Musicians - Charles Floyd

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	Musicians - Charles Floyd

Charles Floyd (born ?, 1958) is an American conductor, pianist and composer.

Biography

Conductor, pianist and composer Charles Floyd began studying piano at age four, gave his first solo recital at age nine, and by age twenty had been heard in solo recital, chamber music and concerto performances throughout the United States and Spain. Mr. Floyd earned degrees in piano performance from the Conservatory at Oberlin College, the University of Louisville, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His teachers have included pianist Joseph Schwartz, Lee Luvisi, Aube Tzerko and Howard Karp. Through the auspices of numerous summer festival and master classes, he has worked with Jorge Bolet, John Perry and Mischa Dichter. Mr. Floyd performed frequently as soloist with the Louisville Orchestra between 1982 and 1984 under the direction of Robert Bernhardt and Stewart Kershaw; he also was chosen as pianist for the Louisville Ballet’s internationally recognized tribute to George Balanchine during the 1983-84 season.

Charles Floyd has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including those from the Aspen School of Music, the AMOCO Corporation, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chicago’s Louis Sudler Foundation, and the National Chopin Competition of New York’s Kosciuszko Foundation.

As a conductor, Mr. Floyd has been heard in Pops concerts with more than 500 orchestras since 1991, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Houston, Oregon, Miami, Spokane, Akron and Colorado Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and the Los Angeles, Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras. He is also a frequent guest conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Since 1993 his performances have included the annual “Gospel Night at Pops” at Boston’s Symphony Hall and Esplanade Pavilion as well as standard Pops programs. His work in Boston’s 1996 season included a PBS telecast of “Evening at Pops”, featuring Patti LaBelle and Edwin Hawkins in a program of gospel music, and critically acclaimed performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with conductor Keith Lockhart. In recent seasons, his schedule has included performances of “A Gospel Christmas” with the Atlanta Baltimore, and Oregon Symphony Orchestras, and a holiday special, “A Cathedral Christmas”, with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves from Washington DC’s National Cathedral, broadcast nationally over PBS-TV on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and The Houston Symphony. Future and recent-past engagements include the Oregon Symphony as well as performances with the Atlanta Symphony Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Louisville Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, Miami’s New World Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, the Akron Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Boston Pops.

Mr. Floyd’s eleven-year partnership with Natalie Cole included such projects as the multiple Grammy Award-winning tribute to Nat King Cole entitled “Unforgettable, With Love”, the Emmy Award-winning PBS Great Performances concert video of the same title, as well as the Grammy-winning release “Take a Look”, and her most recent Grammy-nominated release “Stardust”. Natalie Cole performed Mr. Floyd’s adaptation of the National Anthem at the opening of the 1994 Super Bowl in Atlanta.

His compositions include chamber music, art songs, gospel music, two operas, and a work-in-progress based on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for narrator, chorus and orchestra. His “Four Spirituals” for soprano and orchestra was premiered at Boston’s Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra in 1995 and his “Gospel Cantata” premiered in 2000.

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