American Wind Symphony Orchestra News

American Wind
Symphony Orchestra

MUSIC DIRECTOR:
Robert Austin Boudreau

MUSIC DIRECTOR'S
FIRST MATE:
Kathleen Boudreau

Facts at a Glance:
Robert Boudreau

Founder and conductor of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (which has a 47-year history of sailing the world’s waterways from its home port in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).

Musician, educator, conductor, riverboat captain, environmentalist, farmer (and son of a farmer).

Knighted in 1979 by the King of Sweden for his contributions to the ideals of international good will.

Mr. Boudreau’s friendship with the late architect Louis I. Kahn, a man of world-renown, resulted in Kahn’s designing for him the extraordinary and beautiful boat, Point Counterpoint II, which was launched in 1976 as part of America’s bicentennial celebration.

Mr. Boudreau has commissioned more than 400 works of contemporary music by noted composers, includ-ing Villa-Lobos and Robert Russell Bennett, so that a codified body of work now exists for the unusual instrumentation of the wood-winds, brass, and percussion of the symphony orchestra.

He has appeared on national television (for instance, “On the Road With Charles Kuralt,” “The Today Show,” and in a documentary produced by Nathan Kroll for NET in New York and aired nationally, entitled “Music on the Water”).

In print, he has been featured in, among others, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Time magazine (which said of him, “It just may be that there is no greater innovative force in American music than Robert Boudreau”).

In a unique collaboration of artistic disciplines, he brings together painters, poets, composers, and storytellers who tour with the orchestra as artists-in-residence

Members of his orchestra are young, professional musicians from this country and abroad who audition annually for the opportunity to tour all over the U.S. and the world, with past members now numbering more than 1,500 players

AWSO in the NEWS

There is a real desire on the part of several influential Estonians to purchase Point Counterpoint II, the AWSO's floating arts center. The vessel's architect, Louis Kahn, was born in Estonia and lived there as a child prior to his family's emigration to the United States. The Estonians, now in only the 20th year of independence from foreign domination, are eager to demonstrate to the world the diversity of their culture - and what better way than on board a unique creation of their native son! They are making significant strides in raising the necessary funds to make this purchase.

In light of these developments, Robert Boudreau is contemplating bringing the vessel and the AWSO to Estonia in late June, to participate in festivities relating to Tallinn's designation as the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2011. The orchestra would then perform in three additional Estonian ports - Narva, Parnu and Kuressaare - and continue throughout the Baltic, revisiting communities in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark where AWSO performed in 1989 and 1990.

Musicians having an interest in auditioning for this tour should contact the AWSO at awso@consolidated.net

Newspaper & Magazine Articles:

Tour 2010: Performance Schedule

Tours: 2009

American Wind Symphony Orchestra by the Numbers
The Goderich Signal Star

http://www.goderichsignalstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1685313

Large crowd packs Cape Girardeau riverfront for American Wind Symphony's final concert
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
By Charles Francis ~ Southeast Missourian

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1563266.html

http://www.semissourian.com/gallery/4390/

American Wind Symphony Orchestra