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The Oregon Sinfonietta's
resident Maestro is Dr. Donald
Lawrence
Appert, whose diverse and active career includes a wide variety of
engagements as a conductor and composer.
 Professor of Music and Head of
the Music Department at Clark College, Dr. Appert is currently in his
twentieth season as Music Director and Conductor of the Clark College
Orchestra and in his ninth season with the Oregon Sinfonietta. In
addition, he performs frequently abroad as a Guest
Conductor and is scheduled this year to conduct in Romania the Oradea
State Philharmonic and the Filharmonia
“Oltenia” Craiova, and is also tentatively scheduled to conduct in
Italy. 2006 marked the second year in a row that he was honored by the
American Society
of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) with the ASCAPLUS Award,
the first
given in 2005 in recognition of the European performances of his work Elegy
for String Orchestra and again in 2006 for the European
performances of his new orchestral
work, PRISM. In 2008, Dr. Appert received his
third ASCAPLUS Award for
performances of his work Nara Variations in Japan
and Spain. Recently, Dr. Appert
received word of his fourth ASCAPLUS Award for this year’s performances
of his Nara Variations
by the Filharmonic “Mihail Jora” Bacau (Romania), the Orchestra
Sinfonica Citta di Grosseto
(Italy), and the Orquestra Sinfonica de El Salvador. You can hear a
performance of this work
by the Oregon Sinfonietta on their March 14, 2010 concert at Sunnyside
Seventh-day Adventist
Church in Portland, Oregon.L'ovadese wrote of Dr. Appert's engagement with L'Orchestra Sinfonica Citta di Grosseto that "the performance of the Serenade in C major of Tchaikovsky, under the exceptional direction of Appert, was in such a style that it brought out the elegance and grace of the melodic lines with Mozartian inspiration. . . . performed the Barber Adagio with rare effectiveness, emphasizing its intrinsically rich melody." Giornale di Sicilia praised his interpretation of Nielsen's Symphony No. 1 as "lyrical with an airy freshness" and his conducting as "precise, painstakingly accurate, and diligent." Among his many performances overseas, in 2002 he led the Filharmonie Bohuslav Martinu of the Czech Republic in a program that included the European premiere of his own Elegy, which was originally commissioned and given its world premiere by the Ashiya Chamber Orchestra of Kobe, Japan.
Dr.
Appert has also guest conducted the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Ente Autonomo Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Italy, the Warwick
Community Youth Orchestra in Australia, the City of Athens Symphony
Orchestra in Greece, the Bourgas Opera Philharmonic Society in
 Bulgaria, the Slovak State
Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra of
St. Petersburg in Russia, the Orchestra of the Conservatoire Frederic
Chopin in France, the Valcea Philharmonic in Romania, and the Orquestra
da Fundacao Conservatorio Regional de Gaia in Portugal. While his
passion for guest conducting internationally is readily apparent, Dr.
Appert also enjoys visiting orchestras that are closer to home. In the
United States he has worked with the Vancouver Symphony (Washington),
the Eastern Washington University Symphony Orchestra, the University of
Texas Arlington Symphony Orchestra and the University of Central
Arkansas Symphony.As a composer, Dr. Appert is a member of ASCAP with most of his works published. In October 1998 the Ashiya Chamber Orchestra gave the Japanese premiere of In the Similitude of a Dream. This piece for string orchestra was recorded by the Clark College Orchestra on its first compact disc and received its Australian premiere in August 1999. It was later performed by the Salem (Oregon) Youth Orchestra. The Ashiya Chamber Orchestra also gave the Japanese premiere of Thru a Glass Darkly in October 1999 with their aforementioned commission of Elegy. Dr. Appert has since conducted this work with orchestras in the United States, the Czech and Slovak Republics, France, Romania and Portugal. His work Quid Enim? was premiered by the Clark College Women's Choral Ensemble in March 2002 and Audienda-Chor premiered Who Shall Know? for a capella choir in Krefeld, Germany in November 2002. You can listen to some of this extraordinary music at his publisher's web site. Dr. Appert's personal website can be reached by clicking here. Dr. Appert's path to success as a conductor and composer began with the trombone, an instrument in which he holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory. His trombone teachers included Ronald Barron, John Coffey and Tyrone Breuninger. He performed as a trombonist with the Kansas City Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, the Virginia Opera Orchestra, and the Springfield (Massachusetts) Symphony. Dr. Appert earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Kansas. He studied conducting with Riccardo Muti, Otto Werner Mueller, Maurice Abravanel, Daniel Lewis, Fredrik Fennel, George Lawner and Richard Pittman, and was also one of fourteen conductors chosen to participate in Helmuth Rilling's Masterclass at the 1992 Oregon Bach Festival. Fortunately for the Oregon Sinfonietta and our audiences, Dr. Appert resides in Vancouver, Washington, just across the Columbia River from our ensemble. He and his wife Linda Appert, a coloratura soprano and active voice teacher, have two daughters who are both talented musicians in their own right: Laura, a violist, and Rebecca, a violinist. Both graduated from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. To view a September 2008 article (in the Catalan language) about Dr. Appert conducting a concert celebrating the 15th anniversary of the concert hall in Sant Cugat (near Barcelona), Click Here. To view an October 2008 Press release about Dr. Appert receiving an ASCAP award, Click Here. On July 29, 2011 it was announced that Dr. Appert has been awarded the Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award / The American Prize in Orchestral Programming. For details, please click on the logo below.
Dr. Appert led the Orchestra of El Salvador State Symphony in August, 2011. Photos are below:
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