| Music Director
Hal France returns in this 12th Season for his fifth
year as Music Director of the Orlando Philharmonic while
continuing in his role as Artistic Director and Principal
Conductor of Opera Omaha. He is sought after as a guest
conductor for opera and symphony throughout the United
States and abroad, as a speaker and advocate for the
Arts and as a pianist for chamber music. In 2002, he
joined the Orlando Philharmonic and the City of Orlando
in Orlando Remembers, a moving tribute to September
11, with a performance of the Mozart Requiem.
Highlights of this coming season include Carlisle
Floyd’s Sassy Tree with Utah Opera, Rossini’s
Italian Girl in Algiers with Central City Opera,
and Puccini’s Turandot with Portland
Opera. Mr. France’s relationship with the music
of Benjamin Britten and the Central City Opera continued
last summer with performances of Midsummer Night’s
Dream. In the summer of 2001, he conducted the
first American production of Britten’s Gloriana.
During the Orlando Philharmonic’s 12th Season,
Maestro France will lead programs featuring pianist
Jon Kimura Parker, Duncan Couch and the Stetson Choral
Union, pianist Stewart Goodyear, baritone Timothy Noble
and Ambassador Elam Thomas, and jazz pianist Willis
Deloney.
In recent seasons, Hal France has guest conducted the
Royal Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the New Jersey
Symphony, the Richmond Symphony and the Jacksonville
Symphony. In 1992, he made his European opera debut
with the Royal Opera of Stockholm with a production
of Maria Stuarda.
Throughout his career, Mr. France has collaborated
with many of this country’s opera companies. In
1981, he made his professional debut at Washington’s
Kennedy Center. He served the Houston Grand Opera first
as Associate Conductor and later as Resident Conductor
over a four-year span. Since 1984, he has conducted
performances for the New York City Opera, Seattle Opera,
Florida Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Santa
Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia,
Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Chautauqua Opera, Minnesota
Opera, Cleveland Opera, Opera Carolina, Wolf Trap Opera,
Opera Festival of New Jersey, Tulsa Opera and Calgary
Opera.
Mr. France has served as Music Director of the Mobile
Opera and Lake George Opera Festival and as Music Director
of Opera Omaha before assuming the position of Artistic
Director. He has served on the music staffs of the Glyndebourne
Festival, Aspen Festival and the Netherlands Opera.
He has received degrees from Northwestern University
and the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory
of Music and a fellowship from the Juilliard Opera Center.
This past spring, he received an honorary doctorate
from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
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HAL
FRANCE 
