Music Director Len Ingrao
Maestro Len Ingrao is currently the Artistic Director of the London Community
Orchestra (since 1998), the London Youth Symphony (after acting as Assistant
Conductor from 1996 until 2002) and the Waterloo Chamber Players. He began studying conducting with Charles Zachary Bornstein in London Ontario and became assistant Conductor of the London Mozart Festival
(1985). Subsequent training was with Karl Osterreicher (Vienna/as auditor)), John
Barnum (Toronto) and Gustav Meier, (Windsor, Kitchener and London OFSO
Workshops). He was assistant conductor to Maestro Jerome Summers of the UWO
Symphony Orchestra (1990-94) and Assistant Conductor, Chorus Master and Vocal
Coach with UWOPERA, a position which he held until 1999. From 1997 to 2000 he
was Assistant Conductor of the Niagara Youth Symphony. With that ensemble he
recorded Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture on CD and conducted them during their
1998 European Tour of Holland, Germany, Belgium and France. He has been Guest
Conductor with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra London Canada,
Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and the Woodstock Strings; in June-July of
2002 he led the London Youth Symphony on its tour of Austria and Italy.
Director Ingrao's comments for 2008-09
The death of live performance of orchestral music has been often predicted. Why go to a concert when one can purchase a CD of high quality for roughly the same cost and listen to it at one’s leisure in the comfort of one’s home? The current CD catalogue makes available all music of all genres of all Ages with the best performers both alive and deceased. Why spend the time and money to go out of doors and sit in a concert hall?
In reality, extremely few people actually listen to recorded music precisely because of it’s convenience. More often, it is heard as background sound to other activities that require concentration, be it working, reading a book, or cooking dinner. Recordings threaten the activity of listening to music, not its performance. While attending a concert, one takes advantage of the opportunity to set aside all other cares and concerns and actively participate in the musical experience. We invite you to join those who choose to be participants in the creation of orchestral music, to experience sound that exists only for those few brief hours and that, through the activities of performing and listening, truly affects our inner lives.
Len
In reality, extremely few people actually listen to recorded music precisely because of it’s convenience. More often, it is heard as background sound to other activities that require concentration, be it working, reading a book, or cooking dinner. Recordings threaten the activity of listening to music, not its performance. While attending a concert, one takes advantage of the opportunity to set aside all other cares and concerns and actively participate in the musical experience. We invite you to join those who choose to be participants in the creation of orchestral music, to experience sound that exists only for those few brief hours and that, through the activities of performing and listening, truly affects our inner lives.
Len