The Minnesota Orchestra has appointed COURTNEY LEWIS assistant conductor, effective with the 2009-10 season. He will succeed SARAH HICKS, who is now completing her third season as assistant conductor and will remain a member of the orchestra’s conducting roster. A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lewis holds degrees in composition and clarinet from the University of Cambridge and studied conducting with Sir Mark Elder and Clark Rundell at the Royal Northern College of Music. He served as a Zander Fellow at the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, working with Music Director Benjamin Zander and also assisting him at several other orchestras. While in Boston he founded and directed the Discovery Ensemble, a chamber orchestra dedicated to introducing inner-city children to classical music. Lewis made his major American conducting debut last fall with the Saint Louis Symphony, leading a series of five concerts and subsequently assisting Music Director David Robertson as well as conductors Marc Albrecht and Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Posted June 16, 2009
