New Music Director 

After much deliberation, the LSO Search Committee made a decision and forwarded their first-choice candidate, Tomasz Golka, to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors approved this recommendation February 2, 2007.

Golka accepted a three-year contract with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra and will live in Lubbock, Texas. Golka is planning a trip to Lubbock in the near future to meet the Lubbock Symphony Board, staff, and patrons, and begin his involvement in the community.

Due to the withdrawal of Constantine Kitsopoulos as guest conductor for the finale of The America Series, "America Sings," Golka will conduct the final MasterWorks concert of the season. The concert will be May 4 & 5, 2007 at the Civic Center Theatre.

Golka first appeared in Lubbock as the guest conductor of the first Masterworks concert of the season, "America in Love" September 22 & 23, 2006. He led the orchestra in Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story Overture, Piano Concerto in G by Ravel, and Symphony No. 2 by Rachmaninoff with pianist Christopher O'Riley.

Since winning 1^st Prize at the 2003 Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition, Golka has been impressing audiences and critics with his "musicality and power of expression," writes La Reforma. Golka attended Rice University and received his Bachelor's degree and Master's degree in violin, then went on to Indiana University where he studied conducting with David Effron, and obtained more education at the Peabody Conservatory.

At the age of 31, Golka has already appeared in performances of over 100 major works with such orchestras as the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Florida West Coast Symphony, Lansing Symphony Orchestra, and the Buffalo Philharmonic, where he replaced the ailing scheduled conductor on just a few hours notice and led the orchestra in an enthusiastically-received performance.

Golka was a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival in 2002 and has conducted in Master Classes for such distinguished conductors as Yuri Temirkanov and David Zinman.

As a conducting fellow at the 2006 Tanglewood Music Festival, he worked with James Levine, shared the podium with Bernard Haitink, and conducted a historic performance of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale with the legendary composers Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and John Harbison as narrators.

In addition, Golka has had a highly successful European debut in the city of his birth, Warsaw, Poland, conducting Sinfonia Varsovia in National Symphony Hall with his pianist brother, Adam Golka, as soloist. Golka holds dual European and American citizenship.

Positions held in the past by Golka include Music Director of the Ball State Symphony Orchestra and Opera and the Bakersfield Youth Symphony (2003-2004), Founder and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music at All Saints (2000-2002) and the Bloomington Chamber Orchestra (1998-1999).

Golka has toured Mexico several times, appearing with virtually all of the country's top orchestras, including those of UNAM, Xalapa, Queretaro, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, and Yucatan.

Golka is also a talented violinist. From 1998 to 2000, Golka was concertmaster of Owensboro Symphony in Kentucky and Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra. He also founded a chamber orchestra in Bloomington, called the Bloomington Chamber Orchestra. Unfortunately, after Golka left Bloomington, the orchestra ceased to exist. When he moved to Baltimore in 2000 to continue his conducting studies with Gustav Meier at Peabody, Golka started a chamber music series in Houston. He appeared and conducted at this concert series until 2002, when he left due to the growing demands of his conducting career.

The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra is excited to welcome Tomasz Golka to Lubbock and to the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra.