Paul Douglas Freeman

Founding principal conductor of the famous Chicago Sinfonietta in 1987, Paul Freeman was considered one of America’s leading conductors. Originally from Richmond in the State of Virginia, he worked as the principal conductor at Canada’s Victoria Symphony between 1979 and 1989, while also served as principal conductor at New York’s Rochester Opera House for six years.  During his lifetime he conducted more than 100 orchestras in 28 countries.
Dr. Freeman graduated from the Eastman Music School, and on being granted a Fulbright scholarship, went on pursue his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He scooped up numerous awards during his lifetime including the Dimitris Mitropoulos international conductor competition prize and several nominations for Emmy awards.
During the mid seventies he garnered a great deal of attention for his series of nine LPs which follows the history of Black symphonic composers from 1750 to the present day. Paul Freeman’s versatility is exemplified in his series of eight CDs “Aspects of Broadway” featuring excerpts from a total of 40 Broadway musicals. As a media personality, he worked on more than a dozen television orchestral productions for CBS, ABC, PBS, WGN, CBC and ČT2.

Paul Freeman worked as the principal conductor at the Czech National Symphony Orchestra for a solid ten seasons (1996 -2006). He was both charismatic and intuitive in leading the orchestra however will be remembered, above all, for the unique way in which he engaged with audiences who simply adored him. During his time with the ensemble, they completed several major tours around the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain. Together they recorded an incredible 220 tracks on compact disc including large symphony scores by G. Mahler, A. Dvořák, P. I. Tchaikovsky, J. V. H. Voříšek and H. Berlioz, a great many concerts for various solo instruments and voice, such as by Krommer, Hummel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, R. Strauss, Verdi and Rachmaninov.   His true passion, however, lay with modern American composers (Gliere, Sowerby, Kupferman, Hailstork, Yardumian, Logan, Saltzman, Molique, Moscheles, Boelter, Gruenberg).

We will forever view Freeman’s   involvement with the Czech Republic’s CNSO as an intrinsic part of our history and will always look back fondly on our wonderful memories working together.