Scott Dunn is an American conductor and pianist whose recent schedule highlights include his New York City Opera conducting debut; multiple appearances with Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and such headliners as Natalie Cole and Chris Botti; music direction of CAROUSEL for UCLA opera; a Leonard Rosenman film music concert for NYU; conducting debuts in Europe and Latin American leading Howard Shore’s LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY with the Orchestre National de France and others; and performance of the west cost premiere of John Adams’ ROAD MOVIES.
Dunn’s professional conducting career began in 1999, when Lukas Foss made Dunn the Associate Music director for the Music Festival of the Hamptons. There he worked intimately with Foss for three years and also earned considerable acclaim from the press. One New York critic wrote…”he is a conductor of great promise, a pianist of note, and a sensitive and intelligent artist. All of these elements came together to give the audience an experience closer to heaven than most of us will get in this lifetime… I cannot praise Mr. Dunn’s conducting too highly”. Dunn subsequently held posts at GIimmerglass Opera (2006) and at Pittsburgh Opera (Associate Conductor, 2006-2007). In 2008, he joined the conducting staff of the LA Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. At the legendary Hollywood Bowl, Dunn has recently led the orchestra with such headliners as Natalie Cole and famed jazz trumpeter Chris Botti. Earlier conducting career highlights include the pre-production recording of Marc Adamo’s LYSISTRATA (2005); the premiere of ANIMAL TALES by Kitty Brazelton and George Plimpton for Atlantic Center of the Arts and Family Opera Initiative (2005); Malcolm Williamson’s THE HAPPY PRINCE for Kentucky Opera (2005); Howard Shore’s massive LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY with the Orchestre National de Lyon and the symphonies in North Carolina and Guanajuato Mexico (2006); PIERROT LUNAIRE at Lincoln Center (2006) and the world premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett’s THE GARDEN for Glimmerglass Opera (2006). His most recent appearances include a Leonard Rosenman tribute concert for NYU; CAROUSEL for UCLA opera and a New York City Opera conducting debut in spring 2010 with Julian Wachner’s EVANGELINE REVISTSED and Scott Richard Davenport’s STAR ACROSS THE OCEAN for the 2010 Vox Festival of New American opera.
Also a distinguished pianist, Dunn has performed world-wide and has premiered or recorded for commercial release works by Franco Alfano, Irwin Bazelon, Richard Rodney Bennett, Lord Berners, Vernon Duke, Lukas Foss, Ricky Ian Gordon, Peter Lieberson, Roger Reynolds, Ned Rorem, Leonard Rosenman and James Sellars. In recent years he has recorded nearly exclusively for the Naxos label and has produced several acclaimed CD’s including the complete piano works of Lukas Foss (2005), the Duke PIANO CONCERTO IN C (2007) and the chamber works of Franco Alfano (2009). His numerous recordings for Naxos, Albany, CRI and other labels are all currently available on Amazon.com.
As a pianist, Dunn made his first concerto appearance in Iowa at the age of twelve. As a USIS ‘Artistic Ambassadors Competition’ medalist, Dunn extensively toured former states of the Soviet Union and Europe playing solo recitals featuring the Carter PIANO SONATA and the CONCORD SONATA of Charles Ives and other American 20th century piano classics. Dunn also toured Europe with the Martha Graham Dance Company and was orchestral pianist for the EOS orchestra in NYC. In 1999, Dunn made his acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut playing his own orchestration of the ‘lost’ Vernon Duke PIANO CONCERTO IN C with Dennis Russell Davies and the American Composers Orchestra. Subsequent significant piano engagements have included a Carnegie Hall performance of Rosza’s SPELLBOUND CONCERTO (2001, again with Davies and the A.C.O.); a 2004 solo recital on the prestigious Piano Spheres series in Los Angeles; extensive touring and multiple concerts with such distinguished singers as Kurt Ollmann, Joyce Castle, Marni Nixon and Angelina Réaux and multiple appearances up to the present at the New York Festival of Chamber music and on the Jacaranda series in Los Angeles. Of one such recent Jacaranda series performance the LA Times raved that …“Pianist Scott Dunn, associate conductor of the Pittsburgh Opera, was suave, masterly, insouciant, nostalgic and exuberant in the opening set of four works by Joplin ("Solace, a Mexican Serenade," "Paragon Rag," "Bethena, a Concert Waltz" and "Maple Leaf Rag") … and he was absolutely riveting in meeting the infernal rhythmic and expressive demands of Rzewski's pro-labor "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues."
Also a noted orchestrator and advocate for American film and cross-over composers, Dunn came to prominence with the Carnegie Hall premiere of his orchestration of the ‘lost’ Vernon Duke PIANO CONCERTO IN C. The concerto, written in 1923 at the request of Arthur Rubinstein, had never been performed as the composer had never did the orchestration. Working only from a two-piano score, Dunn completed the concerto in time for the Carnegie Hall Gershwin Centenary concerts of 1998 - 1999. Dunn’s more recent projects include extensive work and orchestration supervision on Danny Elfman’s 2008 ballet RABBIT AND ROGUE for Twyla Tharp and the ABT; a producer credit on the same composer’s 2006 SERENADA SCHIZOPHRANA CD for Sony; and assistance in the reconstruction and recording of George Gershwin’s original 1935 version of PORGY AND BESS (with conductor John Mauceri and the Nashville Symphony) for a Grammy nominated release by Decca (2006).
Dunn’s distinguished musical mentors have included conductors Lukas Foss, Jorge Mester and Harold Farberman; legendary pianists Byron Janis, Daniel Pollock and Brooks Smith; as well as composers Leonard Rosenman, Irwin Bazelon and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. Born and raised in Iowa, his diverse education included musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music (where he earned a Masters degree), the University of Iowa, USC and the Aspen School and Festival. Although Dunn does not practice medicine, he also is board certified in eye surgery, having earned an M.D. from the University of Iowa and completed internship, fellowship and residency at USC.
Upcoming engagements include recordings for Naxos, Sony Classics and Tams Witmark; ongoing appearances as collaborator and soloist; the creation and publication of a phrase book and musical lexicon in French, Italian, English and German for performers and conductors; work on musical tribute concerts for the films of Tim Burton and Danny Elfman; music direction of a “new” Vernon Duke musical MISIA and upcoming film music concerts in the US and Europe.