Maestro Sheldon Conducts Ballet Recording with European Ensemble
March 24, 2005
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LANCASTER, Ohio — Lancaster Festival Artistic Director Gary Sheldon recently returned from Bratislava where he recorded a CD of the music to the ballet “Don Quixote” with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. The recording was completed for the San Francisco Ballet, for which Maestro Sheldon serves as principal guest conductor.
Maestro Sheldon debuted with the San Francisco company last season conducting “Don Quixote”. As a result of those highly acclaimed performances, the ballet ensemble selected Sheldon to conduct the recording that will be privately released this spring and used to tour venues throughout the world that cannot facilitate the use of live orchestra.
The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra’s state-of-the-art studios and experience with recordings made them the ideal ensemble for the project. Maestro Sheldon found the language barrier with the musicians challenging, but humorous.
“We found that German was a common language we could communicate in. I spoke no Czech and their English was perfunctory at best. In the end, I ended up singing much of the music to demonstrate how I wished for it to sound. Music is truly a universal language!” Sheldon said.
Maestro Sheldon’s active guest conducting schedule between festivals includes classical, pops and educational concert appearances. His “Carmen SandiegoTM” concerts for young people continue to tour the country, now in their 10th year. He also continues his role as artistic director of the 21st annual Lancaster Festival, which runs July 21-30.
The Lancaster Festival is an annual celebration of music and art held each July in Lancaster. For updated Festival concert schedules and ticket information, call 1-800-LANFEST or visit the web site at www.lanfest.org.
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