Lawrence Symphony Orchestra Director to Conduct Atlanta Symphony

APPLETON, WIS. -- Bridget-Michaele Reischl, conductor of the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra, will lead the Atlanta Symphony in a performance of the works of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. Reischl will be guest conductor for three concerts at 8 p.m. on March 29, 30, and 31 in the Woodruff Arts Center's Symphony Hall.

The concert program will consist of Ludwig Van Beethoven's Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 61 and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64. Guest violinist is Hilary Hahn, a rising young talent who appeared at Lawrence's Memorial Chapel in a November 1999 Artist Series concert.

Reischl, who serves as Music Director for the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater, is Associate Professor of Music and Kimberly-Clark Professor of Music at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. Hailed as "a discovery" by Andrew Porter of The New Yorker, she has conducted such orchestras as the Orchestra Regionale della Toscana, Orchestra Haydn Bolzano e Trento, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra, Hartt Opera Theater, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, San Francisco Women's Philharmonic, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Dayton Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

First-prize winner of the 4th Antonio Pedrotti International Competition for Orchestra Conductors, held in 1995 Trento, Italy, Reischl has been the recipient of several awards, including the Karl Bohm International Conducting Prize and the Walter Hagen Memorial Conducting Prize.

A native of California, Reischl is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she studied conducting with David Effron. She continued her studies with Robert Spano and as a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center, where she worked with Seiji Ozawa, David Zinman, Murry Sidlin, and Simon Rattle.