SCOTT DUNN

SCOTT DUNN is the Associate conductor of the LA Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.  He is also a distinguished pianist who studied with Byron Janis and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1999 with Dennis Russell Davies and the American Composers Orchestra. His notable musical versatility is reflected in his recent schedule which includes two 2010 premieres for NY City Opera and the 2011 world premiere of SUMEIDA’S SONG in NY; multiple conducting appearances with Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and such headliners as Natalie Cole, Serge Gainsbourg and Chris Botti; CAROUSEL for UCLA opera; the premiere and publication of his own orchestration of Schoenberg’s CABARET SONGS for voice and chamber orchestra; an NYU film music tribute concert for composer Leonard Rosenman; orchestration supervision of Danny Elfman’s ballet RABBIT AND ROGUE for Tywla Tharp and the ABT; the west coast premiere of ROAD MOVIES by John Adams for violin and piano, as well as the American premieres of the Alfano VIOLIN SONATA and various works by Vernon Duke and the west coast premieres of numerous unpublished solo piano works of Charles Ives. 

Dunn’s professional conducting career began in 1999, when Lukas Foss appointed Dunn the Associate Music director for the Music Festival of the Hamptons. There he worked intimately with Foss for three years and gained 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 and at Pittsburgh Opera, where he was Associate Conductor. In 2007, he joined the conducting staff of the LA Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and in 2010 was named Associate Conductor. In addition to his work at the Hollywood Bowl, other notable engagements also include Howard Shore’s massive LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY with the Orchestre National de Lyon and the symphonies in North Carolina and Guanajuato Mexico and as well as THE NUTCRACKER for California Riverside Ballet and considerable recent work in opera including the premiere of Malcolm Fairouz’ SUMEIDA’S SONG in NYC; the staged presentation of Randall Eng’s HENRY’S WIFE for American Opera Projects; the premieres of Julian Wachner’s EVANGELINE REVISITSED and Scott Richard Davenport’s STAR ACROSS THE OCEAN for New York City Opera’s 2010 Vox Festival; Marc Adamo’s LYSISTRATA (pre-production recording); the world premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett’s THE GARDEN for Glimmerglass Opera; Kurt Weill’s KLEINE MAHGONNY and Puccini’s LA BOHEME for Teatro Giotto in Vicchio, Italy;  the premiere of ANIMAL TALES by Kitty Brazelton and George Plimpton; Malcolm Williamson’s THE HAPPY PRINCE for Kentucky Opera and PIERROT LUNAIRE at Lincoln Center.

 

As a pianist, Dunn has appeared as soloist and collaborator throughout the US and Europe. Critically acclaimed for his interpretations of difficult twentieth century works, the late Alan Rich wrote… In a time when we are beset with young emergent performers of limited repertory delivered with unlimited flamboyance, the splendid young pianist Scott Dunn’s varied and visionary program was indeed remarkable. Though he made his first concerto appearance with the Haydn CONCERTO IN D at the age of twelve, Dunn’s professional pianistic career began in earnest with a 1991 Los Angeles solo recital which caused the LA TIMES to exclaim… an abundance of technique and musicality. Clearly born to play the piano. Dunn has won and received numerous scholarships, artistic medals and awards including a tour-awarding prize in the USIS’s ‘Artistic Ambassadors Competition’. For the USIS Dunn played solo recitals throughout Europe and former states of the Soviet Union and introduced many audiences to such classics of American 20th piano literature as the Carter PIANO SONATA and the CONCORD SONATA of Charles Ives. Early in his career, Dunn also toured Europe with the Martha Graham Dance Company and was orchestral pianist for the EOS orchestra in NYC.

Dunn’s pianistic career was given a boost in 1999 when he made his Carnegie Hall debut – as pianist, orchestrator and advocate for American film and cross-over composers – playing his own orchestration of the ‘lost’ Vernon Duke PIANO CONCERTO IN C. Vernon Duke, though best known as the composer of such hits as “April in Paris” and “Autumn in New York”, was a Kiev conservatory trained classical composer, a student of Gliere and a life-long colleague of Serge Prokofiev. The concerto, written in 1923 at the request of Arthur Rubinstein, had never been performed as the composer had never completed the orchestration. Working only from a two-piano score, Dunn orchestrated the entire concerto in time for the Carnegie Hall Gershwin Centenary concerts of 1998 - 1999. Other subsequent noteworthy projects include orchestration supervision of 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; 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 2006 Grammy nominated release by Decca; and the 2010 premiere and 2011 publication by Belmont of his own orchestrations of the Schoenberg FOUR BRETTL - LIEDER/CABARET SONGS for voice and chamber orchestra.

Dunn’s distinguished musical mentors have included conductors Lukas Foss and Jorge Mester; pianists Byron Janis, Brooks Smith, Joseph Kalichstein and John Simms; as well as composers Leonard Rosenman, Irwin Bazelon and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.  Born and raised in rural Iowa, his diverse education included musical studies at the University of Iowa (where he earned on full-ride scholarship a Bachelor of Music Summa cum Laude and a Phi Beta Kappa key), USC (where he studied with Brooks Smith and also completed pre-med), the Aspen School and Festival (which he attended on a Collaborative Piano Fellowship) and the Manhattan School of Music (where he earned a Masters degree, the Presidents Award and the Cohn Prize for Chamber Music). Although Dunn does not practice medicine, he did leave the stage for a number of years to complete an MD at the University of Iowa and internship, fellowship and residency in ophthalmology at USC. He is a board certified in eye surgeon and a fellow in the American College of Surgeons. In fall 2010 the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Iowa named Dunn as one of its “Distinguished Alumni” Fellows.
Dunn has premiered or recorded for commercial release a number of works by John Adams, Franco Alfano, Irwin Bazelon, Richard Rodney Bennett, Lord Berners, Elliot Carter, Vernon Duke, Lukas Foss, Ricky Ian Gordon, John Harbison, Charles Ives, Peter Lieberson, Roger Reynolds, Ned Rorem, Leonard Rosenman, Maria Schneider and James Sellars, among others. 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 and 2011). His numerous recordings are all currently available on Amazon.com.

A sample of upcoming conducting engagements include include a concert with French pop legend Serge Gainsbourg at the Hollywood Bowl and a concert in October 2011 in St Petersburg Russia resurrecting the Duke/Dukelsky “Diaghelev Triology” (the oratorio THE END OF ST PETERSBURG, EPITAPHE – for Diaghelev, and DEDICASES for piano, soprano and orchestra) with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Capella Chorus of St. Petersburg and various soloists of the Marinsky Theatre. Also in 2011 Dunn continues  with multiple appearances as collaborator and piano soloist and releases two new CD’s of works by Chopin and Alfano.  

3/15/11