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MUSIC DIRECTOR

Maestro Stuart Malina is one of America’s most versatile and accomplished conductors. In a wide variety of concerts, from masterworks and grand opera to pops, Maestro Malina’s ease on the podium, engaging personality, and insightful interpretations have thrilled audiences and helped to break down the barriers between performer and listener wherever he has worked. Entering his 10th season as Music Director and Conductor of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Stuart Malina has also held appointments at the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (Music Director, 1996-2003), and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (Associate Conductor, 1993-97).

Maestro Malina made his Carnegie Hall debut in February of 2007, conducting the New York Pops in an all-Gershwin tribute including Rhapsody in Blue, which he conducted from the keyboard, and returned to Carnegie and the Pops in October of 2007. This upcoming season, he will be performing with the symphony orchestras of Hong Kong, Naples, FL, New Mexico, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Charleston and Greensboro. Maestro Malina has had multiple engagements with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Eastern Music Festival, at which he conducted the world premiere of Billy Joel’s Symphonic Fantasies for Piano and Orchestra. In 2006, he debuted with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and in 2007 with the Naples Philharmonic, after which he was reengaged for concerts in 2008 and 2009. He has twice led the Shippensburg Festival Orchestra, the second time performing with violinist Joshua Bell and broadcast on PA Public Television. He has had multiple appearances with the Chautauqua Institution Orchestra, as well as concerts with Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (NY), Kansas City Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, AIMS Festival Orchestra (Graz, Austria), North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra and the Queens Symphony Orchestra.

In May of 2008, Maestro Malina, with several members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, spent 11 days in residence at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in Tianjin, China, conducting the orchestra and coaching and performing chamber music.

On the opera podium Maestro Malina’s recent production engagements include Opera Delaware (Porgy and Bess), Piedmont Opera (Massenet’s Manon) and Greensboro Opera (Il barbiere di Siviglia). He has also conducted many operas in concert, including Tosca and several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

Maestro Malina’s activities also extend to Broadway. In June 2003, he won the prestigious TONY award for orchestration with Billy Joel for the musical Movin’ Out, which Malina helped create with director/choreographer Twyla Tharp. He has served as music supervisor for every production of the show, both in the United States and in London. Maestro Malina has also served as Associate Conductor of the National touring company of West Side Story and as conductor of the Charleston production of Porgy and Bess with performances in the United States, Canada, and the Israel Festival. In 1995, in a strange turn of events, Malina appeared on stage, acting opposite Broadway legend Zoe Caldwell in Terrence McNally’s Tony-winning drama Master Class for its run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

An accomplished concert pianist, Maestro Malina has impressive credits as soloist, having concertized throughout the Northeastern USA, the Netherlands, and with the acclaimed Piccolo Spoleto Contemporary Music Festival. His recent chamber music activities include presentations of Messaien’s Quartet for the End of Time on the Linton Series in Cincinnati, and performances with the Enzo Quartet, and the Fry Street Quartet. He has been frequently engaged for the Market Square Concert series in Central Pennsylvania, as well as Music for a Great Space in North Carolina. He performs regularly with former concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Alexander Kerr, HSO concertmaster Odin Rathnam, world-renowned cellist Daniel Gaisford, and oboist Gerard Reuter.

Maestro Malina holds degrees from Harvard University, the Yale School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller. He studied piano with Drora and Baruch Arnon and with Keiko Sato.

More details about Malina are available on his website at StuartMalina.com.