Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra
Robin Fountain
Music Director and Conductor
This is Robin Fountain’s second season as Music Director of the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra. He will continue his activities as Professor of Conducting at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, and has just completed a final season as Music Director of Williamsport Symphony in Pennsylvania, an orchestra he led to national recognition over a period of fourteen seasons.
A native of England, Mr. Fountain received his Master of Arts degree from Oxford University, and an additional master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He holds a certificate of advanced study from the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded the Theodore Steir and Ricordi Prizes. He continued his studies at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival, where he was the recipient of an Aspen Conducting Fellowship. His primary teachers have been Norman Del Mar and Gustav Meier, and he has participated in seminars and masterclasses with Lorin Maazel, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Sanderling, Leonard Slatkin and Gennadi Rodzhestvensky.
Mr. Fountain is active as a guest conductor throughout the world. In 2001 he made his French conducting debut with the Orchestre de Chambre de la Gironde, and in 2002 led two concerts with the Tomsk National Philharmonic in Russia. He returned to Tomsk in 2003, also making his debut with the Kemerovov Philharmonic of Russia, and the Sudettia Philharmony in Poland. He collaborated with Edgar Meyer in a concert with the String Machine, and led the Tomsk Philharmonic on a tour to China, with concerts in An Shang, Shen Yang, Hang Zhu, Ning Bo and Da Lian where it was televised live. Last season he made his guest debut in Spain leading three concerts with the Region of Murcia Youth Orchestra, and this season he appears with the Greeley Philharmonic in Colorado, as well as leading Vanderbilt Orchestra on a two week concert tour of China. Robin Fountain, his wife Linda and son Matthew reside in Nashville, TN and Dushore, PA.
