Guest Conductor/Soloist

EUGENE FRIESEN BIO

A graduate of the Yale School of Music where he studied with Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot, Eugene Friesen is active internationally as a concert artist, composer, conductor and teacher. In 1995 and in 2006 Eugene won a Grammy Award for musical contributions to two Paul Winter Consort albums, “Spanish Angel” and “Silver Solstice.” He has worked and recorded with such diverse artists as Dave Brubeck, Toots Thielemans, Betty Buckley, Will Ackerman, Joe Lovano and Dream Theater.

As conductor of the Berklee College of Music String Orchestra in Boston, Eugene has composed and arranged a diverse repertoire of work for strings utilizing his love for improvisation and rhythm in contemporary, jazz and world fiddle styles.

Eugene was the 1999 recipient of grants from the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund and Continental Harmony to compose a symphonic setting of Carl Sandburg's PRAIRIE, which was premiered in June of 2001 in Kansas.

Eugene's passion for the responsive flow of improvisatory music has been featured in concerts all over the world with the Paul Winter Consort and with Trio Globo (Friesen,Howard Levy and Glen Velez). He has performed as a soloist at the International Cello Festival in Manchester, England; Rencontres d'Ensembles de Violoncelles in Beauvais,France; the World Cello Congress in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Rio International Cello Encounter in Rio de Janeiro.

Recording credits include five albums of original music: New Friend, Arms Around You, The Song of Rivers, In the Shade of Angels and Sono Miho.

Eugene is an artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He lives in Vermont with his wife Wendy and four children.