LOWELL CRYSTAL
MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR
Lowell Crystal founded the Westside Youth Orchestra in 2008. In 2012 WYO was awarded its official status as a non-profit organization, where Maestro Crystal continues serving as its Music Director and Conductor. From 1997 to 2006, he was the Music Director and Conductor of the seven time award winning Pasadena Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, credited with a prestigious invitation to participate in a six-day concert tour of the 1998 Twenty Sixth International October and Cervantino Festivals in Jalisco and Guanjuato, Mexico. From 1979 to 1984, he served as an international faculty member of the Stadtische Musikschule, Gelsenkirchen, Germany. He earned the Licentiate in Violin Music Performance (LRSM), a Diploma in Violin Performance (ABRSM), Certificate of Distinction in Violin Performance, and a Certificate in Music Theory from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London, England, and Conducting Master classes with Leonard Slatkin. He is a graduate of the U.S. Navy School of Music, Norfolk, Virginia. His additional music studies include the Dick Grove Music Workshops in Los Angeles for Jazz Studies, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, Idyllwild, California. His principal teachers in violin, viola, musicianship and performance include Eunice Wennermark Price, Joachim Chassman, and Classical Guitar studies with Pepe and Angel Romero.
He is a Life member of the Professional Musicians’ Union Local 47, and has to his credit as a violinist, numerous symphony and opera orchestra performances, including the Disneyland Symphony, Culver City Symphony, Marina Del Rey Symphony, California Philharmonic, the Glendale Symphony, Norfolk Symphony, the Peninsula Symphony, and the U.S. Navy Commander-in Chief Atlantic Fleet Orchestras. Opera and light opera performances include, Figaro, La Bohme, Traviata, South Pacific, Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, Guys & Dolls, West Side Story, Music Man, The King & I, Oliver, Brigadoon, Pajama Game, Marat Sade, Camelot, Music Man, and Fiddler On The Roof. Special event performances include the Scriptor Awards for Motion Pictures at The University of Southern California, and the Led Zepplin Violin Group for the opening of the Broad Wing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A partial list of performances with the following conductors, artists, and Film and Television stars include : Lalo Schriffrin, Carlos Montoya, Pepe Romero, Yehudi Menuhin, Zino Francescotti. On screen film and television credits as a violinist include : Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Naked Gun 33 1/3, Gypsy, Bugsy, Amistad, Music Videos ‘Desdamona,’ Eddie Murphy, and ‘Chasing Pavements,’ Adele, ‘A Love Affair, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. As orchestra conductor for the Humira TV Commercial ‘Long Distance,’ and the TRIBE Band Rockestration Show. Mr. Crystal is a faculty member of the Cornerstone Music Conservatory as a teacher of violin, viola and conducting and was formally a faculty member of the Gelsenkirchen Conservatory of Music, Germany, 1979 – 1984 and the Crossroads School, Santa Monica, California. 1976 – 1979. His international concert performances in Germany, include Cologne, Heidelberg, Gelsenkirchen, and Essen, and Graz, Austria. He is the author of Velocity Studies For Violin.
