BOZEMAN — Andrew Crust says he loves Montana and is excited about Bozeman.
Crust is the second candidate vying for the Bozeman Symphony conductor position. He joined Montana This Morning's Chet Layman live to talk about the opportunity.
Crust says for a small town Bozeman has big city arts. Crust notes that Bozeman has a symphony, a ballet and an opera, becoming a part of that, he says excites him.
Crust will guest conduct the symphony for two performances of the Planet symphony. Performances will be Saturday October 26th at 7:30 pm, and Sunday October 27th at at 2:30 pm at the Willson Auditorium. Crust is the 2nd of 6 total candidates for the Bozeman Music Director position. His full resume follows.
ANDREW CRUST has developed a versatile international career as a conductor of orchestral, opera, ballet and pops programs. Currently serving as the Assistant Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony in Canada, Andrew conducts a large number of subscription, pops, educational and contemporary concerts with the VSO each season.
In the 18/19 season Andrew will debut with the Bozeman and Lima Symphonies as a Music Director finalist, and will begin a relationship with the San Diego Symphony as Cover Conductor. Recent engagements include performances with the Winnipeg Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Hartford Symphony, and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie in Québec.
Andrew is equally at ease in the pit, having conducted ballet with Ballet Memphis and the New Ballet Ensemble, and opera with Opera McGill, College Light Opera Company, Boulder Opera Company, and others. As a Pops conductor, Andrew has collaborated with such artists as Rufus Wainwright, Steven Page, Michael Bolton, Cirque de la Symphonie, and the United States Jazz Ambassadors, and will make his film debut conducting Casablanca with the Vancouver Symphony in the 18/19 season.
Andrew served as Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2019 where he conducted around forty concerts each season. He stepped in last minute for a successful subscription performance featuring Bernstein’s Serenade with violinist Charles Yang. Andrew also served as Conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. As the Assistant Conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine from 2016-2018, he conducted a variety of concert series, helped coordinate the orchestra’s extensive educational programs, and helped lead a program for concertgoers under 40 called “Symphony and Spirits”.
Crust was the Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA) in the summers of 2017 and 2018, assisting Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour, as well as Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop and James Ross at Carnegie Hall and in a side-by-side performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also served as Cover Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony and Nashville Symphony, Assistant/Cover Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic and Assistant Conductor of Opera McGill.
Abroad, he has led concerts with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Italy, Hamburger Symphoniker at the Mendelssohn Festival in Germany, the Moravian Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, the Filharmonia “Mihail Jora” of Bacau, Romania, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile in Santiago. In 2017 he was awarded first prize at the Accademia Chigiana by Daniele Gatti, receiving a scholarship and an invitation to guest conduct the Orchestra di Sanremo in Italy. He was a semi-finalist for the Nestlé/Salzburg Festival’s Young Conductors Award competition, and was selected by members of the Vienna Philharmonic as a winner of the Ansbacher Fellowship, with full access to all rehearsals and performances of the Salzburg Festival.
Andrew is dedicated to exploring new ways of bringing the classical music experience into the 21st century through innovative programming and marketing, creating community-oriented and socially-sensitive concert experiences, and utilizing social media and unique venues. Andrew lives in Vancouver and enjoys making and consuming visual art during study breaks.
