American composer and conductor George Tsontakis has been chosen to receive the 2012 Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Composer’s Award. He will conduct the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in a performance of his own work, Lakonika, in a concert February 24-26. Born in Astoria, NY of Cretan heritage, George Tsontakis studied with Roger Sessions at Juilliard and with Franco Donatoni in Rome. In 2006 he was named the fourth recipient of the Charles Ives Living by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2005 he also was awarded the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award.

The concert also includes Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Netanel Draiblate as the soloist, the Toy Symphony by Leopold Mozart and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8. Below you can hear our conversation with Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser about the concert.