“Sidney Rothstein, a nationally renowned conductor who served as the music director of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra … from 1995 to 2006, died on Feb. 2 at the age of 80 of natural causes in Wyomissing, Penn.,” states an unsigned obituary in Friday’s (2/3) Ridgefield Press (Connecticut). Trained in violin and viola, Rothstein earned a music degree from Temple University in his native Philadelphia, then pursued conducting studies at the Domaine School in Maine and in Europe. “In 1964, while teaching music at Philadelphia Central High School, he founded the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia and was their music director from 1964-1976. In 1976, the Reading Symphony Board in Reading, Penn invited Rothstein to conduct; several months later he was hired as associate conductor of the Honolulu Symphony.… In 1980 he became music director of the West Virginia Symphony in Charleston and in 1983 he added Music Director and Conductor of the Florida Symphony in Orlando.… Until 1987, he conducted all three orchestras.… From 1995 until 2006 he was the music director of the RSO before retiring. He is survived by his brother, Edward Rothstein and his wife, Christine, two nephews and a niece.”
Posted February 6, 2017
