Thomas Kasdorf, piano
Oriol Sans, guest conductor
Thomas Kasdorf, piano
Oriol Sans, guest conductor
Márquez: Danzón No. 2
Copland: The Tender Land Suite
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F, featuring Thomas Kasdorf
Thomas Kasdorf, the MCO’s artist in residence, is a collaborative pianist inspired by connections through various art forms merging through the piano. Active in the fields of chamber music, art song recital, opera, and musical theatre, he has concertized throughout the US and Canada. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in May 2020 at the Mead Witter School of Music at University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a Paul Collins Distinguished Fellow. He currently serves on the faculty at UW Madison as the music director and opera coach for UW Opera’s productions.
Thomas has long held an interest in musical theatre. He has performed in over 200 productions as an actor, pianist, musical director, stage director, and conductor. With a special interest in the works of Stephen Sondheim, he has been called upon to prepare productions or perform in reduced orchestrations in Company, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Putting it Together, Side by Side by Sondheim and Sweeney Todd. He is currently Artistic Director of Middleton Players Theatre (MPT) in Middleton, Wisconsin, where he resides.
Thomas has performed a major piano concerto every season with the Middleton Community Orchestra (MCO) since its inception in 2010 and has also engaged the orchestra to collaborate in staged productions of Carousel and Sweeney Todd with MPT.
Oriol Sans is Director of Orchestral Activities and Assistant Professor in conducting at the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where he is Music Director and conductor of the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra and the University Opera.
His professional conducting activities include performances with a long list of renowned soloists, collaborations with celebrated composers, and concerts with orchestras and ensembles including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Symphony, the Michigan Chamber Winds and Strings, the New Mexico Philharmonic, the San Juan Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, the Flint Symphony Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble and the Four Corners Ensemble.