Viswa Subbaraman, Conductor

• "...led with gracious sweep by Opera Vista artistic director Viswa Subbaraman, the score was perfect for a warm Southern night complete with the sounds of bayou critters in the background."

  -Houston Chronicle, Houston, TX, 23 September 2007

• “If Opera Vista's artistic director/co-founder Viswa Subbaraman continues on such a high, future full houses are assured, and we can look forward to some exciting nights at the opera.”

  (Inaugural Opera Vista Festival, Houston, TX)

  -Houston Press, Houston, TX, 28 June 2007

• “Der Amerikaner und Masur-Assistent beim Orchestre National de France, Viswa Subbaraman, führte mit ökonomischen Mitteln durch das Larghetto, wobei ihm eine differenziert durchgestaltete und deshalb sehr bewegende Darstellung gelang.”

  [“The American assistant to Masur with the Orchestre National de France, Viswa Subbaraman, conducted the Larghetto with economic gestures whereby he differentiated the different passages to the last detail and thus succeeded in a very moving performance.”]

  (Concert with the Beethoven Orchester, Bonn, Germany)

  -General Anzeiger, Bonn, Germany, 3 November 2006

• “Subbaraman's gestures were everywhere, using every chance Mendelssohn offered to create an airy, elfin atmosphere.”

  (Concert with the National Symphony - Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream excerpts)

  -Washington Post, 23 May 2005

• “Viswa Subbaraman worked his way through Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream in sensitive, confident fashion, getting particularly refined and elegant playing from the orchestra.”

  (Concert with the National Symphony - Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream excerpts)

  -Baltimore Sun, 24 May 2005

Viswa Subbaraman is currently the Artistic Director and co-founder of Opera Vista, Houston's newest innovative contemporary opera company. Highlights of his tenure with Opera Vista include the world premiere of James Norman's Wake, the Texas Premiere of Amy Beach's Cabildo, and the creation of the annual Vista Competition for New Opera.

Mr. Subbaraman has served as Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France where he assisted Kurt Masur and visiting guest conductors who have included such distinguished artists as Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, and Sir Colin Davis. Highlights of his recent tenure with the Orchestre National de France include the world premiere of the Overture du Roi Lear by Paul Dukas, a performance of the Stravinsky Octet with soloists of the Orchestre in Paris' famed Théatre des Champs-Elysées and the French premiere of the Symphony for Trombone and Orchestra by Ernst Bloch, which has been recorded and released under the title Tranquille through the districlassic label. Mr. Subbaraman conducted the Orchestre National de France as a guest conductor in December 2006. He was recently re-invited to conduct the New Year's Day concert with the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy in January 2008.

Mr. Subbaraman took part in the 2006 Beethoven Seminar sponsored by the Beethoven Orchester of Bonn and the BeethovenHaus, Bonn. Normally a seminar open only to German conductors, Mr. Subbaraman was invited by Maestro Masur to take part in lectures given by BeethovenHaus scholars and was also invited to conduct the Beethoven Orchester of Bonn on the final concert. Mr. Subbaraman was also awarded the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship by the Herbert von Karajan Centrum and American Austrian Foundation which resulted in his residency at the 2005 Salzburg Festival.

Additional conducting appearances have included the Longview (TX) Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National d'Ile de France, Thames Philharmonia (London), the Bombay Chamber Orchestra (India), Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra (New York, USA), the Midland/Odessa Symphony and Chorale (USA), the Orchestre National du Capitole Toulouse, the AudioInversions Contemporary Music Ensemble (TX), and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra (Santa Cruz, CA) as part of the Cabrillo Festival conducting seminar. Mr. Subbaraman has also conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center as a Debut Conductor in the National Conducting Institute.

Born in New York City and raised in West Texas, Viswa Subbaraman studied at Duke University where he earned degrees in both music and biology. After completing his degrees, he worked as assistant to William Henry Curry, Resident Conductor of the North Carolina Symphony. Upon completion of his master's degree from Texas Tech University, he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study conducting with John Nelson in Paris where he also worked as the Visiting Assistant of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Two months after arriving in Paris, Subbaraman was offered the post by Kurt Masur with the Orchestre National de France. Upon completion of his Fulbright year, Mr. Subbaraman received the first and only extension of a Fulbright grant ever issued by the French Fulbright Commission.

Mr. Subbaraman has also participated in the Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar at the Manhattan School of music and also studied conducting at the Institut Musical de Provence-Aubagne in France, Accademia Chigiana in Italy, and the Brevard Music Center (NC). Subbaraman was also a semifinalist in the 2005 Suwon International Conductors Competition in Suwon, Korea. He has studied with such conductors as Marin Alsop, John Nelson, David Effron, and Gunther Schuller and was also a recipient of the Edward C. Lynch Fellowship.

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