The Maestro
Robert Franz
Music Director
Robert Franz is the Resident Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director of the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director Emeritus of the Carolina Chamber Symphony. In addition to his regular duties during the 2007-08 season, Mr. Franz will return to the Houston Symphony as well and make his debut with the Boise Philharmonic. An acclaimed opera conductor, his repertoire has ranged from Mozart to Puccini and he is equally at home with ballet (Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and The Nutcracker) and with musical theater (Beauty and the Beast, The Sound of Music and Cats).
A champion of new music, Mr. Franz conducted the ASCAP award winning new music concert series of The Louisville Orchestra and has been a co-host of In a Different Key, a weekly contemporary music radio program on WUOL. He has also conducted numerous world premieres.
Mr. Franz is a strong advocate of arts education, and has created arts education programs for the Carolina Chamber Symphony, The Buffalo Philharmonic, The Louisville Orchestra, the West End Chamber Ensemble, and the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, including that organization's innovative Bolton Research Project. Under his direction The Louisville Orchestra won the Leonard Bernstein Award for Education Programming in 2001 and created a two and a half hour education program for Kentucky Educational Television entitled, Creating Music and Stories.
Previously he has held conducting positions with the Louisville Orchestra, Louisville Youth Orchestra, Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, Winston-Salem Youth Symphony, and the National Repertory Orchestra. He has guest conducted symphony orchestras in over a dozen cities.
Mr. Franz received his Master of Music degree in conducting from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1992 and his Bachelor of Music degree in Oboe Performance in 1990 from that same institution. He has participated in conducting workshops in the Czech Republic, St. Petersburg (Russia), Nashville (ASOL), the Festival at Sandpoint and was a participant in the 1997 National Conductor Preview (ASOL).
History of Maestro
The fraternity of conductors for the Mansfield Symphony is a relatively small and elite one, having only nine members thanks to the long tenures of Robert Cronquist and Jeff Holland Cook. Our past conductors created a large foundation of artistic excellence on which Robert Franz continues to build. We salute these extraordinary men:
Eugene Weinberger 1930-1935
Prof. Eugene Weinberger, founder and first conductor of the Mansfield Symphony, dies at the age of 42, but packed a great deal of musical activity into those years. It could be said that he lived music. He came from a musical family in Hungary so he was exposed to the classics at an early age. He was taking music lessons at seven years of age and he was a member of the Budapest Philharmonic when he was still a boy. He played violin and attended the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. For a time he served as assistant professor of violin at the Academy. As a young man he came to this country in 1921 and went to Chicago. He taught music for a time, got a job with the Chicago Theatre Orchestra and also played in the orchestra at the Blackstone Hotel. The hotels in larger cities at that time had their own groups which played dinner music for dances and parties. Weinberger then moved to Cleveland where he played in theatre orchestras. In 1927 he moved to Mansfield to play in the orchestra at the old Opera House. The Opera House burned down in a great fire in 1929 and a year later he went to Europe for a visit. It was during this visit to Hungary that he got the idea for a Symphony in Mansfield. When he returned he began gathering musicians to create the Mansfield Symphony. After the 1935 season, financial difficulties prevented the group from regular performances until 1946 when Joseph Pival reorganized the group as the Mansfield Recreation Orchestra.
Joseph Pival 1946-1949
Joseph Pival was a teacher in the Mansfield area and recognized the need for an outlet for the areas musicians. He gathered up what had been left after the depression of the Mansfield Symphony, and started the Mansfield Recreation Orchestra. After his time in Mansfield, Pival went to Illinois, where his son became professor of music, and later professor Emeritus. From 1965 to 1998, he was cello instructor and music theory professor. He was a founding member of the Lincoln String Quartet and the Meridian Chamber Players. There is a Scholarship endowment at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in his memory.
Donald Tennant 1949-1950
No information is known about Mr. Tennant.
Ted Tatgenhorst 1950-1952
Mr. Tatgenhorst has a vibrant history and legacy of music in Mansfield. He attended the Ohio State University and performed in the marching band there for three years, helping to shape what we now know as TBDBITL. After graduating from OSU, he returned to Mansfield to become band instructor at Mansfield Senior High School. Ted's cousin, John, followed in his footsteps to OSU, and went on to create the marching bands arrangement of Hang On Sloopy.
Lazlo Krauz 1953-1954
A former conductor of the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, he moved to Mansfield to take the podium, and stayed for one season. Like Weinberger, he was born in Hungary and received his early musical education there. He also studied violin in Paris and played with European orchestras until 1947 when he came to the US. He taught at the New York College of Music for a time and a little later came to Cleveland to play for the late George Szell as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra. The group officially became the Mansfield Symphony under Krauz's baton.
Robert Cronquist 1954-1977
Mr. Cronquist, who had served as assistant conductor of the orchestra became it's conductor after Krauz determined that the time needed to lead such a group was simply too demanding. Cronquist, who lived in Ashland, had been music supervisor in Hayesville Schools. He played first horn in the Canton and Akron Symphony Orchestras. Earlier he had played in the Phoenix, Arizona Symphony and Municipal Band while attending Arizona State College. Cronquist held the post longer than any other conductor. He directed the orchestra's fortunes for 22 years, and it was during that period that the musicians developed into a first-class organization. He also started the practice of bringing in noted artists to appear with the orchestra. Cronquist left in 1977. During the 77-78 season, guest conductors were invited to come and "audition" for the gig.
Jeff Holland Cook 1978-1997
Mr. Cook brought a new life into the Symphony. A young man at the time of his hire, he insisted that young people were essential in playing a large role in the future successes of the orchestra. After his 20 year stint at the helm of the Mansfield Symphony, Mr. Cook is now the Louisville Orchestra conductor for the Louisville Ballet. He was music director of the Wheeling (WV) Symphony for 12 years. He has been associate conductor of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and has conducted for the San Francisco Ballet. Maestro Cook has also conducted for world-famous pops artists, including Sarah Vaughan, Carlos Montoya, and the Canadian Brass, and has been music director for musicals such as My Fair Lady and Oklahoma! He also has arranged music for orchestras and developed special programming for young people's concerts. Jeff plays the trombone.
Andrew Sewell 1997-2002
Mr. Sewell came to Mansfield after an exhaustive search for a new music director. Prior to his tenure in Ohio, he was Assistant conductor of the Memphis Symphony and earlier served as Music Director of several orchestras in the Detroit area. Originally from New Zealand, Mr. Sewell began conducting at the age of 16. And at the end of 1987, he won the Australian Guarantee Corporation's Young Achiever's Award, which enabled him to further his conducting studies abroad. He moved to Ann Arbor in 1988 to begin his Master of Music degree at the University of Michigan. Mr. Sewell now conducts the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra based in Madison Wisconsin.
