SJCO Conductors and Guest Composers

Conductor Barbara Day Turner is music director of the San José Chamber Orchestra, which she founded 20 years ago. She is an ardent advocate for new music and has commissioned and premiered more than 110 new works which have been performed by the San José Chamber Orchestra.  Maestra Day Turner is also the music administrator and conductor of the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater where she has been resident conductor for the past 10 seasons. Most recently, she led an all Gershwin concert, as well as productions of Don Giovanni and South Pacific. BDTís resumé includes most of the standard opera repertoire, ranging from the early works of the baroque to several world premieres, as well as dozens of musical theater pieces. Abroad, Maestra Day Turner has conducted at the Rheinsberg Festival in Berlin, the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra in Germany, as well as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes, Mexico. Elsewhere, in the recent past, she has conducted La Bohéme for Rimrock Opera in Montana and the Symphony Silicon Valley’s setting of The Music Man.  In her many years with Opera San José, she premiered Henry Mollicone’s Hotel Eden, Alva Henderson’s West of Washington Square, Craig Bohmler and Daniel Helfgot’s The Tale of the Nutcracker and George Roumanis’ Phaedra, besides conducting a vast repertoire of works by Handel, Cavalli, Mozart, Rossini, Puccini, Bizet, Verdi, Britten, Stravinsky, Barber and many others. Other opera venues include Portland Opera (Nixon In China) and El Paso Opera (Elixir of Love).  Her orchestral performances include concerts with the Redwood, South Valley and Billings symphonies; and the North Fayetteville orchestra. Recent appearances as guest conductor include the San José State University’s double bill of the operas The Clever Mistress by Sirota and Suor, and Isabella by Xavier Rodriguez; the musical leadership of Long Live Life, music from Theresienstadt; along with the release of Choose Life, with music by Mona Lyn Reese, the fifth CD released with the participation of the San José Chamber Orchestra. The Maestra’s upcoming projects include productions of Robert Ward’s The Crucible with Rimrock Opera and Gounod’s Faust, Kiss me Kate, and Girl Crazy with the Utah Festival Opera; plus numerous appearances as harpsichordist.

Associate conductor Anthony Quartuccio is also music director of the Nova Vista Symphony, the South Valley Symphony, and the San Jose Senior Youth Chamber Orchestra. He continues to appear regularly at Opera San Jose where he has conducted for nearly ten years. From 1996 to 2002 he served as founding music director of the Bay Shore Lyric Opera in Capitola, California.

Quartuccio’s appearances in recent seasons include the opening night concert of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in Manila in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the nation’s cultural center. In 2009 he conducted a highly successful tour with the San Jose Youth Chamber Orchestra in New York with performances at Ellis Island and the United Nations world headquarters. Also in that year he and the San Jose Youth Chamber Orchestra performed for the mayor of San Jose and a private concert for His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet in San Francisco.  In the six years of his work with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, he has conducted several subscription concerts, many of which included world premieres.

Susan Stein leads the San José Youth Chamber Orchestra as its music director and co-conductor. Under her guidance the Senior Youth Orchestra received a commendation this season from Mayor Chuck Reed for their performance at The Mayor’s Breakfast and were honored to perform for the Dalai Lama in San Francisco with San José vocalist Brett Hammon.

Susan Stein: San José Youth Chamber Orchestra Music Director

Vivian Fung has been described by the New York Times as “prodigiously gifted,” and by the Seattle Times as “a composer of considerable skill.” She has had an impressive string of commissions and performances by such performers and ensembles as Gerard Schwarz, the Seattle Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, San José Chamber Orchestra, members of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, New England Philharmonic, American String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Vancouver New Music, and American Opera Projects.

Vivian Fung: Composer

Among his compositions are the operas West of Washington Square (premiered by Opera San Jose in 1988), Achilles, and The Tempest; the cantata The Ancient Ones (premiered by the Schola Cantorum in 1983); and most recently, a dramatic musical, Far From the Madding Crowd. He is currently collaborating with Dana Gioia on an opera based on the great Murnau silent film Nosferatu. Mr. Henderson has written many songs, songs cycles, and choruses, as well as incidental music for Twelfth Night, The House of Bernarda Alba, and Much Ado About Nothing.

Alva Henderson: Composer

Craig Bohmler is a composer, pianist and conductor whose works have been frequently performed in Europe and North America. Primarily a composer for the lyric theater and the solo voice, he has three operas and nine musicals to his credit as well as 120 songs and numerous choral works and orchestral works. He has written operas for the Houston Grand Opera, Opera San José and The Banff Centre. He has been the recipient of several grants including two NEA grants and a "meet the composer" grant. His works are also published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Samuel French and Theatrical Rights Worldwide as well as recorded by Columbus, Centaur, Original Cast and BMS records.

Craig Bohmler: Composer

Michael Touchi is one of Northern California's up and coming young composers. His recently released Tango Barocco cd is a must-hear for Vivaldi fans. Michael’s performance on the release is crisp and light-hearted. The carol arrangements are fresh and inventive interpretations of standard works.

Michael Touchi: Composer

Henry Mollicone has written works for orchestra, voice, chorus, ballet, and solo voice, as well as music for film, television, and theater, including the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis). He has worked with several distinguished actors as a conductor, composer, and pianist, including Jean Stapleton, David Ogden Stiers, Tovah Feldshuh, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Angela Lansbury. Orchestral works include Celestial Dance (commissioned by the Long Beach Symphony), Inner Light, the overture Kathy's White Knight, A Rat's Tale: The Pied Piper Revisited, in collaboration with the playwright, William Luce, premiered by Charles Nelson Reilly, In Time of War; Prayers and Meditations, and Dansa Trimbula.

Henry Mollicone: Composer

Hyo-shin Na has written for western instruments, for traditional Korean instruments and has written music that combines western and Asian (Korean and Japanese) instruments and ways of playing. Her music for traditional Korean instruments is recognized by both composers and performers in Korea (particularly by the younger generation) as being uniquely innovative. Her writing for combinations of western and eastern instruments is unusual in its refusal to compromise the integrity of differing sounds and ideas; she prefers to let them interact, coexist and conflict in the music.

Hyo-shin Na: Composer

A well-respected composer capable of working in many musical genres, Judith Shatin Allen is a Phi Beta Kapa graduate of Douglass College, as well as a recipient of the M.M. from Julliard School and a PHD from Princeton. Among her awards are two NEA Composer Fellowships, a Chamber Opera Commission from the Ash Lawn Summer Festival, a New Jersey State Arts Council Grant, and awards from "Meet the Composer" and the American Music Center.

Judith Shatin: Composer

Barbara Day Turner: Music Director

Anthony Quartuccio: Associate Director