Paul Hostetter

Conductor Paul Hostetter is the Ethel Foley Distinguished Chair in Orchestral Activities for the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, the Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the acclaimed Sequitur Ensemble, and the Founder and Artistic Adviser to the Music Mondays chamber series in New York City. He has held appointments as the Director of the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University where he also was the Director of Orchestral Studies/Associate Professor, the Music Director of the Colonial Symphony, the Music Director of the High Mountain Symphony, Artistic Director of the Winter Sun Music Festival, Music Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, and the Associate Conductor for the Broadway productions of Candide and The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm.

Hostetter has appeared as a guest conductor with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the New York City Opera, Philharmonia Virtuosi, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Peak Performances, the Genesis Opera Company, the Prism Chamber Orchestra, the New York Virtuosi, the Daylesford Sinfonia (Bermuda), the PAI Festival Orchestra (Kingston, PA), the Family Opera Initiative, the New York Concerti Sinfonietta,and the Stony Brook Summer Music Festival Orchestra among others, and has assisted James Levine with the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble. These performances have garnered reviews in multiple publications including the NY Times, NJ Star Ledger, Daily Record, Bermuda Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and many others.

He has premiered works by composers including Pulitzer Prize winners David Del Tredici, Lewis Spratlan, and Ned Rorem with groups including the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Ensemble 21, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Music from China, The Society for New Music, the Glass Farm Ensemble, and Philip Glass’s Music at the Anthology series. He conducted Elliot Carter's Double Concerto at the Library of Congress as part of Mr. Carter's 100th-year celebration in December 2008, and in September 2009 he led Newband in the premiere of Dean Drummond’s opera Café Bufe with the Harry Partch Instruments.

As a recording artist he has collaborated with jazz greats Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, and Joe Lovano, with strings from the Orchestra of St. Luke's, which received a Downbeat Critics Award, as well as with Heidi Grant Murphy and members of the Aureole Ensemble and Metropolitan Opera. His recording, Where Crows Gather, featuring the music of Lewis Spratlan, was listed by the New York Times chief critic Anthony Tommasini, and a recording of the music of Harold Meltzer was also named again by Tommasini. Hostetter’s discography includes recordings on labels including Telarc, Koch, Mode, CRI, Albany, Tzadick, and Naxos, and his most recent recording of Concerti with the Sequitur Ensemble received five stars for performance from BBC Music Magazine.

In the world of education he has led programs for Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center Institute, the Manhattan School of Music’s Graduate Orchestral Performance Program, and has presented master classes at the Mannes School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, the Juilliard School of Music, the University of Michigan, William Paterson University, and the University of San Paulo. He has led conducting workshops for the NY Philharmonic/NY Pops/ NY City Board of Education and has also led numerous honors orchestras including the NJ All-State and Florida All-State Orchestras. He is currently a visiting professor at Shanghai Normal University.

Hostetter performed as a percussionist/timpanist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with whom he toured and recorded as well as with the American Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He has recorded for Argo, Decca, Delos, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, New World, PolyGram, Pro-Arte, RCA Victor, Sony Classical, and Warner Brothers, and has appeared on movie soundtracks and jingles, as well as over ten Broadway productions.

He holds degrees in performance from the Florida State University and the Juilliard School of Music and has appeared in master classes with Leonard Slatkin, Larry Rachleff, and Christopher Wilkins.