Guest Conductors 2023-2024
Dmitry Polyakov: Guest Conductor, Spring 2024
Dmitry Polyakov epitomizes the contemporary landscape of the classical music industry – a visionary artistic leader and interpreter of classical music masterworks across all genres. The maestro possesses the ability to inspire individuals to achieve new heights of artistic success and holds the key to transforming an orchestra into a gem among arts organizations. Every concert under his direction has garnered praise and standing ovations.
Maestro Polyakov holds two master’s degrees from one of the most esteemed music schools globally, the Moscow Conservatory, specializing in orchestral and opera conducting, composition, and music education. Throughout his career, he has served as a conductor and artistic advisor in eminent international music festivals such as the Musical Offering Festival and the Melodies of the Arctic Festival. He has actively participated in creative projects like the Stars of the XXI Century National Project and the Days of Music on the Oder. Furthermore, he brings extensive international experience, having performed with prestigious ensembles like the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Brandenburg State Orchestra, Castello Symphonic Orchestra, and many others.
His journey as a conductor has been shaped by a dedication to unearthing the emotional depth of classical masterpieces and sharing them with audiences profoundly and engagingly. While his passion for Tchaikovsky burns brightly, he holds composers like Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, and a multitude of others in equal reverence. His ability to deliver dynamic and insightful interpretations has been recognized by both audiences and critics, as evidenced by his performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in 2023 and publication in The Daily Independent.
According to critics, Maestro Polyakov possesses innate talent, charisma, the highest level of professionalism, and personal magnetism. His conducting style uniquely combines emotionality, tranquility, softness, and nobility. He is diplomatic in his interactions with orchestras, yet demanding and meticulous when striving to create the highest level of musical experience for classical music lovers.
As a composer, he has created symphonic works, instrumental concertos, chamber and instrumental music, vocal and choral compositions.
Andrew Jonathan Welch: Guest Conductor, Fall 2023
Like Mozart, Fauré, and countless others before him, Andrew Jonathan Welch is a musician whose career combines performance, composition, leadership and education. Andrew serves as the artistic director of the Falmouth Chorale, which celebrates its 60th season this year with seven different programs including works by Mozart, Handel, Lutoslawski, and Rosephanye Powell, among others. He will also be performing at the Epiphany Festival, a music festival he founded and leads in Washington DC. This summer he completed two piano-vocal reductions at the personal request of John Harbison and revised his 13-instrument reorchestration of Elgar’s The Music Makers, which will be performed by the City Choir of Washington this spring. Recent recording projects include a CD released on Tonsehen with trumpet player Luke Spence and with saxophonist Noah Getz on Albany Records with whom he has premiered esteemed jazz saxophonist Chris Potter’s Sonata for Soprano Saxophone.
Additionally, Andrew is the director of music ministries at Allin Congregational Church in Dedham, MA, where he conducts the Allin Choir and performs weekly on the church’s historic 1912 Opus 197 E. M. Skinner organ. Andrew has written over twelve anthems for the Allin choir and has inaugurated an annual lessons and carols service alongside other concert performances for the group. He has also designed and instituted a young artist-in-residence program which has brought numerous high school students to Allin to study church music.
Andrew studied piano performance at American University, the University of Maryland, and the Aspen Music Festival. Currently, he teaches music theory and chamber music as part of the music faculty at Brown and the New England Conservatory. He also maintains a private studio out of his home in Pawtucket, RI, where he teaches piano and coaches professional singers.
Inspiration comes from the countless experiences of beauty, both subtle and apparent, that surround us every day. Among the countless inspirational stewards with which Andrew has been privileged to traverse the frontier of music, he counts his principal teacher Rita Sloan, Yuliya Gorenman, Andrew Harley, Audrey Andrist, Carmen Balthrop, and his friend, Richard Giarusso, among the most influential.
Bill Drury
Conductor 2019-2023
We want to extend a warm thank-you to Bill Drury, who has led the orchestra through four fantastic seasons and helped us weather and come back after the pandemic hiatus. Bill retired from conducting the FCPO at the end of our 2022-2023 concert season.
———–
William Drury is NEC’s Associate Conductor of Wind Ensembles and directs the NEC Symphonic Winds. He began working with the FCPO in September 2019.
Drury is also conductor of the 567th ANG Band of Cape Cod and plays saxophone with the Jimmy Capone Big Band. Drury was named chairman of the Massachusetts Chapter of the College Band Directors National Association in 2002.
As a conductor, Drury has premiered works by composers such as Bell, Pinkham, Fletcher, Popkin, and Zorn; conducted orchestras at Harvard, Brown, and Brandeis universities and numerous Air Force bands throughout the nation; and has previously been MIT’s Assistant Conductor of Orchestras, conductor of the Boston Conservatory’s Wind Ensemble, assistant conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Boston, and conductor of the Auros Chamber Orchestra. As a jazz saxophonist, Drury has performed with Natalie Cole, the Coasters, Dave Stewart and MFB, and played lead tenor sax with the Bob Curnow Big Band. Before entering undergraduate studies, he worked for five years as a track laborer for the Burlington Northern Railroad.
B.S., political science, Gonzaga University; M.M. with distinction in performance, NEC. Conducting studies with Frank Battisti and Richard Hoenich. Former faculty of Boston University, The Boston Conservatory, MIT. Recordings on Art of the States, Criminal Records, Sierra Music, American Composers Forum, Tzadik, and Centaur.
(bio and photo courtesy of New England Conservatory)
John Yankee
Artistic Director 2007-2019
We want to thank John Yankee for his work as Music Director with FCPO for the past 10+ years. We are sorry to see him leave, but he is off to new adventures and opportunities on the west coast, and we wish him the best of luck and happiness. John has been invaluable in shaping the orchestra since its inception, and bringing its musicianship to new heights. We will certainly miss him.
———–
A dynamic and versatile musician, John Yankee was instrumental in developing the Upper Cape music culture during his time in Falmouth. Yankee was the founding music director of the Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra, artistic director of The Falmouth Chorale, choral director at Falmouth Academy, and founding Artistic Director of the Cape Cod Children’s Chorus. Since coming to the Cape in September 2007, he has been active in many other musical venues as a singer and performer on the hammered dulcimer and keyboards. In addition, he teaches privately, coaches ensembles, and leads a variety of workshops and community sings.
Prior to settling in Falmouth, Mr. Yankee served as artistic director of the San Diego Choral Union and Children’s Choir, and was founder and director of the Telluride Choral Society, the Children’s Chorus of Telluride, and the Telluride Chamber Orchestra. From 1986-1992 he was a member of the Baltimore-based folk trio Cross Country. An active composer and arranger, he has a long affiliation with the Walden School for Young Composers. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory (BM) and Yale School of Music (MM) and has studied at the Eastman School and University of Pittsburgh.