THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2019-2020
JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor
Grammy Award winner Jeff Tyzik is one of America’s
most innovative and sought after pops conductors.
Tyzik is recognized for his brilliant arrangements,
original programming and engaging rapport with
audiences of all ages. This is the seventh season
that Tyzik has held The Dot and Paul Mason
Principal Pops Conductor’s Podium at the Dallas
Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as principal
pops conductor of the Detroit Symphony, Oregon
Symphony and Florida Orchestra. This season,
Tyzik will celebrate his 26th season as principal
pops conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Frequently invited as a guest conductor, Tyzik has
appeared with over fifty orchestras including the
Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, Toronto Symphony,
Indianapolis Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique
de Monte Carlo, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
In May 2007, the Harmonia Mundi label released
a recording of works by Gershwin with Tyzik
conducting the RPO and acclaimed pianist Jon
Nakamatsu. This recording stayed in the Top 10 on
the Billboard classical chart for over three months.
Alex Ross of The New Yorker, called it “one of the
snappiest Gershwin discs in years.” “His concert is
the kind of thing that’s likely to give classical music
a good name, perhaps even make it seem, dare I
say, relevant,” writes John Pitcher of the Gannet
News Service.
As an accomplished composer and arranger,
Tyzik has had his compositions recorded by the
London Symphony Orchestra, Erich Kunzel and
the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony
and Doc Severinsen with the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra in London. He has also produced and
composed theme music for many of the major
television networks, including ABC, NBC, HBO, and
Cinemax, and released six of his own albums on
Capitol, Polygram and Amherst Records.
Tyzik worked closely with Doc Severinsen on
many projects including orchestrating many of
the legendary band leader’s symphony orchestra
programs. He produced a Grammy Award
winning album, The Tonight Show Band with Doc
Severinsen, Vol. 1. Tyzik’s subsequent recordings
with Severinsen garnered three more Grammy
nominations.
A native of Hyde Park, New York, Tyzik began his life
in music when he first picked up a cornet at age nine.
He studied both classical and jazz throughout high
school and went on to earn both his bachelor’s and
master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music.
While there, he studied composition/arranging with
Radio City Music Hall’s Ray Wright and jazz studies
with Chuck Mangione. Tyzik subsequently toured
with Mangione as lead trumpet and worked on five
Mangione recordings as a producer and performer
from 1976 to 1981.
Committed to performing music of all genres,
Tyzik has collaborated with such diverse artists as
Leslie Odom, Jr., Wynonna Judd, Sutton Foster,
Tony Bennett, Art Garfunkel, Marilyn Horne, Arturo
Sandoval, The Chieftains, and John Pizzarelli.
With an eye to the future of symphonic pops,
Tyzik in collaboration with Schirmer Theatrical
and Greenberg Artists, has created and premiered
fourteen new concerts for symphonic pops series in
the past two years, and six more are in development
for future performances.
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