William Eddins
Conductor
Pianist
Honorary
Artistic Advisor

William Eddins is the Music Director Emeritus of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and a frequent guest conductor of major orchestras throughout the world.

Engagements have included the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Boston Minnesota, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Houston, as well as the Los Angeles and Buffalo Philharmonics.

Internationally, Eddins was Principal Guest Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland).. He has also has conducted the Berlin Staatskapelle, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra.

Career highlights include taking the Edmonton Symphony Orchestras to Carnegie Hall in May of 2012, conducting RAI Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale on Italian television, and leading the Natal Philharmonic on tour in South Africa with soprano Rene Fleming. Equally at home with opera, he conducted a full production of Porgy and Bess with Opera de Lyon both in France and the Edinburgh Festival and a revival of the production during the summer of 2010.

Mr. Eddins is an accomplished pianist and chamber musician. He regularly conducts from the piano in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Gershwin and Ravel. He has released a compact disc recording on his own label that includes Beethoven’sHammer-Klavier Sonata and William Albright’s The Nightmare Fantasy Rag.

Mr. Eddins has performed at the Ravinia Festival with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. He has also conducted the orchestras of the Aspen Music Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, Chautauqua Festival, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

A native of Buffalo, NY, Mr. Eddins attended the Eastman School of Music, studying with David Effron and graduating at age eighteen. He also studied conducting with Daniel Lewis at the University of Southern California and was a founding member of the New World Symphony in Miami, FL.

SCORE WITH AN ORCHESTRA

Under the baton of Maestro Dinur, pianists experience the  orchestral  life – communicating with the conductor, coordinating editions and rehearsal markings, and collaborating ion artistic issues. Each semifinalist meets privately with Mr. Dinur and performs a concerto with him and a chamber ensemble of MSO musicians. Under Mr. Dinur’s baton, the fialists perform the concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

THE POWER OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

A workshop, open to the public during the competition’s concurrent music festival, explores conductor styles, movements, and his/her partnership with the concert master. As a masterful pianist, Mr. Dinur brings a special perspective to the soloist’s nonverbal communications with the conductor and to  his transition from the life of a pianist to that of an orchestral conducotor.

Stefanie Jacob
Artistic Chair

Stefanie Jacob, a founding member and Artistic Chair of PianoArts, made her solo debut with the Boston Pops at age seventeen and her Carnegie Recital Hall debut in 1984. An avid chamber musician, she was twice awarded second prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and was awarded Indiana University’s Leo Weiner Prize for Chamber Music.

Ms. Jacob received a master of music degree with highest distinction in piano performance from Indiana University and received her bachelor of arts, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.

She has performed as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and the Waukesha and Manitowoc symphonies. She has appeared as a collaborating artist on Milwaukee’s Artist Series at the Pabst and WFMT-Chicago’s nationally broadcast Dame Myra Hess Series. She has also recorded for the Arundax, CRI, Fleur de Son, and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music labels.

Ms. Jacob taught at the University of Tampa from 1985 to 1987, and since then at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. The founding pianist of the Wisconsin Conservatory’s resident Prometheus Trio, she also performs as the Duo Coriolan with her cellist husband Scott Tisdel, and as the Duo Così with violinist Susan Waterbury.

“COMMUNICATING WITH
A MUSICAL PARTNER”

A passionate chamber musician, pianist Stefanie Jacob brings insight into the process of developing a partnership with a collaborating musician with demonstrations by
The Prometheus Trio. During the competition, Ms. Jacob performs second piano for concertos performed during the Semifinal Ensemble Recital. She also coordinates all of the small ensembles from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra that perform with PianoArtists.