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IN MEMORIAM - LEGH W. BURNS
MUSIC DIRECTOR / CONDUCTOR EMERITUS
Legh W. Burns was the founding Music Director and Conductor of THE SARATOGA ORCHESTRA. He was bestowed the title of Professor Emeritus from the University of Oklahoma School of Music. A former first trumpet with the United States Air Force Band in Washington D.C., he founded and conducted the Washington Chamber Ensemble. Additionally, Mr. Burns taught at Springfield (IL) Junior College and the University of Denver, where he founded the National Trumpet Symposium and was founder and conductor of the Festival Chamber Orchestra of Denver.
Legh graduated from The University of Miami (FL) earning a Master of Music degree in Trumpet Performance. He studied with conductors and musicians, Pierre Monteux, Herbert Blomstedt, Richard Lert and Renee Longy.
Legh was very interested in the development of young musicians, having founded and conducted the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra and the Oklahoma Youth Symphonies and founding The Guy Fraser Harrison Academy for the Performing Arts. Youth orchestras under his direction toured in thirteen foreign countries, including a concert tour of The People's Republic of China in 1981. For this, he was awarded the Music in Education Award by the Governor of Oklahoma.
​Saratoga Orchestra of Whidbey Island receives National Recognition
Saratoga Orchestra, under the musical direction of Anna Edwards, was recently awarded a third place prize in the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music in the Professional Orchestra Division. Focused exclusively on works by American composers from any period and in any style, the contest not only judges performances and recording quality, but in the case of new or unfamiliar works, the music itself.
