Guest conductor Stefan Sanders is the first candidate to visit Spartanburg this season, auditioning for the position of Music Director of the SPO. Stefan is as an imaginative musician, devoted educator, and ardent champion of many types of music. He is the newly appointed music director of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra and is also the Resident Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director of the Round Rock Symphony in Central Texas.

Stefan has collaborated with an array of distinguished orchestras and guest artists, and for the September 16, 2017 concert, he will be working with cellist Claire Bryant. A South Carolina native, Claire now lives in New York City, enjoying an active and diverse career as a leading performer of chamber music, contemporary music, and the solo cello repertoire in premiere venues such as Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre, Suntory Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Barbican Centre. Claire is a founding member of the acclaimed chamber music collective, Decoda - an Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and is the Principal Cellist of Trinity Wall Street’s chamber orchestra, Novus NY.

Program:

• Mozart, Symphony no. 39, K 543

• Tchaikovsky, Variations on a Rococo Theme

  • Featuring Claire Bryant, Cello

• Beethoven, Symphony no. 5 in c minor, op. 67