Early life and education Charles Ansbacher was born on October 5, 1942, in
Providence, Rhode Island, to renowned
Adlerian psychologists
Heinz Ansbacher and Rowena Ripin Ansbacher. Ansbacher took up cello as a boy and began by conducting a
Mahler piece with his high school orchestra in
Burlington, Vermont. His parents encouraged his study by sending him to
Greenwood Music Camp and
Tanglewood. He majored in physics at Brown University but switched to music after creating a successful chamber orchestra with his classmates. He earned his master's degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Cincinnati in 1968, followed by his D.M.A. in 1979.
Career As a young man, Charles Ansbacher devoted almost twenty years to building the Colorado Springs Symphony, which named him Conductor Laureate when he stepped down in 1989. He was known throughout the
Rocky Mountain region not only for his regular concert season, but also the music he brought to hundreds of thousands of diverse families through often-televised, innovative outdoor concerts, and the Christmas Pops on Ice that featured
Olympic figure skating stars. Ansbacher held titled positions with orchestras in
Boston,
Moscow,
Bishkek, and
Sarajevo. Among his acclaimed performances were an all-
Brahms program at Harvard University's
Sanders Theater,
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the same work in
Belgrade with American and Russian soloists. In 2008, he was the first American conductor to appear with the
Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra. The performance was received so well that he was invited to return to the podium in 2009. He also conducted the first-ever symphony orchestra concert in Boston's historic
Fenway Park, and in
Hanoi as the first American ever to lead the
Vietnamese National Symphony Orchestra. His primary relationship was with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, which he created in 2000 as a gift to his home community. He led the orchestra at Boston's historic
Hatch Shell on the
Charles River Esplanade, and at other locations throughout Boston during the summer. In the mid-nineties, while residing in
Vienna, Ansbacher led multiple performances of renowned Austrian ensembles, including the
Vienna State Opera, the
Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the Innsbruck Philharmonic. He also conducted the
Sarajevo Philharmonic in performances throughout Austria, including at the famed
Salzburg Grosse Festspielhaus, and
Vienna's City Hall. He conducted major orchestras in Canada, Colombia, Israel, Ecuador, Italy, Lithuania, South Africa, South Korea, Vietnam, and of course the United States; however, his main thrust as an orchestra leader had been to perform in nations undergoing political transition, such as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Ansbacher organized cross-cultural exchanges, such as bringing the Sarajevo Philharmonic to Italy and Austria; leading members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their famed Symphony Hall featuring Croatian pianist, Ivo Pogorelich, to celebrate the opening of the Croatian consulate; conducting the world premiere of the Mandela Portrait in Johannesburg, South Africa, then bringing the piece to the United States in 2004; and conducting the
Jerusalem Symphony with a Palestinian soloist, in December 2005. Honoring his efforts to bridge international communities, President
Bill Clinton once called Ansbacher “the unofficial ambassador of America’s music.” Building upon multiple concerts with the
Moscow Symphony Orchestra in that city's Tchaikovsky Hall, as well as the Great Hall of the
Moscow Conservatory, Ansbacher conducted the MSO on nine CD's. The Landmarks Orchestra annually incubates a new work for children, and six of these are available on MSO CD's:
Make Way for Ducklings,
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,
The Journey of Phillis Wheatley,
Lifting the Curse: The Story of the Red Sox,
David and Old Ironsides, and ''
John Adams: the Voice Heard 'Round the World
. For adults, Ansbacher led the MSO recording Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 and Symphony No. 4
, as well as Landmarks Overtures
, Dolce
, and his most recent release, the double-CD Heroic Beethoven''.
Other ventures Beyond music, Charles Ansbacher applied art to public policy-making when, as a
White House Fellow, he was co-chair of the
U.S. Department of Transportation's Task Force on the Use of Design, Art, and Architecture in Transportation. His interest in design and architecture led to his appointment by Mayor
Federico Pena to the
Blue Ribbon Committee for the design of the new
Denver International Airport. He stayed in the policy realm as chair of the
Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by Governor
Roy Romer. Soon after moving to Massachusetts, he accepted a one-year appointment as a visiting scholar in the Harvard Music Department (1998–1999). As he had throughout his career, Ansbacher served on the board of numerous community-focused, non-profit organizations. == Personal life ==