Western alumnus Ryan Dudenbostel to join Music Department faculty

Shortly after completing his Doctor of Musical Arts studies in conducting at UCLA, Ryan Keith Dudenbostel will return to his undergraduate alma mater to lead the Western Washington University Symphony Orchestra. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri—Kansas City Conservatory and Western Washington University (class of 2004).

Dudenbostel, who makes his career as a conductor, clarinetist and arranger, is currently based in Los Angeles, where he serves as the music director of the Santa Monica Youth Orchestra. Based on Venezuela’s El Sistema model, that orchestra provides tuition-free musical experiences to young musicians from throughout the Santa Monica community. Dudenbostel also will return for his fifth year as a faculty conductor for the Marrowstone Summer Music Festival in 2014.

Recent engagements include a full production of Don Giovanni with OperaUCLA; a concert presentation of Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" at Los Angeles’ Zipper Hall; the world-premiere workshop of Roger Bourland's new opera "The Dove and the Nightingale"; performances with the UCLA orchestras, opera studio and Contempo Flux Ensemble; and a production of "Pagliacci" with the Pocket Opera of New York. In December 2013, he was among fewer than a dozen Americans invited to participate in the 11th Cadaqués Orchestra International Conducting Competition in Barcelona. He also is a frequent guest speaker and has presented several pre-concert lectures at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.

In November 2013, Dudenbostel's new performing edition of Henry Purcell's opera "The Indian Queen," created in collaboration with director Peter Sellars, was given its premiere in Madrid, Spain, in a joint production by the Perm State Opera and the Teatro Real. Prior to his time in Los Angeles, he served for three seasons as a rehearsal and cover conductor at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, preparing the student orchestras for such eminent conductors as Philippe Entremont, Yoav Talmi, Kent Tritle, H. Robert Reynolds and Kenneth Kiesler.

Also a clarinetist, Dudenbostel recently appeared in a series of critically-acclaimed New York performances of Ricky Ian Gordon’s theatrical song-cycle "Orpheus and Euridice" alongside his wife, soprano Heather Dudenbostel. For two years, he regularly played for the Tony-Award-winning revival of "South Pacific" at Lincoln Center. He has also performed in the orchestras of the Civic Opera of Kansas City and Kansas City Puccini Festival.

Dudenbostel has collaborated with vocalist John Duykers, violinist Mark O’Connor (who appeared recently at the Mt. Baker Theatre), violist David Aaron Carpenter, pianist Gloria Cheng, director Peter Sellars and the legendary actor James Earl Jones, among others. He has also appeared on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." He has studied conducting with Neal Stulberg, Robert Olson, David Wallace, Kenneth Kiesler, Gustav Meier and Rossen Milanov.