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Marcus Tsutakawa has been a music teacher in the Seattle Public
Schools from 1979. Since 1985, he has been the director of the
Garfield Orchestras. His orchestras have been selected 'Best in
Festival' at the NW Orchestra Festival in Gresham, Oregon four times,
and have taken First Place 12 out of the past 14 years at that
festival. In 1997, Mr. Tsutakawa led the orchestra on a European
tour, with concerts in Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Prague. They
toured Japan in 1993, 2000, 2003 and 2005. Last year he is again a
participant in the Follow the Leader Program sponsored by Macy's, The
Seattle Times, and KING 5, featuring 22 outstanding "Leaders." In
1992 he was a recipient of the Prix de Martell, from Martell Cognac,
Int'l, recognizing "Champions of Classical Music" (other recipients
include Gerard Schwarz and Sir Georg Solti). Tsutakawa was honored as
2002 A&E Network Biography 'Community Hero.' He is currently a member
of the Board of Directors of the Seattle Symphony and is in his
seventh season as director of the Junior Symphony. This year he
received the 2005 Mayor's Arts Award for Excellence (along with Peter
Donnelly and David Brewser, among others). He is the son of well
known Northwest Artist George Tsutakawa.
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 A musician with a broad range of skills, Conductor and Music Director George Shangrow founded the Seattle Chamber Singers in 1969 and Orchestra Seattle (formerly the Broadway Symphony) in 1979. Mr. Shangrow received his academic musical training at the University of Washington, where he studied conducting, baroque performance practice, harpsichord, and composition. He began his professional conducting career at age 18 and has concentrated his musical efforts these 38 years with Orchestra Seattle and the Seattle Chamber Singers. He has also appeared as guest conductor with the Seattle Symphony, Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Tacoma Opera, Rudolf Nureyev and Friends, East Texas University Opera, Oregon Symphony and the Sapporo (Japan) Symphony. Shangrow particularly relishes bringing newly composed works to the stage and has conducted world premieres of many operas, orchestral, and choral works, including three new works this year!
As an educator, Mr. Shangrow has taught music history, theory, and composition at Seattle University, Seattle Community College, and Seattle Conservatory of Music. He enjoys lecturing on musical topics and can be frequently heard at musical events and gatherings throughout the Northwest.
Mr. Shangrow performs as pianist and harpsichordist in partnership with flutist Jeffrey Cohan as the Cohan-Shangrow Duo. He has toured Europe several times as keyboardist and conductor. Shangrow has appeared in concert on the piano and harpsichord with many noted soloists and ensembles such as El Trio Grande, the Kronos String Quartet, Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, and enjoyed performing at the 2004 Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival in Mozart's g minor Piano Quartet. He has recorded with London Records, Voyager Records, edel America, and Sonic Window Records. Seattle-area music lovers also recognize Mr. Shangrow as former announcer and host of the Live! ByGeorge radio program on Classical KING-FM.
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 Huw Edwards has completed three successful and memorable seasons as Music Director of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, having been selected after a yearlong audition process during 2002-3. There has been a palpable sense of excitement in Olympia following Huw's appointment and this past season was a landmark one as all five of the Orchestra's concerts sold out; Edwards is credited with greatly improving the Orchestra, selecting challenging yet rewarding programs and being very active in the community. Last season included performances of the Saint-Saëns "Organ" Symphony, Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, the 5th Symphony by Vaughan Williams, and an engaging evening of operatic music.
Mr. Edwards is also the Music Director of the Columbia Symphony in Portland, Oregon-a post he has held since 2000-and has consistently received critical acclaim from audiences, guest soloists and the press for his intense performances and daring programming. Recent highlights have included performances of Bruckner's 4th Symphony, Beethoven's Eroica, the 2nd Symphony by Malcolm Arnold, and Elgar's Enigma Variations, as well as world premiere performances of commissioned works by several Pacific Northwest composers.
Active as a guest conductor, Mr. Edwards has performed with the Oregon Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, worked with the symphony orchestras of Dallas and Memphis, as well as with ensembles in Illinois, New York, Idaho, Vermont, Minnesota, Oregon, Nebraska, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and throughout the United Kingdom. In recent seasons Mr. Edwards has guest conducted the Montana Festival Orchestra, the All-State Orchestras of Texas, Utah, Washington and Nebraska, the Sapporo Philharmonic, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, the YMA Orchestra in Salem, CWU Orchestra in Ellensburg, and has served as cover conductor for the Seattle Symphony. In July 2004 Huw conducted the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison before 20,000 people at one of their famous "Concerts on the Square" and was invited back this past summer and led another successful program. Huw made a notable debut with the Eugene Symphony in November 2005 and recently deputized in Eugene, at very short notice, in a difficult program of works by Shostakovich and the American composer, Michael Daugherty. Huw was invited to be the conductor at the inaugural Annas Bay Music Festival in August 2006, where he conducted two 20th-century American operas, and was recently inducted as an honorary member of the Elgar Society, for his many performances of the composer's varied compositions.
From 2002-5 Mr. Edwards was Music Director of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras and was a faculty member at the Marrowstone Music Festival from 1998 to 2005. Mr. Edwards moved to Seattle after seven memorable seasons (1995-2002) as Music Director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic in Oregon, which included landmark tours to Canada, and to New Zealand and Australia.
Born in Wales, Great Britain, Mr. Edwards holds degrees from the University of Surrey in England and Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Mr. Edwards came to the Northwest from Chicago, Illinois, where he was a lecturer at Northwestern University and a Doctoral candidate. Mr. Edwards has been active as a conductor since the age of 17 when he was appointed Music Director of the Maidstone Opera Company in England-a post he held for six years-and came to the United States in 1988 on scholarship to attend SMU in Texas. His principal teachers have been Simon Johnson and Barry Wordsworth (London), Anshel Brusilow and Eduardo Mata (Dallas), and Victor Yampolsky (Chicago).
Huw now lives in a peaceful bungalow on the Eld Inlet in Olympia and enjoys reading poetry, walking, good company, red wine, and golf-he is a proud and active member of the Olympia Country and Golf Club. |
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