Collaborating Creatively
Jan Wagner brings the world of music to Shenandoah. The Venezuelan native is also the artistic director for Shenandoah Performs, the university's summer music festival. >>
Associate Professor of Music Jan Wagner is the director of Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra.
"The amazing thing is seeing all the elements come together to produce that sound."
Jan Wagner
Jan Wagner brings the world of music –literally and figuratively –to Shenandoah.
A native of Venezuela who moved to the United States in his youth, Wagner has conducted orchestras in his homeland, as well as in Denmark, Venezuela, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Australia, Mexico and the United States. His records of works by Strauss, Ginastera, Villa-Lobos, Poul Ruders and Paul von Klenau have won rave reviews from critics on both sides of the Atlantic.
Wagner's passion is for the symphonic work and the idea of interpreting it for other people. "The amazing thing," he says, "is seeing all the elements come together to produce that sound." And, while he acknowledges that conducting on a professional level allows him to work with musicians who are tops in their fields, he also finds enormous pleasure working with student musicians, who see and interpret a work for the first time. The creative collaboration on the university level allows him to guide musicians as they "recreate somebody else’s ideas." He admits he had no idea that teaching the professional musicians of tomorrow would provide an "incredible education" for him, as well.
As associate professor of music who joined the Shenandoah faculty in 2002, Jan Wagner is also the artistic director for Shenandoah Performs, the university's summer music festival.