Maestro Stuart Malina to Receive LVC Founders Day Award

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Maestro Stuart Malina, director and music conductor of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, will receive this year's Founders Day Award at Lebanon Valley College.

ANNVILLE, PA (01/31/2012)(readMedia)-- Lebanon Valley College's 33rd Annual Founders Day Convocation on February 21, will recognize Maestro Stuart Malina, music director and conductor of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. Also at Founders Day, the winner of The President's Award for Community Service will be revealed. The convocation will begin at 11 a.m. in Miller Chapel and the public is welcome to attend.

The Founders Day award is one of the highest commendations issued by the College. The award recognizes an individual whose character and leadership, in the spirit of the founders of Lebanon Valley College, contributes to the enhancement of life in central Pennsylvania.

Now entering his 12th season as music director and conductor of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Stuart Malina has built a reputation for orchestra building and multi-faceted versatility. In a wide variety of concerts, from masterworks and grand opera to pops, Malina's ease on the podium, engaging personality, and insightful interpretations have thrilled audiences and helped to break down the barriers between performer and listener wherever he has worked.

"Stuart Malina is a superb conductor and advocate of serious music," said LVC President Stephen C. MacDonald. "He has led the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra with distinction and verve for more than a decade; during that time, the Orchestra has become one of the premier symphony orchestras in the eastern United States. How fitting that this College, with its long, distinguished commitment to the teaching of music, should celebrate that commitment by conveying its 2012 Founders Day Award to as exemplary a musician as Maestro Stuart Malina."

He made his Carnegie Hall debut in February of 2007, conducting the New York Pops in an all-Gershwin tribute including "Rhapsody in Blue," which he conducted from the keyboard, and returned to Carnegie and the Pops in October of 2007. He has recently performed with the symphony orchestras of Hong Kong, Naples, New Mexico, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Charleston and Greensboro.

On the opera podium Malina's recent production engagements include Opera Delaware ("Porgy and Bess"), Piedmont Opera (Massenet's "Manon") and Greensboro Opera ("Il barbiere di Siviglia"). He will return to Opera Delaware this coming spring. He has also conducted many operas in concert, including "La Bohème," "Tosca," and several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. He has conducted several ballets with the Charleston Ballet and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.

An accomplished pianist, Malina has impressive credits as soloist and chamber musician. He has performed concertos in Harrisburg, Greensboro, Charleston, New York, and Chautauqua, most often conducting from the keyboard.

As a composer and arranger, Malina has created dozens of orchestral works, ranging from entire pops shows to works for symphony orchestra. His most recent composition, "Brahms Fan Fare" received its world premiere by the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra in May of 2011.

Malina's activities also extend to Broadway. In June 2003, he won the TONY award for orchestration with Billy Joel for the musical "Movin' Out," which Malina helped create with director/choreographer Twyla Tharp. He has served as music supervisor for every production of the show, both in the U.S. and in London. In 1995, in a strange turn of events, Malina appeared on stage, acting opposite Broadway legend Zoe Caldwell in Terrence McNally's Tony-winning drama "Master Class" for its run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Malina was previously music director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and associate conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He holds degrees from Harvard University, the Yale School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller. He studied piano with Drora and Baruch Arnon and with Keiko Sato.

Past Founders Day Award recipients in attendance included Jeanne Donlevy Arnold (2007), Richard F. Charles (2004), Mary Louise Sherk (1982), and Leonard Washington (1998).

In addition to honoring the Founders Day Award winner, each year since 1993, LVC's president has recognized a student organization for exceptional community service as part of the Founders Day Convocation. The President's Award for community service was designed to acknowledge a student organization that has contributed to life in Central Pennsylvania through community service.