Kenneth Schermerhorn

Kenneth Schermerhorn is a most versatile conductor, equally at ease with symphonic repertoire, opera and ballet. Music director of The Nashville Symphony since 1983, he has steered the ensemble to new levels of artistic achievement and public support. On September 25, 2000, he led the Orchestra in its debut performance on the "world's stage," Carnegie Hall. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee is named in his honor.

Schermerhorn's career has led him to podiums around the world, including appearances in Australia, China and Japan. In the USA his guest conducting engagements include the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, New Jersey, San Antonio, Columbus, Delaware, Chattanooga and Seattle.

For Naxos, Kenneth Schermerhorn has conducted the Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in a recording of Sibelius and latterly his own Nashville Symphony in "American Classics" discs of Hanson (Naxos 8.559072) and Ives (Naxos 8.559076). On Marco Polo he has conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic in recordings of Glazunov, Villa-Lobos, Richard Strauss and, with Takako Nishizaki as soloist, a particularly well-received recording of Cesar Cui's Suite Concertante Op. 25 (Naxos 8.220308). Schermerhorn also conducts on a disc of works by Chinese composers made by the orchestra on the occasion of the First Contemporary Chinese Composers' Festival held in 1986.

Kenneth Schermerhorn passed away in April 2005.