Paul Freeman

Paul Freeman built a dynamic conducting career spanning both Europe and North America. After earning his doctorate at the Eastman School of Music, he traveled to Berlin on a Fulbright grant to work with Ewald Lindemann. His achievements include the top prize at the Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition, the Mahler Award from the European Union of Arts, and honorary doctorates conferred by Dominican and Loyola Universities. He led more than one hundred ensembles as a guest, among them the Moscow Philharmonic, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Mexico, Israel Sinfonietta, Leipzig Radio Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and Bratislava Philharmonic. In 1987 he established the Chicago Sinfonietta and served as its music director; nine years later he assumed the posts of music director and chief conductor with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague. Additional appointments encompassed music directorships of the Victoria Symphony in Canada and the Opera Theatre of Rochester, New York, the principal guest conductor role at the Helsinki Philharmonic, and associate conductor positions with the Dallas and Detroit orchestras. Two Emmy nominations recognized his televised appearances. As one of the most extensively recorded American conductors, he amassed more than two hundred releases. Early critical notice came from a Columbia series documenting the achievements of Black symphonic composers. He recorded the complete Mozart piano concertos with the London Philharmonic, the Haydn concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Beethoven concertos with the Berlin Symphony, all featuring pianist Derek Han. Light classics and music-theater repertoire also figured prominently in his discography; he directed the Orchestra of the Americas through the eight-disc set Aspects of Broadway, which surveyed excerpts from roughly forty shows. The 1974 Koussevitzky International Recording Award honored his account of the Cordero violin concerto. Upon retiring in 2011, he gave his extensive score collection and related materials to the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago.