992 and his Bachelor of Music degree in oboe performance in 1990 from that same institution. He has participated in conducting workshops in the Czech Republic, St. Petersburg (Russia), Nashville, the Festival at Sandpoint and was a participant in the 1997 National Conductor Preview.
 
When not on the podium, Franz is an avid runner and a proponent of the Alexander technique.