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Kermit Poling

General Manager

The 2019 silver medal winner of the International Global Music Award, Kermit Poling is Music Director of both the South Arkansas Symphony, the Marshall Symphony Orchestra,  the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet, the Associate Conductor of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra as well as General Manager of the Red River Radio Network.

Also a composer, Poling's ballets have been performed throughout the country.   In 2017, Poling made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra for an album of his music.  In 2019, Pennsylvania Ballet and Ballet Des Moines premiere his most recent works.  He has created orchestral arrangements for a wide range of artists, including Grammy winning guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and blues singer Irma Thomas.   He has also scored several films, including the original silent feature Tarzan.

Poling received the Outstanding Artist in Music Fellowship in 2000 from the State of Louisiana and twice received a Music Fellowship from the Shreveport Regional Arts Council.  His awards include scholarships to the Boston Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center, where he studied with Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Gustav Meier and Seiji Ozawa.  In 2005, Maestro Poling served as one of three international judges for China’s National Young Artists Competition with the China National Symphony in Beijing.  He has received numerous commissions to create new scores for theatrical works, including The Glass Menagerie, Memoirs, Elektra and others. In 1998 he was chosen by Emmy award winning artist William Joyce to compose the music for his stage adaptation of The Leafmen and the Brave Good Bugs.

Maestro Poling has been a featured conductor on NPR's Performance Today, the Arkansas Educational Television Network, the Red River Radio Network, WGBH Boston and has appeared as violinist on Louisiana Public Television and PBS in addition to numerous television and radio stations throughout the country.  Centaur Records released a CD of his newest Christmas arrangements performed by the West Edge String Quartet.  Away from the podium, Poling also serves as organist and choral director at St. George's Episcopal Church in Bossier City.