Huw Edwards, Music Director & Conductor

Huw Edwards begins his tenth season as Music Director of the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra and has consistently received critical approval from audiences, soloists and the press for his intense performances and imaginative programming. Recent highlights have included Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, The Tallis Fantasia by Vaughan Williams, Haydn's "Lord Nelson" Mass, and Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer with mezzo-soprano Angela Niederloh. The CSO's music program has expanded greatly under Huw's leadership: it now enjoys a second concert series in East Metro, plays a "Symphonic Safari" each summer, performs a pair of Holiday Concerts in December, and the whole orchestra performs at the Gala Dinner in January. Huw is garnering a notable reputation for his performances and devotion to the music of Beethoven, Elgar, Sibelius and Bruckner, as well as his series of annual commissions from Pacific Northwest composers.

Mr. Edwards has also completed six successful seasons as Music Director of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in Washington, where there is a palpable sense of excitement following his appointment. After landmark sold-out seasons the past two years, Edwards is credited with improving the Orchestra, initiating an expansive Education/Outreach program and being very active in the community.

Mr. Edwards has performed with the Oregon Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Annas Bay Opera, has worked with the symphony orchestras of Dallas and Memphis, as well as numerous ensembles-both nationally and internationally. This season he will guest conduct the Yakima Symphony, he has been invited to conduct at the Rocky Ridge Music Festival in Colorado, and will be the judge and clinician at the lauded PLU Orchestra Festival in Tacoma. His travels this year also take him to Boston, Reykjavik, Edinburgh, London and York in England.

From 2002-2005 Mr. Edwards was Music Director of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, and was a faculty member at the Marrowstone Music Festival (1998 to 2005). Mr. Edwards moved to Seattle after seven memorable seasons (1995-2002) as Music Director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP), which included memorable tours to Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Since 2003 Huw was also the conductor of the Connoisseur's Orchestra at YMA-he stepped down this July after another successful concert performing concertos with many young soloists.

Born in South Wales (UK), Mr. Edwards holds degrees from the University of Surrey in England and SMU in Dallas, which he attended on scholarship in 1988. Huw came to the Pacific Northwest from Chicago, where he was a lecturer at Northwestern University and a doctoral candidate. His principal teachers have been Simon Johnson and Barry Wordsworth (London), Anshel Brusilow and Eduardo Mata (Dallas), and Victor Yampolsky (Chicago). Outside of music Huw enjoys golf, kayaking, poetry, the Chicago Bears, good wine and time with close friends, and is a member of "Cross-Fit Olympia", where he is indebted to Abby, Juanita and Truck for constantly kicking his trunk!