About
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American conductor Thomas Cunningham is artistic director of Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra. Founded in 2014, this orchestra for the 21st century prioritizes the music of women and composers of color to further enliven the classical canon. Previously, Cunningham served on the conducting staff of Voices of Ascension Chorus & Orchestra in New York, NY (2015-18), Helix! New Music Ensemble in New Brunswick, NJ (2015-18), and the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County in Bucks County, PA (2011-18). During the 2018-19 season, Cunningham makes debuts at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and Langston Hughes Auditorium.
A conductor of distinctly broad repertory, recent engagements have included the concertos of Bach, Dvorak and Berg, orchestrating Addi & Jacq's award-winning songs, and commissioning numerous young composers. Passionate about the American repertory, Cunningham believes deeply in the underperformed compositions of African American composers, especially William Grant Still and George Walker. His symphonic suite of William Grant Still’s grand opera Troubled Island is published by William Grant Still Music. Cunningham has worked on over two dozen opera productions, most recently leading Rutgers Opera Institute in Così Fan Tutte, Iowa State Opera in Orphée aux enfers, and Opera Slavica in Iolanta. He has assisted and prepared choruses for productions ranging from Jenůfa and Eugene Onegin, to Alcina, L'elisir d'amore, and to Der fliegende Holländer. As a composer and arranger, Cunningham’s output includes Puccini's Madama Butterfly for 8 players, and chamber orchestrations of works by Dvorak and Smetana. He has orchestrated arrangements of songs by the duo Addi & Jacq, as well as Harry T. Burleigh and S. Coleridge Taylor. Also passionate about restoration and reconstruction, he led the U.S. premiere of Sibelius' complete original version of Pelléas och Mélisande in 2015. 2016 included the premiere of his arrangement of Ethel Smyth's Three Moods of the Sea, 2017: Harry T. Burleigh songs, 2018: string orchestrations of songs by Alma Mahler and Clara Schumann. As an educator, Cunningham was a classroom teacher for six years, including Pre-K-12 special education and general music in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. While completing his doctorate, he was a co-adjutant at Rutgers University. He served as interim Director of Orchestras at Iowa State University for 2018-19. Cunningham's previous engagements include Stereo Hideout, New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Bard SummerScape, Berkshire Choral Festival, Opera Forza, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn and Westminster Opera Theater. He was a finalist in the 2016 International 4x4 Prizes for composers and conductors, held at the University of Oklahoma. During the summer of 2016 he studied with Marin Alsop, and 2017-2018 with Cristian Măcelaru, at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Cunningham counts Cristian Măcelaru, Tito Muñoz, Kynan Johns, and Dennis Keene amongst his teachers and mentors. He holds degrees in performance and music education from Westminster Choir College and Rutgers University. |
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Engagements
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Iowa State Symphony Orchestra
Choral-Orchestral Masterworks Concert Carnegie Hall, New York, NY 21 April 2019 Stephens Auditorium, Ames, IA 28 April 2019 Tickets Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra From Song Came Symphony 8 May 2019 Langston Hughes Auditorium, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. New York, NY Tickets New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra 16 July 2019 New York, NY. William Grant Still: Mother & Child Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations Patrick Hopkins, cello Mozart: Overture to Così fan tutte Mozart: Symphony No. 35 "Haffner" Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra 26 August 2019 Harlem School of the Arts Theatre New York, NY. The Spirit of Harlem arr. Steven Feifke in collaboration with Catskill Jazz Factory & National Jazz Museum in Harlem |
Repertory
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Britten
Peter Grimes Beethoven Fidelio Donizetti La fille du régiment L'Elisir d'Amore Dove Flight (1998) Handel Alcina Janáček Jenůfa Leoncavallo Pagliacci Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana Mozart Così fan tutte Der Schauspieldirektor Die Zauberflöte Don Giovanni Le nozze di Figaro |
Offenbach
Orphée aux enfers Poulenc Dialogues des Carmélites Prokofiev Maddalena Puccini Gianni Schicchi La Bohème Madama Butterfly Rachmaninoff Francesca da Rimini Ravel L'enfant et les sortilèges Stravinsky The Rake's Progress Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin Iolanta Wagner Der fliegende Holländer |
Contact
Contact Dr. Cunningham: |
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