Eric Hansen
Music Director & Conductor — 1997 to Present
A Bay Area native born into a musical family, Eric Hansen has performed professionally on violin and trumpet since the age of 15. At 16 he was soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, playing the Bruch Violin Concerto in G Minor. His father, Robert Hansen, was a member and conductor of the Golden Gate Park Band for 50 years; his mother, Geraldine, taught piano to generations of students.
Music study continued at UC Berkeley, where Mr. Hansen served as concertmaster of the University Symphony Orchestra and studied conducting with Michael Senturia. Upon graduation he received the prestigious Eisner Prize for Outstanding Music Graduate. He went on to receive his Master’s in Instrumental Conducting at the University of Michigan as a teaching fellow, studying under Gustav Meier. Additional conducting study followed with Daniel Lewis, Dennis deCoteau, Herbert Blomstedt, and Jon Robertson.
With a particular interest in new music and composition, he has worked with and conducted works by Christopher Rouse, Gian Carlo Menotti, Peter Maxwell Davies, Gregory Ballard, Robert Hughes, Ross Bauer, Frank LaRocca, Douglas Johnson, and Ron McFarland. Mr. Hansen has premiered new works with the Oakland Ballet, the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, Composers Inc., the Empyrean Ensemble, and New Music at Berkeley. He has conducted the California Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Kensington Symphony Orchestra, the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Redding Symphony, the Reno Philharmonic, and the Redlands Symphony.
Enjoying a wide variety of musical styles, Mr. Hansen has also conducted for Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Diane Schuur. He has recorded with the Skywalker Symphony at Lucas Recording Studios as well as at Phantasy Studios and the Record Plant. In summer 2010 he was a guest conductor at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska, inaugurating a Klezmer Ensemble for which he also composed and arranged the music.
Mr. Hansen has appeared as conductor and clinician with numerous pre-professional and educational ensembles throughout the United States and Europe. In 2000 he toured Prague, Vienna, and Budapest as conductor with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, leading the group to win the prestigious “City of Vienna” prize for chamber orchestra. Other engagements include the California All-State Honor String Orchestra, the California Orchestra Directors’ Association All-State Honor Orchestra, and the Utah All-State Honor Orchestra. He has also conducted the UC Berkeley Symphony, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, the Oakland Youth Orchestra, and the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra.
A passionate music educator, Mr. Hansen recently retired from a 23-year career as Music Lecturer at California State University, East Bay. He continues to teach violin, viola, trumpet, and conducting privately from his Bay Area studio — eehansenstudio@gmail.com.
Music Directors of Prometheus Symphony Orchestra
| Eric HansenCurrent Music Director | 1997 – Present Current |
| George Thomson | 1992 – 1997 |
| Jonathan Khuner | 1980 – 1992 |
| Karla LemonInterim & Associate Conductor | 1980 – 1982 |
| Sally Kell | 1976 – 1980 |
| Roy Bogas | 1976 |
| Randolph Hunt | 1964 – 1976 |