John Eells to Step Down as Music Director of the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra

By Lisa Lenkiewicz


There is still time to watch John Eells conduct the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra (FVSO) before he steps down as music director in June.


After 32 years at the FVSO, which he founded in 1981, Eell will relocate to San Francisco. His wife has a new job as head of a private school and the Oakland, California native plans to continue conducting and teaching music.


The FVSO will present a concert this Saturday, May 11, 8 p.m., at Hoffman Auditorium, University of Saint Joseph, 1678 Asylum Avenue, in West Hartford.  Entitled, “FVSO Goes to Russia,” the concert will feature works by Tchaikovsky.

The last concert of this season is on Saturday, June 9, 4 p.m., at Miss Porter’s School, 60 Main Street, in Farmington.  “Swords and Sabers, Sorcerers and Solar Systems” will include Strauss’ “The Blue Danube Festival” and Williams’ “Harry Potter Suite” and “Star Wars Suite.” Concertgoers are invited to picnic on the lawn under the tent.


From 30 members when it was founded, the all-volunteer orchestra has grown to more than 90 musicians, drawing from the Farmington Valley, Greater Hartford and southern New England.  Weekly rehearsals are held on the grounds of Miss Porter’s, in the Music Building. Each year, the non-profit FVSO offers about five subscription concerts in various locations in and around Farmington.


In 1981, Eells came to Farmington as director of music at Miss Porter’s, a position he held until 2005 and again from 2009 until the present. (He worked part-time at the school from 2005-2009 following his move to Providence.) Originally, Eells planned to combine a student and community orchestra, but it evolved into two separate entities—a student ensemble and the FVSO.


Eells moved to England at a young age and was educated there at York University and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he won that school's conducting competition and earned degrees in conducting and the French horn. He has also studied with noted conductors Seiji Ozawa and Andre Previn.


He has been a guest conductor with the Hartford, Manchester, Meriden and New Britain Symphony Orchestras as well as with orchestras in Spokane, Jacksonville and St. Petersburg, Russia. He has been music director of the New Britain Opera Association and the Simsbury Light Opera Company, a frequent guest conductor and judge for New England music educator associations and is music director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Community Orchestra.

In 2006, Eells conducted the FVSO in a concert at Carnegie Hall.

For the FVSO concerts in the upcoming 2013-2014 season, guest conductors will lead the orchestra, and then the group will select a permanent conductor, said Eells.


For ticket information about the upcoming FVSO concerts, call (800) 975-3876 or visit www.fvso.org.