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Biography::
Kermit Poling continues to bring his energetic and enthusiastic approach to music making to audiences in the United States and throughout the world including recent concerts in Mexico, Europe and the Far East. His most recent guest conducting appearances have included the Mexico State Symphony, the Guanajuato (MX) Symphony Orchestra, the Shenzhen (China) Symphony, the Filarmonia Veneta of Treviso (Italy) and others. In August of 2005, he was invited as one of only 3 Americans selected to serve as international judges for the 2nd Annual Young Artists Competition in Beijing, China in conjunction with the China National Symphony. An avid enthusiast for working with young people, he recently conducted the Ohio All-State Orchestra in Cleveland, an orchestra he performed with as a student some 27 years earlier.
A virtuoso violinist, he became Concertmaster and Assistant Conductor of the Shreveport Symphony in 1985. Since then he has served in the capacities of Associate Conductor, Resident Conductor and Interim Music Director of the SSO, having also performed many times as a concerto soloist. Currently the Music Director of the South Arkansas Symphony and Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet, he has previously served in similar positions for the Boston Festival Pops Orchestra, the Boston Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, the Brookline (MA) Symphony, the Puerto Rico Chamber Orchestra, the Centenary College Chamber Orchestra, the Ruston Symphony and the Ark-La-Tex Youth Symphony Orchestra. Poling received the Outstanding Artist in Music Fellowship in 2000 from the State of Louisiana and the Music Fellowship from the Shreveport Regional Arts Council in 1996. He was awarded a conducting scholarship to the Tanglewood Music Center in 1987, studying with Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Gustav Meier and Seiji Ozawa, and also received major scholarships from the Boston Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Most recently, Mayor Keith Hightower proclaimed May 13, 2006 as Kermit Poling Day in the city of Shreveport.
Also a composer and arranger, Poling’s first ballet Snow White, was commissioned and premiered by the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet in the spring of 2003 and was repeated in 2004. He has arranged orchestral shows with Grammy nominated and winning artists including the Cox Family, Cynthia Scott, Irma Thomas, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and others. His symphonic holiday piece, Candles and Dreidels has been performed by symphonies throughout the country. His latest ballet, The Wizard of Oz premiered to rave reviews in March of 2006. In 1998 he was chosen by Emmy award winning artist William Joyce to compose the music for his stage adaptation of The Leafmen and the Brave Good Bugs. This project was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the CD of this music was released the following year.
Maestro Poling has been a featured conductor on NPR’s Performance Today, the Arkansas Educational Television Network, the Red River Radio Network, WGBH Boston and others. He appeared as concertmaster and violin soloist on the PBS-Showcase national broadcast of Evangeline: the Musical Poling also has produced a number of recordings, including Reflections by the Shreveport Symphony in 1999, and Alive with the Spirit by the Faithlink singers in 2003, on which he also appears as conductor. Poling is very familiar to radio audiences in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas as the voice of classical music (and the Shreveport Symphony) on the Red River Radio public radio network.