Zane Myers (Photo by Josef Willis)
Zane Myers has been named Executive Director of Symphony of the Mountains, which serves Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. It is a fully-professional orchestra of more than 65 musicians, drawn from our region as well as symphony orchestras in Knoxville, Asheville, Roanoke and beyond.
Myers is a native of Bristol, Va. He did his undergraduate work in Piano Studies at The Juilliard School, with summer Piano Studios at The Aspen Music Festival. His graduate work in Orchestral Conducting was at the University of South Carolina, and his M.B.A. is from University of the Pacific, Eberhardt School of Business in Stockton, Calif.
In the 1990s, he was Executive Director of Theatre Bristol; producer of the original "Friday Lunchtime Concert Series" at the Paramount Center for the Arts; and co-founder/artistic airector of the Glenalbyn Music Festival (summer solo, chamber and orchestra concerts at the Paramount Center and King College).
Since 1997, Myers has been a freelance conductor/pianist based in New York. He has conducted for the Bronx Opera, Amato Opera, New York City Center for Contemporary Opera, Norwalk (CT) Symphony Orchestra; for the U.S. national tours of My Fair Lady, Me & My Girl, and Showboat; and for the international tours of The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden, and The Magic of Musicals. He was the pianist for the Broadway productions of The Lion King and Miss Saigon, and the music director/pianist for an off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks.
Prior to returning to the Tri-Cities, he lived and worked in Los Angeles, producing chamber concerts in throughout southern California.
Myers says, "I am delighted to return to the region to find that so many in the Tri-Cities area have worked diligently to form a fully professional symphony orchestra to serve the Mountain Empire. That is a story that I've been in love with for more than 15 years and now, not only do I get to witness it, I get to participate.....thrilling!"
"With respect to the arts, this is a tremendously exciting time to be here. There is a fresh and exhilarating energy in the air born, I think, from a deeply personal and inspired interest to integrate the arts into the fabric of this region's identity. Everywhere I go, I see sculpture in the streets and community festivals celebrating both indigenous folk music and traditional classical music. What a wonderful thing that is!"
