In a career marked by increasing growth and success for the
orchestras he guides, Leif Bjaland has gained a reputation as an
“orchestra builder.” Both the Sarasota Orchestra (formerly the Florida
West Coast Symphony) and the Waturbury (Connecticut) Symphony Orchestra
which he has led for twelve and fifteen years respectively have
experienced eras of unprecedented growth and musical excellence.
Deeply committed to the value of live orchestral music as an essentially
enriching component of community and individual lives, Bjaland’s
innovative and multilayered programming invites audiences to listen in a
whole different way. His experimentation with formats and new
technologies energize both musicians and audiences alike resulting in
critically acclaimed performances and full houses.
As a champion of unjustly neglected works and composers Mr. Bjaland
has conducted and commissioned a substantial number of world and local
premiere. Commissioned works include those by composers David Carlson,
Jan Bach, David Maslanka, and Silas Durocher.
Among the rare and neglected works, Mr. Bjaland has conducted the
first performance of the complete orchestral version of Ravel’s
masterpiece for solo piano, Mirror, with orchestrations by
Ravel, Grainger, Stuckey; the first performance in Florida of Bruckner’s
Second Symphony as well as the US premiere of the Frank Martin
“Symphony 1937.” With his orchestra in Connecticut Mr. Bjaland led the
long delayed first performance of George Chadwick’s opera “The Padrone”
over 80 years after its composition. Other works performed there
include the world premieres of Deborah Teason’s Concerto for Steel Band
and Charles Griffes’ “Symphony 1919.”
Mr. Bjaland guest conducting appearances have included the
internationally renowned Ravinia Festival in an all-Bernstein Concert
with the Chicago Symphony, the Music in the Mountains Festival in
Durango, Colorado, and the San Francisco Symphony in an all-Russian
concert featuring Pictures at an Exhibition. Other guest
conducting appearances have been with many of the country’s leading
orchestras, including the National Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic,
the Detroit Symphony, the Virginia Symphony and the Utah Symphony,
where the Salt Lake Tribune critic wrote, “This singularly has to be the best interpretation of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony ever.”
Hailed by Sir Georg Solti as “a most musical young conductor with
great future potential,” Mr. Bjaland was selected by Leonard Bernstein
in 1988 to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at several Orchestra
Hall concerts as part of the American Conductors Program. In the summer
of 1990, he was invited by Leonard Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas
to participate in the premiere season of the Pacific Music Festival in
Japan. From 1989-1993, he served as resident conductor and artistic
coordinator of the New World Symphony in Miami. Prior to this he was the
assistant conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of
the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Leif Bjaland began his musical career as a Professor of Music at Yale
University, where he served as music director of the Yale Symphony
Orchestra, leading that ensemble on a very successful tour of Europe in
1985. A Michigan native, Maestro Bjaland received his Master’s Degree in
Music from the University of Michigan, where he was a student of Gustav
Meier and Elizabeth A. H. Green.
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