![[Artist's picture]](blomster_files/polochick1.jpg)
Edward Polochick, conductor
Edward Polochick is Founder and Artistic Director of
Concert Artists of Baltimore. Since winning the coveted Leopold Stokowski
Conducting Award and, as a result, conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra,
he has attracted attention as an orchestral, operatic and choral
conductor.
A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Polochick began piano
lessons at the age of four and was already performing as a pianist on the
stage of Carnegie Hall at the age of nine. He began his conducting studies
while majoring in music at Swarthmore College. He received Masters of
Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in both piano, as a
student of Leon Fleisher, and in conducting. As an accomplished pianist,
he has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los
Angeles Chamber Orchestra with Neville Marriner conducting. He was also a
coach and assistant conductor in the Opera Department of the Curtis
Institute of Music. In 1979 he decided to concentrate on conducting and
accepted appointments on the conducting staffs of the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra as Director of the Baltimore Symphony Chorus and the Peabody
Conservatory of Music where he is the Associate Conductor of the Peabody
Orchestra, Director of Choral Ensembles and Opera Conductor.
During
the summer of 1987 Mr. Polochick was conductor of Musicisti Americani, a
chamber orchestra festival in Sulmona, Italy. In November of that year,
Edward Polochick conducted the Peabody Orchestra in concerts of American
music in Moscow. He received an ASCAP award for adventuresome programming
of American music as a result of this tour. Other conducting appearances
have included the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony
Orchestra, the Aalborg Symphony of Denmark, Chautauqua Symphony, the Opera
Company of Philadelphia, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic,
Tuscaloosa Symphony and Omaha Symphony Orchestra.
The fall of 1998
marks Edward Polochick's twelfth season with Concert Artists of Baltimore
and his first season as Music Director of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra
in Nebraska. Mr. Polochick resides in Baltimore, where is often asked to
share his wealth of knowledge and love of music at various lecture series,
adjudications, and radio broadcasts.