February Concert Guest Conductor: James Orent
Newton native James Orent’s lifelong passion for music and aviation can be traced back to his childhood heroes: the Boston Symphony Orchestra and NASA’s Mercury Seven astronauts. Since his debut at eighteen conducting Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, he has performed in eleven countries as a conductor and violinist in music ranging from symphony, ballet and opera, to rock, film and commercial recordings.
In 2003, Maestro Orent made Boston Pops history with his dramatic substitution for Keith Lockhart, winning the hearts of 13,000 enthusiastic fans at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. He has led fifty Boston Pops concerts: from Symphony Hall, Arthur Fiedler Tributes at the Hatch Shell, Ravinia and Wolf Trap to San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall with featured artists Keith Lockhart, New York Voices, the Governor of NH and Mayor of Providence, Miss America, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Gloriae Dei Cantores.
Maestro Orent has coordinated telecasts for such luminaries as Peter Jennings, Bono, Yo Yo Ma, Leanne Rimes, Senators John Kerry and John Edwards. He made his Boston Pops radio debut in 1998, and his national television debut in 1999 before a live audience of 60,000 at the Ryder Cup Matches.
Principal Conductor of The Boston Conservatory Repertory Orchestra, Maestro Orent was appointed Music Director of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Phillips Andover Academy Symphony Orchestra in June, 2007. He recently debuted with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, Forth Worth Symphony, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Conservatory and Ballet Orchestras and Brockton Symphony Orchestra.
As President of Windvoyager Enterprises, Inc., Mr. Orent lectures to musicians, pilots, skydivers and public speakers on Performance Anxiety/ Performance Enhancement through his Fearless Living Seminars. He collaborated on ARCADD Architectural Firm’s entry into the 2003 International Design Competition for the Stavanger, Norway Theatre/Concert Hall. Maestro Orent was honored to conduct the Scottish Rite Masons’ Millennium 2000 national videocast.
He was Music Director of the Erie Ballet, Holyoke Orchestra, Amherst Contemporary Music Ensemble, and has conducted the Spokane Symphony, Hartford Ballet, NH Symphony, Leonard Bernstein Festival, Springfield (MA) Symphony, Pro Arte and Newbury Chamber Orchestras, Boston Festival Pops, Newton, Indian Hill and Melrose Symphonies, Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and Lexington Sinfonietta.
Celebrating his 21st season as a Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra first violinist and Boston Symphony substitute extra player, he is assistant concertmaster of the Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra. Maestro Orent won his Buffalo Philharmonic conducting audition by unanimous decision on the semifinal round, earning the first NEA/Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund/Affiliate Artists residency with the Erie Philharmonic.
Flying and skydiving are lifelong interests. Keith Lockhart drew upon Maestro Orent’s airline and barnstorming experience to fly Celtic musicians from New York to his home in northern Maine directly through Hurricane Fran. He holds the Airline Transport Pilot Certificate, US Parachute Association’s Advanced Skydiver License, and is a member of “POPS”, the Parachutists Over Phorty Society. Maestro Orent flies his 1977 Cessna Cardinal RG aircraft to engagements across the eastern US.
Born in Boston, James M. Orent graduated Magna Cum Laude from Amherst College, winning the Sundquist Prize for Performance and Composition. He studied theory and composition with Newton Symphony founder Henry Lasker, conducting with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School, Otto Werner Mueller at the Yale School of Music, and at Tanglewood. His violin teachers were Phillipp Naegele (Marlboro Music) and Stanley Benson of the BSO. Maestro Orent’s 1790 Helmer (Czech) violin belonged to Arthur Fiedler’s father, Emmanuel.
