Rehearsal with Boise Philharmonic

Biography (Fall 2008)
 
Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic, newly appointed Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, and Music Director of the Mansfield Symphony, Robert Franz is emerging as one of the most talented conductors of his generation. He is also currently serving as Resident Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic through the 2008-09 season. 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”.
 
Maestro Franz will begin his tenure as Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic in the 2008-2009 season, where he will conduct five pairs of Masterpiece Subscription Concerts over 8 weeks, including multi-media performances of Richard Einhorn’s “Voices of Light”. The innovations that Franz will bring as Music Director will include a new tradition of inviting composers to attend performances of their works and be a part of the Boise community. This season Shulamit Ran will visit Boise. As Music Director of the Mansfield Symphony in Ohio, Mr. Franz will begin his sixth season with performances of a wide range of great symphonic works, fully staged ballet, opera and Broadway musicals, and a continuation of his highly successful artistic collaborations with other prominent organizations, including performing and visual arts groups, libraries, and area churches.
 

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.
 
A champion of new music, Franz has conducted numerous world premieres. 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.
 
On two occasions, ASCAP recognized Robert Franz for his advocacy of arts education. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in June 2008 and the Louisville Orchestra in 2001 were awarded the Leonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming based on programs he developed. The Louisville Orchestra’s award led to the creation a 2.5-hour education

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

program for Kentucky Educational Television entitled, Creating Music and Stories. Mr. Franz has created arts education programs for the Buffalo Philharmonic, where he was awarded the 2008 BPO/ECMEA Music Educators Award for Excellence, the Carolina Chamber Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, West End Chamber Ensemble and the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, including that organization’s innovative Bolton Research Project. In 2007, Franz received the Extraordinary Leadership Award as Music Director of the Mansfield Symphony.
 
In addition to his current posts, Mr. Franz served as associate conductor of the Louisville Orchestra from 1997-2006, the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony and the National Repertory Orchestra, and has led 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.
 
Mr. 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 (ASOL) and the Festival at Sandpoint, and was a participant in the 1997 National Conductor Preview (ASOL).