William Henry Curry

1954 -

About

William Curry (b. 1954), A native of Pittsburgh, Curry started conducting and composing music at age 14. His first major appointment was at age 21, when he was named Assistant Conductor of the Richmond Chamber Orchestra. He also served as Resident Conductor with the Baltimore Symphony and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He was appointed associate conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony in 1983, a post he held until 1988, the same year he was named the unanimous winner of the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition and performed in Carnegie Hall.

Maestro Curry has conducted over 50 orchestras, including appearances with the Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, National, Detroit, Denver, American, Atlanta, and San Diego Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Israel Camerata Jerusalem Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of Indianapolis, Bangkok and Taiwan and with the New York City Ballet in their famed Balanchine production of The Nutcracker. He was featured conductor for the tour and recording of Anthony Davis’s Grammy-nominated opera X. Other opera engagements include the Houston Grand Opera, Chicago Opera Theater and New York City Opera. In 2009-10, at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State, he spent two weeks in Taiwan presenting master classes in conducting and leading concerts of American music.  His final performance was filmed and shown throughout the country on Taiwan’s Public Television Service. As a composer, Curry’s works have been played by many of America’s finest orchestras.  The Indianapolis Symphony premiered his work Eulogy for a Dream. The late William Warfield, of Porgy and Bess fame, narrated the North Carolina premiere to an enthusiastic audience and critical acclaim in January 2002. Curry’s North Carolina Symphony-commissioned “Holiday Songs,” a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, premiered in 2010. The 2014-15 season saw Curry’s World Premiere Orchestration of Tchaikovsky’s Military March, and the 2016-17 season will see Maestro Curry conduct the World Premiere of his North Carolina Symphony commission. Currently, he is the Music Director and Conductor of the Durham Symphony.

Related Information

http://www.ncsymphony.org/news/index.cfm?nid=645, http://www.durhamsymphony.org/maestro/

Works by William Henry Curry