The Florida Orchestra has named DANIEL BLACK assistant conductor; in addition, ROSS HOLCOMBE has joined the orchestra as assistant principal trombone and ROMAN YEARIAN has joined the violin section.
Daniel Black begins with the Tampa Bay-based orchestra in the 2018-19 season. He will program and conduct the orchestra’s youth, park, and other community concerts as well as one concert each in the Coffee series and Pops series. He also will assist Music Director Michael Francis and guest conductors and help with outreach activities. From 2014 to 2017, Black was assistant conductor and associate conductor at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and is director of instrumental music at Arkansas’s Wildwood Arts and Music Academy. Black has guest conducted at Dnipro State Opera and Ballet Company (Ukraine) and the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra (Russia). He recently was granted a Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, the third time he has received the award. Fluent in Russian, Black has studied conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, and Northwestern University. He is also a composer.
Newly appointed Assistant Principal Trombone Ross Holcombe is a Florida native, originally from Tallahassee. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the New England Conservatory in Boston and currently serves as principal trombone of the Spokane Symphony, a position he has held since 2011. He has performed with the Vancouver, Oregon, Utah, and Seattle symphonies, and spent one summer as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. He joins the Florida Orchestra in the fall and will occupy the position vacated by Dwight Decker, who retired after 44 years at the orchestra.
Originally from Bellingham, Washington, violinist Roman Yearian studied with Elmar Oliveira at Lynn University in Boca Raton and spent the 2017-18 season as a fellow with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, where he recently completed his first year. He pursued undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin and has participated in a number of summer festivals, including as concertmaster at the Schleswig-Holstein music festival in Germany. Yearian will start with the Florida Orchestra in the fall, succeeding retiring violinist Claudia Rantucci, who played with the orchestra for 37 years.
Posted August 6, 2018
