National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
ARKADY LEYTUSH
conductor

  $14.95  ~  MS1312 

American composer, organist and choral conductor, HAMPSON SISLER, has more than 100 works to his credit, including pieces for organ, chorus, concert band, chamber and symphony orchestra. Sisler, who, at the age of seventeen, was the youngest person ever to be awarded the American Guild of Organists’ coveted Fellowship status, has had performances of his works given by Samuel Wong of the Honolulu and Hong Kong Symphony Orchestras, Marlon Daniel of the Ensemble du Monde and Prague Symphonietta Chamber Orchestras, Volodymyr Sirenko, Principal Conductor of The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and by Arkady Leytush. Sisler’s works have been performed in cities all over the world,  including Buenos Aires, Porto, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, Prague, Honolulu, Yalta and Hkarkov City in Ukraine, and in New York City at Tenri Hall, and at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and Merkin Halls. In New York, a partial premiere of his 14-movement work for large orchestra and organ, Milestones, took place at Alice Tully Hall under the baton of Leytush with Frank Morana at the organ. Solo and duo cantatas, commissioned by Daniel, have been premiered at Merkin Hall. As an organ recitalist, Sisler has given performances in and around New York City, including at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Beginning in 1945, Sisler has been serving as Music Director at more than a dozen churches in the greater New York area, including the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn and Metropolitan-Duane United Methodist Church in Manhattan, where he held the post for more than sixteen years. He is currently Music Director at Central Presbyterian Church, NYC—a post held by Charles Ives more than 100 years ago—and is also the official organist for the Doctors’ Orchestral Society of New York.

One of Russia’s most gifted conductors, Arkady Leytush has directed orchestras in Europe and the United States to great acclaim. Critics have described him as a conductor in the Grand Russian Tradition” and his interpretations have made him an audience favorite. Leytush’s artistry is known throughout the former Soviet Union, but it was not until 1994 that he gained recognition in the United States when he, on a week’s notice, made a stunning debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, replacing Yuri Temirkanov. Since 1980, Leytush has worked with a wide variety of orchestras, including Novosibirsk Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (Russia), New World Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, Orquestra Nacional Do Porto, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra, Plovdiv Philharmonic, Kremlin Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and Varna Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Leytush is Artistic Director of the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra (New Jersey), conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Music Director of the Interfaith Committee of Remembrance and Music Director of the Nathan Rakhlin International Festival in Yalta (Ukraine). Arkady Leytush has made numerous transcriptions and orchestrations of music by composers such as JS Bach, Buxtehude, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Chopin, Albéniz, Sisler, Czerny, Guastavino, Shostakovich, Borodin, Liadov, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Dargomyzhski, Artsibushev, Sokolov and Mayer.