Michael Lewanski (conductor)
photo credit: Marc Belanger
www.michaellewanski.com
“The gatherings and vanishings of this reflection on life and dust… were precisely charted by the conductor Michael Lewanski.”
— David Allen, New York Times
“The performances… conducted by Michael Lewanski, sounded fresh, vital and committed, the many moving parts synchronized with amazing precision.”
— John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
“The work was held together by the remarkably detailed conducting of Michael Lewanski, who pointed out the rhythmic and emotive extremes with clarity and precision.”
— Gerard Fischer, Chicago Classical Review
“In his introduction, Lewanski talked about the work’s structure and expressed his deep enthusiasm for the piece, which was palpable in the ensuing string septet performance, the clear highlight of the evening.”
— John Lawrence, Chicago Classical Review
“Some had robust sections that evoked a movie soundtrack; some had passages of great tenderness… [one] seemed to give voice to mathematical formulae. The pieces required the orchestra to articulate serpentine rhythms with the utmost precision. A couple pieces had the musicians making up some sounds on the spot… The orchestra, conducted by Michael Lewanski, handled it all with aplomb.”
— David Dupont, Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune
“Michael Lewanski… conducted Saturday’s performance, expertly balancing the outbursts of raw, rasping cello and growling winds. The musicians played with the alert wariness of endangered animals.”
— Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Classical Review
“The orchestral narrative was rich and aggressive but varied with lyrical interludes and instrumental solo extensions which were again under the firm control of Lewanski. The conductor kept lines clear and allowed the work to express emotions from the disturbing to the conversational, ending in a comforting decay as the final gesture.”
— Gerard Fischer, Chicago Classical Review
Conductor, educator, and writer Michael Lewanski is champion of contemporary music and standard repertoire alike. His work seeks to create deeper and more engaged connections between audiences, musicians, and the music that is part of their culture and history. Michael is conductor and artistic coordinator of the internationally acclaimed Chicago-based new music group Ensemble Dal Niente. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Instrumental Ensembles at the DePaul University School of Music in 2012 after having served as an adjunct professor since 2007. He is the conductor of the DePaul Concert Orchestra, Ensemble 20+ (20th and 21st century music), and frequent guest conductor of the DePaul Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble. Under his direction, Ensemble Dal Niente became the became the first ensemble to be awarded the prestigious Kranichstein Music Prize at the 2012 Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music,.
Michael’s guest conducting has included collaborations with Lyric Opera of Chicago (the world premiere performances of a new work), chamber ensembles from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Spektral Quartet, the Fifth House Ensemble, the Rembrandt Chamber Players, the Detroit Symphony Civic Youth Orchestra, Mocrep, and many others. He has led over 100 world premieres. He served as the Conducting Assistant of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2010 to 2014. His recordings include works by Franco Donatoni, Dai Fujikura, Lei Liang, Kurt Westerberg, Aaron Einbond, Kyong-Mee Choi, Janice Misurell-Mitchell, Katherine Young, and Ileana Perez Velazquez. He has acted as producer for recordings by Ensemble Dal Niente, Spektral Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, violinist J. Austin Wulliman, and saxophonist Ryan Muncy.
A native of Savannah, Georgia, he made his conducting debut at age 13 with the Savannah Symphony Orchestra. At 16, he was the youngest student ever accepted into the conducting class of the legendary Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. Michael attended Yale University, where his studies included conducting with Lawrence Leighton Smith and piano with Sara Laimon. He was music director of the Yale Bach Society Orchestra and conductor of the Yale College Opera Company. His post-Yale education featured conducting study with Cliff Colnot and Dutch new music expert Lucas Vis.
Michael was an organizer of There is No Repetition: Mathias Spahlinger at 70 in March 2015. Other recent festival appearances, in addition to the 2012 and 2014 Darmstadt Summer Courses, include the 2015 New Music Gathering (Baltimore), 2015 Foro Internacional de Música Nueva in Mexico City, the 2013 Ecstatic Music Festival (in which Dal Niente collaborated with the rockband Deerhoof), the 2013 Bowling Green New Music Festival, the 2014 and 2015 Northwestern New Music Conference, the 2015 Omaha Under the Radar Festival, the 2010 and 2012 Chicago Youth in Music Festival, the 2010 Unbound Festival of American Chamber Music, the 2011 Unruly Music Festival, the 2012 and 2013 International Beethoven Festivals, the 2013 and 2015 MusicArte festival in Panama.
Michael has held an appointment as conductor of the Columbia College Chicago-sponsored Columbia Community Symphony Orchestra. He has been an assistant conductor of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra. He was formerly music director of the Skokie Concert Choir. He has collaborated with stage director Paul Koch on a number of nontraditional productions of Baroque opera. As a pianist and harpsichordist, he has appeared throughout the Chicago area accompanying singers and instrumentalists. Michael is also an active writer, chamber music coach, arranger, and conducting teacher. As an educator of pre-collegiate students, he has worked with the Chicago Academy for the Arts and the Elgin Youth Symphony.
Michael’s diverse schedule for the 2015-2016 concert season includes concerts with four DePaul School of Music Ensembles; Ensemble Dal Niente’s 10th anniversary season (including its Chicago concert series, a Northeastern tour, and an appearance at June in Buffalo); guest conducting the Civic Orchestra of Chicago; a composition workshop with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra; numerous recording projects; various festival and conference appearances; and academic presentations.