Lawrence Golan


Lawrence Golan is an American orchestral conductor and violinist. He is the Music Director of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra in Colorado, the Yakima Symphony Orchestra in Washington state, the York Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania, and the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre at the University of Denver where he is director of orchestral studies and professor of conducting at the Lamont School of Music.

Life and career

Golan was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois where his father, Joseph Golan, was for 49 years a member of, and for 35 years principal second violinist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and went on to complete his Doctorate in music in 1995 at the New England Conservatory with a dissertation entitled Performing Bach: dotted rhythms and trills in the sonatas and partitas for solo violin. He furthered his studies in conducting at several music festivals including Aspen and Tanglewood, where in 1999 he was awarded the Leonard Bernstein conducting fellowship. Previous positions that Golan held include principal second violinist of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, concertmaster of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, orchestra conductor and director of string studies at the University of Southern Maine, music director of the Portland Ballet Company, artistic director of the Atlantic Chamber Orchestra, music director of the Colorado Youth Symphony Orchestras, conductor of the Phoenix Youth Symphony, resident conductor of the Phoenix Symphony, and principal conductor of the New Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea.
In 2001, he joined the faculty of the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music as director of orchestral studies and professor of conducting and also to serve as music director and conductor of the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre. He concurrently serves as music director of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, and the York Symphony Orchestra.
In 2001, Golan was the lead plaintiff of the United States Supreme Court case, now known as Golan v. Holder, which challenged the constitutionality of the application of Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. In the United States, the Act restored copyright status to foreign works previously in the public domain.

Awards

Golan's awards include: