Lawrence Golan, Biography

Lawrence Golan is currently in his second season as the Helen N. Jewett Music Director of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, central Washington’s premier professional orchestra. During his highly successful inaugural season, Golan helped to dramatically raise the artistic level of the orchestra. In addition, he spearheaded efforts to grow the organization financially as well. In just one year, the YSO increased its budget by 27%, its concert season by 33%, its private donations by 23%, its total ticket revenue by 39%, and single ticket sales more than doubled. Golan and the YSO also won an ASCAP Award for the Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. Golan’s appointment in Yakima comes on the heels of an equally successful four-year term as Resident Conductor of The Phoenix Symphony. That orchestra’s President and CEO Maryellen Gleason stated that Lawrence Golan was “unequivocally the best Resident Conductor The Phoenix Symphony ever had.” Music Director Michael Christie said that Golan “is a programmer of virtually unprecedented creativity and scope.” Several of the concerts that Golan programmed, conducted and narrated with The Phoenix Symphony turned out to be the most financially successful and well-attended performances in the history of the orchestra, completely selling out triple concert sets in a 2200-seat hall. Golan continues to guest conduct professional orchestras, opera, and ballet companies in the United States and around the world. Having conducted in 25 U.S. states and 15 countries, recent engagements include performances in Boulder, Macon, Memphis, and Tucson as well as the Czech Republic, Italy, Korea, and Taiwan.

A staunch supporter of music education, Golan is a tenured full professor at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music where he conducts the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre and leads one of the most distinguished and highly sought after graduate conducting programs in the United States. During his time in Denver, Golan has won seven consecutive Outstanding Merit Awards, six ASCAP awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, and the Downbeat Magazine Award for “Best College Symphony Orchestra”. The Lamont School of Music’s director, Joseph Docksey, has called Golan’s work there “nothing short of astounding.” Each summer, Golan teaches at the renowned Conductor’s Institute at Bard College in New York. Along with JoAnn Falletta, he was recently asked to join the Conductors Guild’s prestigious Mentoring Committee, which makes itself available to advise conductors from all over the world.

In addition to those mentioned above, Golan has received numerous other awards and honors. Along with Warren Deck of the New York Philharmonic, Golan was recently inducted into Pi Kappa Lamda, the prestigious national honor society for distinguished musicians. In 2010, Golan was selected as a finalist for the American Prize in Orchestral Conducting.

Lawrence Golan is known for his inspired performances, imaginative programming, passion for developing new audiences, and excellent public speaking skills—entertaining and/or educating the audience from both on and off the podium. He is also recognized for his expertise in the complete spectrum of musical styles and periods. He has worked with artists ranging from Leonard Bernstein, Marilyn Horne, Daniel Barenboim and Joshua Bell to Frank Sinatra, Kenny G and ShaNaNa.

Golan’s deep commitment to community outreach and audience development goes back several years. Earlier in his career, he founded the Atlantic Chamber Orchestra with the sole purpose of developing new audiences for classical music by making it more relevant and exciting. He created concert events specifically designed to bring in new listeners, and the successes he had in that endeavor led the Conductors Guild to invite him to speak at their national conference on the subject of developing 21^st century audiences.

A native of Chicago, Lawrence Golan holds degrees in both conducting and violin performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music (B.M. and M.M.) and the New England Conservatory of Music (D.M.A.). In addition, he studied at all of the major conducting festivals including Aspen and Tanglewood, where in 1999 he was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship. The long list of distinguished conductors with whom Mr. Golan studied includes Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, David Zinman, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Murry Sidlin, and Harold Farberman.

Mr. Golan has made several recordings with the Moravian Philharmonic on the Albany Records label. His recording of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 has been highly praised by critics: “This is a world-class recording. It is refreshing to hear a recording of a well-known work of concert repertoire done so honestly and so beautifully.” (Robin McNeil, In Denver Times). “It stands up to many more-familiar recordings.” (Richard Nilsen, The Arizona Republic). That CD also features Tchaikovsky 6.1 by Peter Boyer, a work that Golan commissioned and premiered. Funky Little Crustaceans features orchestral music by Colorado composer William Hill, and Visions, Dreams & Memories is a collection of works for Native American flute and orchestra with James Pellerite, former Principal Flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and now one of the world’s premiere Native American flutists. Golan’s most recent recording, and his first with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven Symphony No. 7 & Beethoven 7.1 by William Hill, will be released by Albany Records later this year.

Following in the footsteps of his father Joseph Golan, longtime Principal Second Violinist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lawrence Golan is also an accomplished violinist. He was Concertmaster of the Portland Symphony Orchestra for eleven years, has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, and has made several commercially available recordings as a violinist. His recording entitled Indian Summer: The Music of George Perlman, is treasured by young violin students and their teachers and is regarded as a very helpful and inspiring pedagogical aide.

Lawrence Golan’s edition and reduced orchestration of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is published by Spurwink River Publishing and is used by orchestras and ballet companies across North America. His scholarly-performing edition of the solo violin works of J. S. Bach that includes a handbook on Baroque Performance Practice, and The Lawrence Golan Violin Scale System are both published by Mel Bay Publications. His original composition Fantasia for Solo Violin is published by Ludwig Music.

Lawrence and his wife Cecilia, who is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, have been married since 2003. They have a wonderful little girl named Giovanna.

Lawrence Golan is represented by William Reinert Associates in New York. For more information, please visit www.LawrenceGolan.com or www.williamreinert.com.