Dr. Russell Guyver
Director of Orchestras
Interim Professor of Viola
Frasier 19
970-351-2278
Russell Guyver is originally from London, England. He has followed a varied career as conductor, violist, composer and educator. As a violist he has played in many orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, English National Opera, Royal Ballet and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela. He has appeared as conductor, soloist and chamber musician on four continents and is a guest artist at several annual music festivals in the United States and in Brazil. For many years he has been violist with The London Music Club Quartet, which tours internationally. Guyver is in demand nationally as conductor and clinician at All-State convention and he also serves as a coach with the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia.
In 1984 Russell Guyver co-founded the String Orchestra of the Rockies, now a flourishing professional chamber orchestra based in Missoula, Montana. Also active as a composer, he received an Emmy for his score of a PBS docudrama. Last year he premiered his one-act electric opera Opera[tion] World Peace, co-written with Brian Luedloff.
Guyver is Director of Orchestras at the University of Northern Colorado. Under his direction, the UNC Symphony Orchestra has been awarded "Best U.S. College Orchestra" by Down Beat magazine nine times and was selected to represent the USA in the International Cycle of University Orchestras in Zaragoza, Spain in 2003 and 2006. Russell Guyver received his musical training at the Guildhall School of Music in London, and, more recently he earned a doctor of musical arts degree in conducting at the University of Kansas under the guidance of Brian Priestman.