Conducting Wagner

The Society is happy to welcome back Scott Foglesong to our lecture series.

In his talk Scott Foglesong will focus on those intrepid folks down there in the orchestra pit—the instrumentalists and the conductor. Wagner himself was one of the most influential figures in the history of conducting, and his successors have carried on not only his legacy but have brought new insights to Wagner’s fascinating use of the orchestra. Foglesong will cover such legendary figures as Hermann Levi, Felix Mottl, Hans Richter, and Wagner himself, then move on to those conductors who have left us recordings—including such luminaries as Arthur Nikisch, Alfred Hertz, Hans Knappertsbusch, Pierre Monteux, and Arturo Toscanini. More modern figures will be included as well—Pierre Boulez, Sir Georg Solti, and Leonard Bernstein.

Scott Foglesong is a pianist, musician, teacher, writer, cat-lover, music history devotée, occasional computer geek and sometime programmer. He has been on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1978; nowadays he serves as a department chair in addition to enjoying the honor of educating some of today’s most promising young musicians. In 2008 he was named recipient of the Sarlo Family Foundation Award for excellence in teaching. He has taught Music 27 (Introduction to Music) for the Fall Freshman program at UC Berkeley since 1991, is associated with the San Francisco Symphony, both as a Contributing Writer and as an “Inside Music” lecturer for the Symphony’s weekly subscription concerts, and is Program Annotator for the California Symphony, after formerly serving in the same capacity for the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, New Hampshire Music Festival, and Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra. Professor Foglesong was formally educated at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the San Francisco Conservatory, but his informal education continues everywhere, without cease.

Lecture is free to members and for visitors we suggest a $10.00 contribution to the Society