John Welsh, Conductor, spent most of his life in the
Baltimore-Washington area. There he was the Music Director/Conductor of the
Georgetown Symphony Orchestra for some 22 years and the conductor of the
Prince William Symphony Orchestra for 13 years. Mr. Welsh went to Washington
DC early in his career to become one of the conductors of the United States
Air Force Band. Along the way, he earned an advanced degree as a Conducting
Major (and the Assistant Conductor) at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.
While in the Washington DC area, Mr. Welsh also worked with the
Rockville-Montgomery College Orchestra, the Annapolis Symphony, the
Annapolis Opera, and the National Lyric Opera Company. He also acted as
assistant conductor for the Annapolis and Baltimore Symphony. He established
the Metropolitan School for Orchestral Musicians, a program for the emerging
professional.
John Welsh became the Artistic Director of the Oak Ridge Civic Music
Association in 1990, a post that also included being the Music Director of
the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra. He was there until 2000, when he moved to
the Northwest to become the Music Director of the Bremerton Symphony. For
the past two seasons, Mr. Welsh has held the position of Conductor of the
Orchestre de Chambre du Festival Internationale d’Echternach in Luxembourg.
He is the founding Music Director of the Student Orchestras of Greater
Olympia. He has guest conducted the: New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami,
FL; Civic Orchestra of Chicago; Linfield Chamber Orchestra; Lawton
Philharmonic Orchestra; Partes Choir and Orchestra, Obnisk, Russia;
Arlington (VA) Symphony Orchestra; Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra; Mansfield
Symphony Orchestra; Lincoln (NB) Symphony Orchestra. His mentors have
included Richard Lert, Leo Mueller, Leon Barzin, Max, Rudolf, Leon Fleisher,
Kiril Kondrashin, Sam Jones, and Gustav Meier.
On Mahler:
“Growing up with Bernstein first introduced me to Mahler. I went off to
college, and busied myself learning a lot of the more “basic” stuff, Then,
while attending a concert with the Cincinnati Symphony, I heard my first
live Mahler Symphony – Symphony No. 1 with Max Rudolf conducting. I couldn’t
get that score fast enough. After moving to DC came the listening and
learning of all of the rest of the Symphonies.”
“Richard Lert knew Mahler. During one of the summers I studied with him,
I was so lucky to hear him prepare and perform the 4th Symphony. Working
with him was a complete eye opener, but never so much as in Mahler. He would
tell us where the different tunes were from. This took the music off a
pedestal that I had subconsciously put it on, and brought it into the real
word for me. Back in that period when I was listening and learning the rest
of the Symphonies, I would have to include the “Das Lied von der Erde” in
all of that (I would assume that you all know that some consider it his 10th
symphony).”
“I got my chance to perform “Das lied” in Oak Ridge with two very
wonderful singers from Boston, Gigi and Noel Velasco. I immediately delved
into the poetry and marveled at its beauty. But what is even more telling is
Mahler’s support and enhancement of it. As with every time I have performed
music by Mahler, the experience turned into an emotionally moving and
broadening one. The work is so descriptive if you take the time to study the
poetry, even though it is translated from its native language to German and
then to English. I hope you will take the time to become familiar with this
poetry as it will greatly enhance your experience of exploring this music. I
am looking forward to restudying the work for you.”
