New Conductor for Saddleback Music Students

Saddleback College's latest music professor comes with an extensive background playing music across the U.S. and Europe.

Yorgos Kouritas will teach violin, classes in 20th century music and chamber music, along with several other subjects.

Kouritas was born in Greece and trained in England. Most recently he served as Assistant Conductor of the Boise Philharmonic and Director of the Boise Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Local audiences will have four chances to see Kouritas in action this year. He will perform two wind ensemble concerts in October and November, a symphony concert in October and A Feast of Lights, a mixture of chorale singing and symphonic music, in December.

Here's more about the new conductor, sent in from Saddleback arts spokeswoman Nina Welch:

Mr. Kouritas has an extensive background in conducting which includes being the Assistant Conductor of the Boise Philharmonic and Director of the Boise Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. In March 2012, he made his debut with the Boise Philharmonic and it was enthusiastically received. During his tenure as the Assistant Conductor of the Symphony Orchestras at Eastman School of Music, he also held the position of Music Director and Conductor of the New Horizons Orchestra and Associate Conductor with the Brighton Symphony. He previously had the position of Cincinnati Symphony Conducting Assistant during the year 2006-07. During this time, he assisted Paavo Jarvi and all the guest conductors of the symphony. He also worked with James Conlon for the duration of the May festival of the Cincinnati Symphony. At the same time, he worked with Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra conducting them in rehearsals and concerts. Before joining CSO, he held the position of Assistant and Cover Conductor for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, which included a production of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte.

Department of Music Chair Scott Farthing, stated, “We are so excited to have Professor Kouritas join our music faculty at Saddleback College! He brings with him international performing experience and a wealth of musical gifts that will continue to build on our long history of excellent music-making.”

In the summer of 2010, he was chosen by Lorin Maazel to work with him as a conducting fellow for five weeks at the Castleton Festival in Virginia, and he received great reviews by the Washington Times and the Washington Post. He has been selected two times by Kurt Masur as an active participant for the annual master class with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony (April 2009 and November 2010). In May and June 2009, he interned with the New York Philharmonic’s Education Department and during his time there he also worked for the Development Department.

Mr. Kouritas has conducted various orchestras in concerts and master classes including Richmond Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Manhattan School of Music Symphony, Castleton Festival Orchestra, Lucca Festival Orchestra, Fingerlakes Symphony, Ossia Ensemble, Rochester Composer’s Sinfonietta and others. He has been the conductor of East Central Indiana Youth Orchestra and at the same time the Ball State Chamber Opera. In Europe, he has had many guest conducting opportunities, including the Pleven, Plovdiv and Bacau Philharmonics.

Born in Greece, Mr. Kouritas had violin lessons from an early age and studied the Russian pedagogue Rimma Sushanskaya at the Birmingham Conservatoire in England. He also studied the violin with Sherry Kloss , Piotr Milewski, Lynn Blakeslee and James Buswell. At the age of 13, he became the youngest member of the Edinburgh International Youth Orchestra. He served as concertmaster and member of many orchestras in the US and Europe. He studied conducting with Mark Gibson at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Neil Varon at Eastman School of Music. During his time in Cincinnati, he was the Director of the highly-praised production of Stravinsky’s Firebird (1945 version) collaborating with the school ballet.

Mr. Kouritas has participated in master classes with some of the most well-known conductors and teachers including Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, JoAnn Falletta, Alexander Mickelthwate, Gustav Meier, Alexis Hauser, Larry Livingston, Victor Yampolsky, Joseph Flummerfelt and Michael Jinbo at the Pierre Monteux School.  Last year he was a semi-finalist and this year he is a finalist for the American Prize in Conducting.

The Music Department has established a comprehensive program which is considered to be one of the finest in California:  a complete lower-division curriculum for transferring music majors, numerous performance groups, private and group lessons, a full concert series with faculty and guest artists, and general music courses.  The nationally recognized faculty is dedicated to performance and to teaching in all areas such as vocal, instrumental, jazz, guitar and piano.  Other music classes include harmony, musicianship, composition, history and appreciation of western art music, rock, jazz and world.