Page 5 - NWS January 2025 Digital Playbill

ABOUT the ARTISTS

MICHAEL CHRISTIE Artistic and Music Director
®
A GRAMMY award-winning and innovative conductor,
Michael Christie is at home in both the symphonic and
opera worlds. As Artistic and Music Director of the New
West Symphony, he is focused on making the audience
experience entertaining, enlightening and enriching. The
New West Symphony Board of Directors recently announced
the extension of Christie’s contract through 2029.
Of his opening concert as Music Director in 2019, the Los
Angeles Times reported that the orchestra is “embracing
the mission of refreshing the modern concert experience
for a new generation.”
In November 2024, Christie conducted the world premiere of The Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, with music by Mason Bates and a libretto by Gene
Scheer, at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. The opera will subsequently
be performed at The Metropolitan Opera.
Christie’s more than 25-year symphonic conducting career has included serving
as Music Director of the Minnesota Opera (2011-18), Phoenix Symphony (2005-
13), Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005-10), and as Chief Conductor of the Queensland
Orchestra (2001-04) in Australia, as well as guest appearances leading top orchestras
such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonies
of Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, and more. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Colorado
Music Festival.
Michael Christie is married to Alexis, a physician, and they have two children.
michaelchristieonline.com

KUI DONG Composer
Kui Dong‘s music has been performed and commissioned
by numerous ensembles and has received honors and
prizes from a wide spectrum of prestigious institutions,
including being named a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow.
Dong’s compositions span diverse genres and styles that
include ballet, orchestral and chamber works, chorus,
electro-acoustic music, film scores, multimedia art and free
improvisation. Her works written in the US show a unique
synthesis of influences from avant-garde experimental,
jazz and ethnic music, and at the same time maintain a profound respect to Western
classical music and a deep cultural connection with her roots. She sometimes
incorporates theater, as well as Chinese and non-western instruments and musical
concepts, into contemporary settings.
Dong’s music can be found on four full-length albums: Pangu’s Song (New World
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