Press Kit
“Yet it was the final work, Prokofiev’s “Classical’’ Symphony, that produced the most heated, lapel-grabbing playing of the night, with the ensemble conveying both the music’s fond backward gaze and its modern bite. Lewis’s conducting seemed to derive its potency from a merging of a tightly controlled physicality with a deeper sense of the volatile forces and expressive urgency that underlie this music.” — Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe, January 2010
“Superconductor makes Discovery. In most professions, being young, well-educated, telegenic and articulate is considered a blessing. Not in the conducting world. There, credentials are looked at warily unless accompanied by gray hair and decades of experience. Courtney Lewis is the 25-year-old leader and founder of Discovery Ensemble, a new orchestra that is making a splash on the Boston music scene.” — Keith Powers, Boston Herald
“Belfast-born Courtney Lewis, DE’s 25-year-old music director, is both an inspired conductor — every moment seems to be on its way to or from someplace — and an inspired programmer.”
— Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix
“I was pretty excited about a Discovery Ensemble concert last January conducted by Belfast-born Zander Fellow Courtney Lewis, who just turned 25. Their May concert at Sanders Theatre impressed me — no, excited me — even more. A brilliant Ligeti Romanian Concerto was followed by Stravinsky's scintillating, witty, seductive ballet Pulcinella (complete — not the short Suite, which gets done much more often), in a scintillating, witty, and irresistibly seductive performance, with soprano Kendra Colton (at her most alluring), tenor Matthew Anderson, and baritone Sumner Thompson adding their own considerable charm to the already charming orchestra. Lewis kept me dangling like trout from his swinging line. He ended with a breathtaking Beethoven Eighth that embraced Haydn and Gilbert & Sullivan yet still sounded like Beethoven. The Minnesota Orchestra is about to confirm Boston's enthusiasm by appointing him assistant conductor. I hope that doesn't keep him too great a distance from Boston.” — Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix
