The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is pleased to share a good news/good news announcement. ASO Music Director Randall Craig Fleischer will make his Broadway debut when his international sensation Rocktopia rocks Broadway for six epic weeks, March 20th thru April 29 th at The Broadway Theatre. Rocktopia is a musical revolution that celebrates the fusion of the best rock songs of the past century with some of the greatest classical music ever written.
Created through the unique vision of vocalist and recording artist Rob Evan and Fleischer, a pioneer in the fusion of symphonic, rock, and world music, Rocktopia delivers one-of-a-kind, spine-tingling musical arrangements with insanely talented lead vocalists, a 5-piece rock band, a choir of 40, and an orchestra of 20.
While Fleischer enjoys the lights of Broadway, the ASO will have its much anticipated season finale –a co-production with Anchorage Opera of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. Two of Alaska’s largest arts producers, Anchorage Opera and the Anchorage Symphony, are joining the international celebration of the Leonard Bernstein Centennial. The ASO and Anchorage Opera are thrilled to announce that Charles Prince will join the production team and conduct Candide (April 7th and 8th). In early 2017 Prince conducted the New York City Opera’s revival of Candide, directed by his father – Broadway legend, Hal Prince.
Fleischer and Prince actually have a connection regarding another legend – Leonard Bernstein. Both were conducting students at Tanglewood in 1988 working with Bernstein. Fleischer gives Prince high praise, “Charlie is extremely passionate and emotional. He has a great ear and a clear, clean style. I have the highest respect for him as a conductor, but even more so, I think he is a fine human being. While he has all the technique needed, he is also a salt of the earth kind of guy – a regular Joe.”
Fleischer shared, “Charlie and I are similar as American conductors who do not shy away from pop culture. He has conducted major orchestras, yet is very willing to conduct different genres.”
Charles Prince has triumphed in multiple musical worlds in both North America and Europe. He has led a wide range of international orchestras from the Moscow Symphony to the WDR Orchestra in Cologne and Essen, Germany as well as the Munich Philharmonic and orchestras in Switzerland, Austria, Finland and Bulgaria. He has served as the Music Director of the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra since 2009. Prince studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and attended two summers of the Boston Orchestra’s annual Tanglewood Music Festival.
With a career spanning more than two decades, Prince was the Associate Conductor of the New York Pops, and the Musical Director of the Tony-Award Winning production of James Joyce and Shaun Daveys’ The Dead while it played on Broadway, as well as in Los Angeles and Washington. He is participating in other centennial festivities for Leonard Bernstein with performances of Trouble in Tahiti at New York’s Symphony Space and the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.
Anchorage Opera and the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra welcome Prince as guest conductor, an excellent addition in Fleischer’s absence, to the upcoming production of Candide.
Anchorage, Alaska – March 5, 2018