Edward Cumming Named Director of Orchestral Activities at The Hartt School

announced in a release that Edward Cumming, the outgoing Music Director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, has been named Associate Professor of Conducting and Director of Orchestral Activities.

According to a release from The Hartt School, Cumming was named to this fulltime, tenure-track position from a field of more than 150 candidates, following a yearlong national search.

Cumming has been serving in the position of Interim Director of Orchestral Activities during the past academic year.

According to the release, Cumming will be responsible for conducting The Hartt School’s Symphony Orchestra, as well as other orchestral activities. He will also teach courses such as conducting and score reading. The Hartt School’s Symphony Orchestra is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students from throughout the world, and typically performs six full-length programs per year, according to the release.

"After many years in the profession, my main focus will now be teaching and making music with very gifted young musicians,” said Cumming in the release. “I could not be happier with this new development. It is what I've always wanted to do, and to be doing it in Hartford, a city I love, is an added bonus.”

Cumming just concluded his final season with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra last Saturday night in Mortensen Hall at the Bushnell.

“We are thrilled to welcome Maestro Edward Cumming to The Hartt School as our new Associate Professor of Conducting and Director of Orchestral Activities,” said Hartt Dean Aaron Flagg in the release. “His depth of experience with professional orchestras, his passion for working with young people, and his demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and collegially are just some of the reasons for his selection. In addition, as The Hartt School seeks to develop its historic relationship with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and connections with other professional orchestras, Edward’s reputation, knowledge, and openness to new ways of thinking will prove invaluable.”

Cumming’s résumé includes experience as Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Resident Conductor of the Florida Orchestra in Tampa, and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of South Florida.

According to the release, Cumming has also conducted the Philharmonic orchestras of Los Angeles, Rochester, and Buffalo, as well as the San Diego, Oregon, San Antonio, Santa Barbara, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras and the Boston Pops. In June 2010, he made his South American debut with the Filarmónica de Bogotá, conducting Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande on short notice. He also has conducted widely in Europe and Asia.

Cumming earned a Doctorate in Music in 1992 from Yale University, where he studied with Otto-Werner Mueller. As an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, he was awarded the prestigious Eisner Prize for Creative Achievement in the Arts. In May 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Trinity College.