Alan Futterman is the Music Director of the Bremerton Symphony, the Peninsula Ballet Orchestra and the Academy Chamber Orchestra. He was previously Music Director of the Dover Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor for the Weierstrass Society Concerts of Contemporary Music (New York, NY), and Conductor in Residence for Jeunesses Musicales of Europe. He has served on the Music Faculty of Manhattan School of Music and Central Washington University. Locally, Mr. Futterman has been a guest conductor with the Seattle Philharmonic and the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. Conducting one of his own works elicited the following recently published review, “Last season’s performance of Futterman’s Romanian Medley, was received so graciously that it even elicited cheering from the audience – a gesture usually reserved for sports, not symphony.”
Mr. Futterman holds a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School of Music with two years of Doctoral studies in Musicology and Baroque Performance Practice. He spent one year pursuing Jazz studies and composition at the Berklee School of Music with Charles Mariano. While still a Doctoral candidate, he served as Assistant Conductor to Maestro Vladimir Kin of St. Petersburg and participated in master classes with Sir George Solti and Leonard Bernstein.
Beginning in the 1994, Mr. Futterman devoted more of his time to the education of young musicians as Music Director of the Bellevue Youth Symphony, then as founder and Music Director of the Academy Chamber Orchestra, a training ensemble for advanced instrumentalists. Recent graduates of the Academy Chamber Orchestra have gone on to attend the Curtis Institute, the Juilliard School, Eastman, Rice, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, and Harvard. Alumni of the Academy Chamber Orchestra now perform with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, etc.
As an orchestral musician, Mr. Futterman performed with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of New England, the New Jersey State Opera, the National Orchestral Association, the Seattle Symphony and the Philharmonia Virtuosi under various Music Directors including; Leonard Bernstein, Sir George Solti, Zubin Mehta, Aaron Copland, Edo de Waart, James Conlon, George Manahan, Julius Rudel, Jorge Mester, Sixten Ehrling, Rainer Miedel and Gerard Schwarz.
For nearly ten years Mr. Futterman had a parallel career in foreign languages and cultures. Employed by the American Cultural Exchange, he served as a cultural liaison for visits from foreign governments and universities. This, in turn, led to three years of work with the television series “Northern Exposure” as a technical advisor, scriptwriter and multiple language coach.
Always active as a composer, Mr. Futterman’s works include orchestral and chamber music. In recent years, Mr. Futterman has consistently received standing ovations when touring with orchestra and conducting his own World Beat Dance Suites. His orchestral works include Farrago and Fugue (1997), the World Beat Dance Suite #1 (2000), World Beat Dance Suite #2 (2002), Romanian Medley (2005), Fiesta Mexicana (2005) Japanese Vignettes (2006), and New Slavonic Dances (2008).