This is Robin Fountain's fifth season as Music Director and Conductor of the
Southwest Michigan Symphony. His tenure has brought significant change to
the SMSO, with innovative programming, new standards of performance, and our
summer festival "The Water's Edge." He brings to the post the fruits of over
two decades of experience in similar Music Director positions, most recently
with the Williamport PA Symphony, whom he led to the level of national (NEA)
recognition over the course of fifteen seasons. In addition to his permanent
posts, he has maintained an active guest-conducting schedule, appearing in
recent years with professional orchestras in Russia, Poland, France and
Germany as well as throughout USA. IN 2004 he led the Tomsk (Russia)
Philharmonic on a five-city concert tour of China. He returned to China and
Mongolia with Vanderbilt orchestra in 2007, a tour that included a concert
at The Great Hall of the People in Beijing. He will guest conduct in France
and Costa Rica during the 2010/11 Season.
Born in the United Kingdom, he was educated at Oxford University, The Royal
College of Music in London, and at Carnegie-Mellon. He continued his studies
as a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, and in master classes with Lorin
Maazel, Leonard Berstein and others.He has served on the faculty of
Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music since 1994. In 2004 he became
the first faculty member in Blair's history to win promotion through the
ranks to Professor, and in 2007 won the Blair School's Faculty Excellence
Award as well as the university-wide Sarrat Award for Excellence in
Undergraduate Teaching. Maestro Fountain lives in Nashville TN and Dushore
PA with his wife Linda and son Matthew.
