Live from Jones Hall: Schubert, Stravinsky & Marsalis

Giancarlo Guerrero is a six-time GRAMMY Award-winning conductor and Music Director of the Nashville Symphony. Guerrero is also Music Director of the Wrocław Philharmonic at the National Forum of Music in Poland and Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal. Guerrero has been praised for his “charismatic conducting and attention to detail” (Seattle Times) in “viscerally powerful performances” (Boston Globe) that are “at once vigorous, passionate, and nuanced” (BachTrack).

Through commissions, recordings, and world premieres, Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony have championed the works of American composers who are defining today’s musical landscape, making Nashville a destination for contemporary orchestral music. Guerrero has presented eleven world-premieres with the Nashville Symphony, including the GRAMMY-winning performance of Michael Daugherty’s Tales of Hemingway and Terry Riley’s Palmian Chord Ryddle.

Guerrero’s rich discography with the Nashville Symphony numbers nineteen, including most recently Aaron Jay Kernis’ Color Wheel paired with his Symphony No. 4, “Chromelodeon”; and Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 5 and Concerto for Orchestra, both released on the Naxos label in summer 2020. 2019 saw the Naxos release of world premiere recordings of works by Jonathan Leshnoff, with the composer’s Symphony No. 4 “Heichalos.” The symphony was commissioned by the Nashville Symphony for the Violins of Hope, a collection of restored instruments that survived the Holocaust. This recording marks the first time the instruments have been heard on a commercially available album.

Other recent albums have been dedicated to the music of composers as diverse as Terry Riley, Richard Danielpour, Joan Tower, John Harbison, and Béla Fleck. As part of his commitment to fostering contemporary music, Giancarlo Guerrero, together with composer Aaron Jay Kernis, guided the creation of Nashville Symphony’s bi-annual Composer Lab & Workshop for young and emerging composers.

Maestro Guerrero has appeared with prominent North American orchestras, including those of Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Montréal, Philadelphia, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and the National Symphony Orchestra. He has developed a strong international guest-conducting profile and has worked in recent seasons with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Deutsches Radio Philharmonie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, NDR in Hannover, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the Queensland Symphony and Sydney Symphony in Australia. He also enjoys a regular and ongoing relationship with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, where he returns every year. In January 2020, Guerrero led the Wrocław Philharmonic on a thirteen-city coast-to-coast North American tour.

Guerrero made his debut with Houston Grand Opera in 2015 conducting Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Early in his career, he worked regularly with the Costa Rican Lyric Opera and has conducted new productions of Carmen, La bohème, and Rigoletto. In 2008 he gave the Australian premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s one-act opera Ainadamar at the Adelaide Festival.

Guerrero previously held posts as the Principal Guest Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra Miami (2011-2016), Music Director of the Eugene Symphony (2002-2009), and Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra (1999-2004). He was honored as the keynote speaker at the 2019 League of American Orchestras conference, where his address on transforming “inspiration and innovation into meaningful action” was met with a unified standing ovation.

Born in Nicaragua, Guerrero immigrated during his childhood to Costa Rica, where he joined the local youth symphony. As a promising young student, he came to the United States to study percussion and conducting at Baylor University in Texas; he earned his master’s degree in conducting at Northwestern, where he studied with Victor Yampolsky. Given his beginnings in civic youth orchestras, Guerrero is particularly engaged with conducting training orchestras and works regularly with the Curtis School of Music, Colburn School in Los Angeles, and Yale Philharmonia, as well as with the Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando program, which provides music education to promising young students from underrepresented ethnic communities. In recent years, he has developed a relationship with the National Youth Orchestra (NYO2) in New York, created and operated by the Weill Institute of Music at Carnegie Hall.

Recognized by the Houston Chronicle as a Houston favorite, Houston Symphony Co-Concertmaster Eric Halen’s violin playing has been described by critics as “sterling” and “tenderly expressive and dramatic.” A review in the Chicago Sun-Times of the Houston Symphony Chamber Players Ravinia Festival performance of Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” states, “…as the final, sustained tone of Eric Halen’s violin faded to close… there was no doubt that the evening had offered the best kind of virtuosity.”

Halen joined the Houston Symphony as Assistant Concertmaster in 1987. In 1997, he assumed the position of Associate Concertmaster and served as Acting Concertmaster for the 2005–06, 2008–09, and 2009–10 seasons. Halen grew up in a family of violinists. His parents were both professionals, and his brother David is Concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony.

After earning his bachelor’s degree at Central Missouri State University where he studied violin with his father, Dr. Walter Halen, he received his master’s degree at the age of 20 from the University of Illinois, while studying with Sergiu Luca. At age 23, he became artist-teacher of violin at Texas Christian University.

Halen has performed in solo and chamber music programs in the U.S. and abroad, including solo appearances with the St. Louis and Houston Symphonies. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with many pre-eminent artists including violinist Sergiu Luca, violist Lawrence Dutton, cellists Gary Hoffman and Ralph Kirschbaum, and pianists Christoph Eschenbach and John Kimura Parker.

Halen has made frequent guest appearances with DA CAMERA of Houston, MUSIC IN CONTEXT, and performed at summer music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan and Cascade Head Festival in Oregon. As a member of the Houston Symphony Chamber Players with Christoph Eschenbach, he has toured the U.S., Japan, and Europe and made recordings for Koch International, including Messiaen’s “Quartet for the end of Time” and Alban Berg’s Adagio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano from the Chamber Concerto.

Halen has performed as soloist many times with the Houston Symphony on Classical Subscription concerts, including a performance of Prokofiev’s Concerto in G minor with Christoph Eschenbach conducting, and the Mozart Duet Aria “Non Temer Amato Bene” with soprano Barbara Bonney and Hans Graf conducting at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He has also performed as soloist on the “Interact‚” “Mozart and More‚” and the “Exxon Pops‚” series.

In September 2006, Halen was invited by the Nashville Symphony and their Music Advisor Leonard Slatkin to join them as guest concertmaster to open their new symphony hall, the Schermerhorn Center. The opening night concert was broadcast nationally several times on PBS and PBS HD, as a special titled “One Symphony Place.”

Halen plays a violin made in 1616 by Antonio and Hieronymus Amati.

Timothy Dilenschneider was appointed associate principal double bass of the Houston Symphony in January of 2019. Prior to joining the Houston Symphony, Dilenschneider was a member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the baton of music director Marin Alsop. During the summers, he is the double bass faculty for the Blackburn Music Academy in California and an active performer in prestigious music festivals including Festival Napa Valley, Arizona Music Fest, and Classical Tahoe where he is the recipient of an endowed chair. He is an alumnus of the New World Symphony and a 2014 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music.

An avid lover of travel, Dilenschneider’s orchestral performances have taken him around the world. He has been invited to participate in international tours across Europe, Asia, and Africa with distinguished orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and the Florida Orchestra. He has performed in some of the world’s most notable halls including Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Suntory Hall, Theatre des Champs-Élysées, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and most recently Royal Albert Hall in London for the 2018 BBC Proms.

In addition to his orchestral work, Dilenschneider has performed in numerous recitals and chamber music programs including the Candlelight Chamber Series in Baltimore, Napa Valley Chamber Festival in California, and Marin Alsop’s New Music Festival. In 2018 he was invited on a chamber orchestra tour with musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra to Marrakech, Morocco to perform in the desert of Agafay.

Dilenschneider is on faculty for the Blackburn Music Academy and his passion for music education has led him to work with students at the Peabody Institute of Music, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. He has been featured in magazines such as the <em>ISB Bass World</em> and <em>Next Level Bassist. </em>He is also recorded on the Grammy Award winning CD “East Coast 2×4”.

Dilenschneider began playing the double bass at age 8 and studied with “Time for Three” bassist Ranaan Meyer, prior to his studies with Harold Robinson and Edgar Meyer at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Mark Nuccio began his position as principal clarinet with the Houston Symphony in the 2016–17 season after 17 years with the New York Philharmonic. He also serves as clarinet faculties at both Northwestern University in Chicago and the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. Nuccio joined the New York Philharmonic in 1999 as Associate Principal and Solo E-flat Clarinetist and served as Acting principal Clarinet with the New York Philharmonic from 2009 to 2013. Prior to his tenure in New York, he held positions with orchestras in Pittsburgh, Denver, Savannah, and Florida, working with distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, André Previn, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Gustavo Dudamel. A Colorado native, Nuccio was recently awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado. He also holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University where he studied with renowned pedagogue Robert Marcellus.

Principal bassoonist Rian Craypo has been with the Houston Symphony since 2007. Born in Virginia, she moved to Texas at 10 months of age and grew up east of Austin in a small intentional community.

After studying at the University of Texas at Austin with Kristin Wolfe Jensen, she attended Rice University, where she received her master’s degree under former Houston Symphony Principal Bassoon Benjamin Kamins.

In 2001, she was awarded a Federation of German/American Clubs Scholarship, which led to a year of study and performances in Germany and was a finalist in the Gillet-Fox International Bassoon Competition in both 2004 and 2006. Rian serves on the board of MOTHS (Musicians of the Houston Symphony) which presents Houston Symphony musicians several times a year in intimate and engaging chamber settings. Rian is also the author of a book about bassoon reed making, published in 2017. She and her husband Sean have three children.

John Parker, a native of High Point, North Carolina, joined the Houston Symphony in May of 2016 as Associate Principal Trumpet. Previously, he was Principal Trumpet with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, a position he attained after his undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). While at UNC, Parker was a recipient of the Kenan Music Scholarship and also the Frank Comfort Education Scholarship. Parker has also performed as Principal Trumpet of the Charleston Symphony, the Roanoke Symphony, and the Greensboro Symphony. He attended the Aspen Music Festival and School on a full fellowship in both 2012 and 2013 and has also performed twice as a soloist at the National Trumpet Competition.

Principal Trombonist Allen Barnhill joined the Houston Symphony in 1977 and has appeared with the orchestra as a soloist on numerous occasions. Winner of the Swiss Prize at the 1979 Geneva International Solo Competition, he was also featured in the 2008 world premiere of Cindy McTee’s Solstice for Trombone and Orchestra.

As an ensemble collaborator, Barnhill has appeared in concert and on recordings with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Houston and San Antonio Symphonies, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, and the Houston Symphony Chamber Players.

Currently Associate Professor of Trombone at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, he has also held faculty positions at The University of Texas, University of Houston, Sam Houston State University, and the University of St. Thomas.

A native of Elizabethtown, North Carolina, Barnhill graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Donald Knaub. He enjoys water skiing, snow skiing, and golf.

Brian Del Signore joined the Houston Symphony as Principal Percussionist in 1986. Prior to his Houston Symphony appointment, he held a one-year position as Principal Percussionist of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and performed with the Kalamazoo and Lansing Symphony Orchestras while there. Before moving to Michigan, Brian performed in many orchestras in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Brian Del Signore earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in 1981, where he studied with the Pittsburgh Symphony percussionists. In 1984, Del Signore earned a Master of Music from Temple University, where he studied with Alan Abel of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Del Signore began piano lessons at age six and drums at age eleven. His first drum teacher in the late 1960’s was Lou Carto, pop star Bobby Vinton’s drummer and bandleader at that time.

Besides keeping a very busy schedule with Houston Symphony performances, Brian maintains an active education and outreach schedule, where he presents educational percussion programs in elementary schools and percussion clinics in high schools across the Houston area. “Digital Recording Tools for the Performing Musician” is a clinic and master class for college-aged percussionists and musicians which explores the use of recording technology to critique and improve performance ability. Del Signore has presented the clinic and master class at various music schools around the United States including Baylor University, Texas A&M- Commerce, Sam Houston State University, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Yale University, The Julliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New York University, Curtis Institute of Music, Temple University, Peabody Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon University, Cleveland Institute of Music, The Colburn School in Los Angeles, and San Francisco Conservatory.

Brian Del Signore endorses manufacturers of high-quality percussion instruments and accessories. These companies—Remo Corporation, Sabian Cymbals, Pearl/Adams Percussion, ProMark Sticks, and Black Swamp Percussion—as well as The Houston Symphony League Bay Area support Del Signore’s educational and outreach programs. For more information on these educational programs please visit www.briandelsignore.com.

Brian and his wife Leah have three college aged children, Damian, Dominique and Dione.