Kenneth Schermerhorn

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

Schermerhorn’s career led him to podiums around the world, including appearances in Australia, China and Japan. In the USA his guest conducting engagements included 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 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 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 conducted 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.