Charles Ansbacher
Conductor

Charles Ansbacher holds titled positions with orchestras in Boston, Moscow, Sarajevo, and Bishkek. His primary relationship is with The Boston Landmarks Orchestra, which he created in 2001 as a gift to his home community. Among recent highly acclaimed performances, he conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Harvard University's Sanders Theatre with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the same work he performed in Belgrade with American and Russian soloists, as the first American to appear on stage after the Kosovo-related NATO bombing of Serbia.

In the mid-nineties, while residing four years in Vienna, Ansbacher led multiple performances of important Austrian ensembles, including the Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Innsbruck Philharmonic and the Vienna Chamber Opera. He has conducted major orchestras in Canada, Israel, South Africa, Italy, Ecuador, Russia, South Korea, and United States. However, his main focus has been nations in political transition, such as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Rumania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. He has organized cross-cultural exchanges, such as bringing the Sarajevo Philharmonic to Italy or Austria; leading members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their famed Symphony Hall featuring the Croatian pianist Ivo Pogorelich to celebrate the opening of the Croatian consulate; conducting the world premiere of the Mandela Portrait in Johannesburg, South Africa, then bringing the piece to the United States in 2004; and conducting the Jerusalem Symphony with a Palestinian soloist, Saleem Abboud-Ashkar in December 2005.

Building upon multiple concerts with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra in the city's Tchaikovsky Hall, as well as the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Ansbacher has conducted the MSO on five CD's. The Boston Landmarks Orchestra annually commissions a new work for children. Three of the MSO CDs are Make Way for Ducklings, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, and The Journey of Phillis Wheatley. The other two recordings feature Landmark Overtures and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 and Piano Concerto No. 4, with pianist Victoria Korchinskaya-Kogan.

As a young man, Charles Ansbacher devoted almost twenty years to building the Colorado Springs Symphony, which named him Conductor Laureate upon his departure. Ansbacher and the Colorado Springs Symphony were known throughout the Rocky Mountain region not only for their regular season of concerts, but also for the free music that they brought to hundreds of thousands of diverse audience members. These concerts were performed at outdoor venues, were often televised live, and brought innovative programming such as Christmas Pops on Ice, featuring Olympic skating stars.

Beyond music, Charles Ansbacher applied art to public policy making when, as a White House Fellow, he was co-chair of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Task Force on the Use of Design, Art, and Architecture in Transportation. His interest in design and architecture led to his appointment by Denver Mayor Federico Pena to the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Design of the new Denver International Airport. Ansbacher remained in the public policy realm as Chair of the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by Governor Roy Romer. When he moved to Boston in 1997, he accepted an invitation by Mayor Thomas Menino to serve as the first executive director for the Boston 2000 Committee, while also becoming a visiting scholar at the Harvard Music Department.

Ansbacher serves on numerous community-focused non-profit boards. He and Ambassador Swanee Hunt have three children.