Anthony Parnther - Music Director

Anthony Parnther is in his inaugural season as Conductor and Music Director of the Orange County Symphony in Anaheim, California. In addition to his duties with the OC Symphony, Mr. Parnther serves as the Founding Conductor of the critically acclaimed Appalachian Brass Orchestra, as well as the newly forged Appalachian Wind Orchestra in Northeast Tennessee.

A multifaceted musician, Mr. Parnther has been featured as a conductor in virtually every musical medium from Ballet to Wind Band. Recent Conducting engagements include Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors with the East Tennessee State University Opera Workshop and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Wells Theatre in Virginia. Mr. Parnther is in demand as a guest conductor nationally and will appear in concert with the conference brass ensembles at the International Brass Chamber Music Festival at the University of Louisville this fall.

Mr. Parnther’s musical studies began at age 4. He studied cello with Evangeline Bennedetti of the New York Philharmonic, piano with Darlene Fedele. He has also studied bassoon with Robert Barris (Northwestern University), D. Keith McClelland and Tristan Willems (East Tennessee State University) and in masterclass with Christopher Weait (Toronto Symphony), Judith Leclair (New York Philharmonic), Kim Walker (Indiana University), Jeff Keesecker (Florida State) and Peter Simpson (University of Kentucky). He has been a featured soloist with numerous orchestras throughout the Southeastern United States and in 2005 performed the Mozart Bassoon Concerto in B-flat with the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Stites conducting. Mr. Parnther’s private bassoon students have gone on to prestigious music festivals such as Sarasota, Eastern Music Festival, Interlochen, Cannon and Tanglewood.

Equally at home in the realm of composition and arranging, Mr. Parnther has written numerous published compositions for the Wind Ensemble and Brass Ensemble medium and has enjoyed premieres of his works at regional and international venues including the 2004, 2005, and 2006 International Trumpet Guild Conferences in Denver, Bangkok, and Glassboro respectively as well as the 2005 National Trumpet Competition in Washington D.C. and will premiere his new Symphony for Brass and Percussion at the 2008 IBCMF Conference in October.

Mr. Parnther has had the pleasure of either performing with or conducting in concert such noted soloists as Jon Faddis, the Ahn Trio, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Sheridan, Ronald Romm, Doc Severinsen, Edgar Meyer, Marvin Stamm, Rick Simerly, Mike Vax, Josef Burgstaller, Glen Dodson, and Ani Kavafian, among others. He additionally serves as a creative consultant and designer for the Drum Corps and Competitive Marching Band activity, and serves as an adjudicator for the United States Scholastic Band Association. Mr. Parnther holds active memberships in the American Symphony Orchestra League, National Bandmasters Association, Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association, the International Trumpet Guild, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, International Double Reed Society, Music Educators National Conference, College Band Directors National Association, Kappa Kappa Psi Honorary Band Fraternity and the Conductors Guild.