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"Electrifying! The most exciting musical experience I've had in eight years here. Period." Kansas City Star |
| "This great performance is the equal of any Eighth I've ever heard," Fanfare magazine. | |
| "One of the major American conductors." Musique in Belgium "Exquisite! Breathtaking! Spiritual! Noble!" The American Record Guide | |
| "A world class performance." On the Air Magazine | |
| "The orchestra loved you, the public loved you." Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, Czech Republic | |
| "Magnificent! A fine orchestra and an outstanding conductor." Longmont Times-Call | |
| "The St Louis Symphony, under the direction of Robert Olson, sounded as good as they do in concert." The St. Louis Dispatch (re: ballet performances). |
Such is a sampling of reviews of Maestro Robert Olson, Artistic Director and conductor of the Colorado MahlerFest orchestra since its inception thirteen years ago. He brings an amazingly active and varied career to the podium, currently holding conducting posts with four different organizations, encompassing the entire spectrum of the concert stage -- symphony, opera, and ballet -- and presenting sixty performances a year.
Currently a resident of Kansas City, Olson holds posts with three other orchestras. He is the conductor for the State Ballet of Missouri, a post he has held since 1992, having conducted more than 300 performances with the Kansas City and St. Louis symphonies. He is Director of Orchestras/Opera at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where his two orchestras and, in particular, the opera productions consistently receive critical acclaim. With a repertoire of over 60 operas, recent productions include Turandot, Midsummer's Night Dream, Barber of Seville, and others.
He is also Music Director and Conductor of the Longmont Symphony in Colorado, an orchestra that has consistently received rave reviews from Colorado critics. During his 17-year tenure, the orchestra has flourished, presenting a ten-concert season to capacity audiences.
Prior to his move to Kansas City he was on the faculty of the University of Colorado College of Music for sixteen years, where he was music director of the opera program and Associate Conductor of the orchestras. Local audiences also know him as conductor for years of the immensely popular Colorado Gilbert & Sullivan Festival.
He has held conducting posts with the Omaha Symphony, Boulder Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Boulder Civic Opera, Arapaho Chamber Orchestra, Arvada Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado Lyric Theatre, and the Rocky Ridge Music Festival.
An active guest conductor, he has guest conducted many orchestras in the United States, and made his European debut in 1990 in Belgium, resulting in engagements in Venezuela, return invitations to Belgium, to Bergamo and Milan, Italy, to the Czech Republic, and the Ljubljana Musical Festival. This year he is scheduled to conduct in Bari, Italy and in Kartovice, Poland.
In addition to the success of the Mahler Eighth CD, critiqued as "legendary" by several national publications, his concert recording of the Wheeler version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony was recently made available on CD from the Colorado MahlerFest. This work received its world première performance at MahlerFest X in 1997 after Olson and a small international team spent over a year editing and preparing the Wheeler realization. He has recorded the work again for Naxos Records with the Polish National Radio Orchestra. He is also recorded on the CRS label.
He is married to Victoria Hagood had has two beautiful children, Tory (15) and Chelsea (12), both budding musicians. The Colorado MahlerFest, initiated by Olson on a dream and $400 sixteen years ago, has been nourished to become not only "one of Boulder's most valuable cultural assets," but a world class festival, dedicated to the cultivation of all things Mahlerian!