The Hot Springs Music Festival is pleased to announce the appointment of Maestro Sameer Patel as the 2020 Hot Springs Music Festival.
Internationally recognized for his deep musicianship and passionate communication, Sameer Patel is one of America’s most exciting young conductors.
In the 2018-19 season, Mr. Patel continues in his role as Associate Conductor of the San Diego Symphony and as Associate Conductor of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, whose distinguished musicians come from many of North America’s finest orchestras. Upcoming and recent engagements include the orchestras of Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, New Jersey, Phoenix, Sacramento, La Jolla, Toledo, New Hampshire, Fresno, Knoxville, Pacific, Alabama, Naples, Reading and Jacksonville, as well as the National Symphony in Washington, D.C and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Abroad, he has conducted acclaimed performances with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, the Leipziger Sinfonieorchester and others. With an unending enthusiasm for understanding the music of our time, Mr. Patel has curated programs and has championed music by living composers such as Adam Schoenberg, Anna Clyne, Mason Bates, Ellen Reid, Hannah Lash, Tan Dun and others.
His impressive work across three continents has led to three consecutive Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards, which are given to promising young conductors in the early stages of their career. In 2016 he was recognized by Daniele Gatti as a top conductor at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, which led to his acclaimed professional debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo. In 2013 Kurt Masur, the late Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, recognized Patel’s talents with a prize from the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation, which allowed him to study with and assist Maestro Masur in his appearances with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. That same year, Mr. Patel was one of only six conductors selected by the League of American Orchestras for the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, which led to subsequent, multiple engagements with that orchestra. In the early stages of his career he held prestigious fellowships with the Chicago Sinfonietta and Boston Philharmonic, and previously served as Associate Conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in Indiana.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Mr. Patel furthered his training across Europe with some of the greatest conductors of our time, including Gianandrea Noseda, Daniele Gatti, the late Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, David Zinman and Neeme and Paavo Järvi. Born and raised in Michigan, Mr. Patel is an enthusiastic advocate for music education, and in his spare time he pursues his passions for literature, languages, traveling, history and geopolitics. He makes his home in Southern California with his wife, Shannon, and their young son, Devan. Both Sameer and his wife are Hot Springs Music Festival Alumni.
You can follow Sameer Patel on Twitter and Instagram: @sameerap2