A major figure on the world stage, Paul has guest-conducted more than 80 orchestras in Europe, the United States, and Asia. He has recorded numerous CDs for Naxos, Harmonia Mundi, Nonesuch, Albany, Christal, and Universal Music France. Maestro Polivnick was the Music Director of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestras.
Prior to these activities, Paul was the Associate Principal Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of Harmonia Classica of Vienna, Founder of the Los Angeles Radio Orchestra, and Conductor of the Debut Orchestra of the Young Musicians Foundation of Los Angeles. Paul graduated from the Juilliard School as a conducting major having studied with the legendary Jean Morel. Paul also studied with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Franco Ferrara at the Academia Chighiana in Siena, Italy, Walter Susskind at the Aspen Music Festival, and his father, Sidney Polivnick, a brilliant music educator who was Paul’s first teacher on the violin and trumpet at the age of eight.
The latest project that Paul has announced is a trip to Budapest in June 2023 to record five pieces for tuba and orchestra with the Festival’s very own Principal Tuba, Velvet Brown. Paul has conducted a great deal in Vienna and Prague but never in Budapest, which like the other two cities has been and remains a major center for classical music.
