Home    About Us    About Thomas Ludwig    Audition/Volunteer    Sponsor    Contact Us   Ludwig Symphony Orchestra

Ludwig Symphony Orchestra

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1952, Thomas Ludwig began violin studies at the age of four with his father and continued private studies with Mischa Mischakoff.  In 1970, he was awarded a full scholarship to study violin with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.

 

At the age of twenty, Thomas Ludwig was appointed Music Director and Conductor of the New York City Symphony. During this formative time of growth, critics embraced the young sensation at a Lincoln Center performance, noting that "Mr. Ludwig secured brilliant performances of Beethoven and Strauss from a splendid young ensemble." Ludwig’s early conducting lessons included informal studies with well renowned names as Leonard Bernstein, Jean Morel, and Herbert von Karajan. In 1978, Ludwig took a two year break from conducting to study composition with John Corigliano. A resulting work, the Symphony No.1"Age of Victory" was recorded by both the London Symphony Orchestra at Abby Road Studios in England, as well as by the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky.

 

Over the past three decades, Thomas Ludwig has maintained a dual career as both conductor and composer. Ludwig has served as resident conductor for American Ballet Theatre with Mikhail Baryshnikov at the Metropolitan Opera House and while on tour. He has also served as music director for the Washington Ballet and the Atlanta Ballet. For four years, as adjunct professor of music at the American University in Washington, D.C., Ludwig was music director of the orchestra and opera theatre. Hailed as "a prodigiously gifted conductor with a superb baton technique," Maestro Ludwig has conducted professional orchestras in London, Prague, Florence, Tokyo, China, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C...  He recently completed a recording project of the three Frank Schmelzer Symphonies, conducting the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.

 

Called "America's newest symphonist" by Symphony Magazine, Ludwig’s Mexico City world premiere of his "Quatro Lyricas Canciones" for soprano and orchestra was broadcast live to 250 million people in a performance by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria. Thomas Ludwig has been a prize winner of the Kennedy Center Freidheim Awards and the Indianapolis Symphony Composer's Competition. His music has been broadcast over National Public Radio, Voice of America, and numerous other radio stations. Ludwig's original compositions include symphonies, a violin concerto, a piano concerto, a string symphony, "Cocoanuts" Overture Fantasie, "Four Songs" for soprano and orchestra, and a woodwind quintet.

 

In 2005, Maestro Ludwig conducted the world premiere of his piano concerto in Tokyo, Japan with the Shinegawa Strings at Katsushika Hills Mozart Symphony Hall.  He conducted the Sischuan Broadcasting Orchestra in Chengdu, China in a New Year’s Eve televised performance, and the Kumming Symphony Orchestra in Kumming with it’s first ever performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird Ballet Suite. In November, 2006, the Ludwig Symphony Orchestra performed the world premiere of Maestro Ludwig’s “Adagietto for Strings and Harp” from his Symphony No. 3 and in November, 2007 the world premiere of the Ludwig Piano Concerto with Japanese pianist Akiko Shibasaki was met with rave reviews. The upcoming November 8th, 2009 concert will feature a new movement from the Ludwig Symphony No. 3.

 

 Mr. Ludwig is the founder of the Ludwig Symphony Orchestra and the Beethoven Chamber Orchestra, a preparatory youth orchestra. The Ludwig Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its twelfth anniversary season,

2009-2010. 

 

Maestro Ludwig was presented with the prestigious “Artist of the Year” award in October 2009 by the Roswell Cultural Arts Board.

  

 Ludwig Symphony Orchestra is a 501C3 Non-profit corporation.

 All donations are tax deductible.  ID# 352184936

 

Our mission is to be the orchestra of choice for the north metro Atlanta area by providing

a premier classical musical experience in an intimate and energetic atmosphere.