VALLEJO SYMPHONY 2007-2008
Celebrating 25 Years with Maestro Ramadanoff

Maestro
David Ramadanoff

Music Director
Conductor

An Ohio native, David Ramadanoff began his professional studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, continuing them as a master's candidate at Temple University from 1968 to 1971 and a doctoral candidate at the Juilliard School from 1972 until 1975. During this time, he taught conducting at Juilliard, worked with Herbert Blomstedt and Otto Werner Mueller at Aspen Festivals, and with Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, Eugen Jochum, and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood.

Maestro Ramadanoff made his New York conducting debut in William Walton's opera The Bear for the American Opera Center.  He was the recipient of a special grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to serve as Assistant Conductor of the Syracuse Symphony (1973-74). During this same period, he was Music Director of the Olney Symphony in Philadelphia and in 1973 was a prize-winner in the Georg Solti conducting competition.

In 1975, Seiji Ozawa appointed Mr. Ramadanoff Assistant Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, and in 1977 he was promoted by Edo de Waart to the position of Associate Conductor. During his six years with the San Francisco Symphony, he regularly conducted subscription concerts and also served as Music Director of all the orchestra's educational and community concerts.

In 1977, Mr. Ramadanoff was awarded the prize for best performance of a Hungarian work at the International Hungarian Radio and Television conducting competition.  In 1980 he won the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Award as Most Outstanding Young American Conductor and, under its auspices, made his Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony in 1982.

In addition to his tenure at the Vallejo Symphony, the Maestro assumed the position of Music Director and Conductor of Master Sinfonia in the South Bay in 1979 and the Young People's Symphony Orchestra in Berkeley in 1988.  From 1984-88 he served as Director of Orchestral Activities at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as well as Principal Conductor of its orchestra.

Under Maestro Ramadanoff's direction the Vallejo Symphony has developed into an orchestra of regional importance, and the VSO's status as an excellent professional orchestra attracts some of the finest players from around the Bay Area.  He also has been instrumental in the VSO's outreach programs, which include performing in Benicia and Vacaville and establishing two educational programs.  Mr. Ramadanoff developed the Mini-Concert series, which sends small ensembles of musicians into the schools, as well as the Youth Concert, in which the full orchestra performs for young audiences.  As a result of his innovative programming, the Vallejo Cultural Commission awarded Mr. Ramadanoff a Special Achievement Award for producing and conducting the West Coast Premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe's concert opera African Portraits in February 1997.

Since his appointment as Music Director of the Vallejo Symphony in 1983, Maestro Ramadanoff has centered his work in the Bay Area.  He continues to accept guest conducting opportunities, and in 2005-2006 he conducted the Napa Valley Symphony, the Santa Cruz County Symphony, and the Fort Collins Orchestra in Colorado.