Hobart EARLE, conductor

Born in Venezuela of American parents, Hobart Earle is currently in his fifteenth season as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time, Hobart Earle has conducted hundreds of concerts with the Odessa Philharmonic to wide acclaim in the major concert halls of the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Andorra, France, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia and throughout Ukraine. Highlights of Maestro Earle’s career include performances in the Musikverein (Vienna), the Philharmonie (Cologne), the Beethovenhalle (Bonn), the Barbican Hall (London), the National Auditorium (Madrid), the Liszt Academy (Budapest) the Great Halls of the Moscow Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, and in the United States he has appeared in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Davies Hall in San Francisco and the General Assembly of the United Nations. In Europe, he has led such orchestras as the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Tonkuenstler Orchestra, the Noord-Nederlands Orkest in Holland, the Orchestra della Toscana in Italy, and in the U. S., the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra. Engagements in Asia for the 2007-2008 seasons include invitations to the National Orchestra of Taiwan and the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the Southeast Asian Youth Orchestra. In Moscow, he has appeared in concert with such orchestras as the Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra). In recognition of his work with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, Hobart Earle was awarded the title “Distinguished Artist of Ukraine”, the first and only foreigner in the history of Ukraine so honored. In 2003, in conjunction with leading newspapers in Ukraine, the Russian Cosmonaut Association named a star in the ‘Perseus’ constellation as ‘Hobart Earle’. As founder and music director of the American Music Ensemble Vienna/Ensemble for Viennese Music New York from 1987-1991, Hobart Earle premiered many works by living composers in addition to reviving several lesser-known compositions from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hobart Earle and the American Music Ensemble Vienna can be heard on two world premiere CDs of American Music on the Albany Records label, including music by George Whitefield Chadwick, Henry Gilbert and Miguel del Aguila. On the ASV label, Maestro Earle has recorded two highly acclaimed CDs with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra of previously unrecorded music by Ukrainian composers Mykola Kolessa, Myroslav Skoryk, Yevhen Stankovych and Reinhold Gliere. His performance of Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra in Vienna’s Musikverein in 2001 was recorded by the Austrian Radio live in concert, and awarded “Best Classical Album 2002” at the ‘JPFolks Music Awards’ in Hollywood, California. He was a student of Ferdinand Leitner in Salzburg and Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood. Hobart Earle studied conducting at the Academy of Music in Vienna; received a performer's diploma in clarinet from Trinity College of Music, London; and is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University. In 2007, he was awarded the title of “honorary professor” of the Academy of Music in Odessa.