Maurice Peress, Music Director
Educated at New York University and the Mannes School of Music, Maurice Peress was an Assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein who later chose him to conduct the world premiere of his Mass for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center. Peress was Music Director of three American orchestras; Corpus Christi, Austin and the Kansas City Philharmonic. Worked personally with Duke Ellington on a symphonic orchestration of a Suite from Black Brown and Beige––premiered under his baton by the Chicago Symphony––and Queenie Pie an opera-comique (Philadelphia Music Theater and the Kennedy Center). In 1984 he joined the faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music as the Director of the College Orchestra and established an MA program for conductors. Maestro Peress reconstructed and conducted a series of historic concerts for Carnegie Hall including Antheil's Ballet Mecanique concert of 1927 and Ellington's Carnegie Hall debut Concert of 1943; at which Black Brown and Beige was introduced. These together with a reconstruction of Paul Whiteman's historic Aeolian Hall concert, at which the "Rhapsody in Blue" was premiered, led to his book Dvorak to Duke Ellington, published by Oxford University Press in 2004 now in paperback and in Mandarin.
Guest Conducting: Maestro Peress maintains an active guest conducting schedule, including eight tours of China from 2003-2009 conducting the Shanghai Radio and Television Orchestra, Shanghai Opera Orchestra, the Shenzhen Symphony and the China National Symphony Orchestra (Beijing). He will return to CNSO for an all-Copland Concert this May. In Europe Peress conducted the Vienna State Opera in the European premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass (1981). More recently Peress worked in the Czech Republic; with the Brno Orkester conducting Smetana's epic tone poem Ma Vlast, the FOK Orkester at the Prague Spring Festival in a Gershwin 100th anniversary concert, the Prague Radio Orkester recording music for his TV documentary "Dvorak and America." In 1999 Peress appeared in London with Jessye Norman and the Barbican Center Orchestra in a tribute to Duke Ellington. In Italy he appeared with the Bregamo/Brescia Festival, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome and directed a Gala Gershwin Festival for RIA UNO (2000, Rome Radio TV).
In the Far East Peress conducted the Melbourne Symphony, the Chunjo and Changjo orchestras of Korea, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Opera: Peress has conducted over twenty operas including Tristan at the Kennedy Center (1978) Von Einum's The Visit for the San Francisco Opera (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola).
Recordings: For Columbia Records Peress did "In Memoriam" with the Modern Jazz Quartet; "Rheinberger Organ Concertos," and "Music for Brass Choirs and Double Organ" with E. Power Biggs. Among his many recordings for Music Masters are; "The Birth of the Rhapsody in Blue;" "Symphonic Ellington," with the American Composers Orchestra: and Ellington's Black Brown and Beige with the Louis Bellson Orchestra with Clark Terry and Joe Williams.
