Conductor
Paul Freeman pursued an active career on both sides of the Atlantic. He received his Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music and later studied with Ewald Lindemann in Berlin as a Fulbright scholar. He received several awards, including first prize in the Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition, the Mahler Award for the European Union of Arts, and honorary doctorate degrees from Dominican and Loyola Universities. He appeared as guest conductor with over 100 orchestras, such as the
Moscow Philharmonic, the
National Symphony, the
New York Philharmonic, the
Cleveland Orchestra, the
Chicago Symphony, the
London Philharmonic, the
Royal Philharmonic, the
St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Mexico, the
Israel Sinfonietta, the Leipzig Radio Orchestra, the
Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Bratislava Philharmonic.
Freeman was the music director of the
Chicago Sinfonietta, which he founded in 1987. In 1996, he was also appointed music director and chief conductor of the
Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague. Other positions he held include music director of the Victoria (Canada) Symphony, principal guest conductor of the
Helsinki Philharmonic, associate conductor of the
Dallas and
Detroit symphony orchestras, and music director of the Opera Theatre of Rochester (New York). He was nominated for two Emmy awards for his televised performances. One of America's most-recorded conductors,
Freeman has a discography of over 200 releases. One of his earliest recordings to attract critical attention was a series for Columbia tracing the accomplishments of black symphonic composers.
Freeman has made a traversal of the complete piano concertos of
Mozart (with the
London Philharmonic), as well as those of
Haydn (with the
English Chamber Orchestra), and
Beethoven (with the
Berlin Symphony), all with pianist
Derek Han.
Freeman was also prolific in recording light classics and music theater. He conducted the
Orchestra of the Americas in an eight-disc series entitled Aspects of Broadway, featuring excerpts from some 40 Broadway musicals. In 1974, he won the Koussevitzky International Recording Award for his recording of the Cordero violin concerto.
Freeman retired in 2011, donating his collection of scores and other materials to the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago.