Mark Mandarano
Lecturer

A gifted communicator, conductor Mark Mandarano is a charismatic leader with an engaging stage presence. He has recently been named the Principal Guest Conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. In 2007, he performed a gala concert with the orchestra in Carnegie Hall featuring soloists from the Bolshoi and Kirov opera houses. In coming seasons, will lead the orchestra in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and other venues. In the spring of 2005, as a participant in the National Conductor Institute with Leonard Slatkin, he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Sinfonietta of Riverdale, which performed its inaugural concerts in New York in the spring of 2008.

He has held staff conducting positions with several orchestras including, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Orange County, California where, over four years, he conducted more than 100 performances seen by more than 100,000 adults, families and schoolchildren. From 1994 through 1999 he served as Resident Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted at Lincoln Center. At Carnegie Hall, Mr. Mandarano has performed with both the American Composers Orchestra and the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra. He has also led critically acclaimed tours throughout the United States and Russia.

In recent seasons, he has appeared as guest conductor in Russia with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ulianovsk State Symphony. At home, Mr. Mandarano has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (CA), Houston Symphony (TX), New Jersey Symphony, Long Beach Symphony (CA), Rochester Philharmonic (NY), South Dakota Symphony (SD), the Westchester Philharmonic (NY), and the Bard Festival Orchestra (NY). He has worked with and/or prepared orchestras for such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Roger Norrington, Neeme Jarvi, Carl St. Clair, Leon Botstein and Valery Gergiev.

In the spring of 1998, Mark Mandarano conducted the Westchester Philharmonic in the world premiere performances of the work that won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1999: Melinda Wagner's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion. In the fall of the 1998-99, Mr. Mandarano returned to Carnegie Hall to perform the same work with the American Composers Orchestra. A recording released by Bridge Records has garnered significant praise ("Soloist, conductor and orchestra do a splendid job," Strictly Classical; "The performance is exemplary," Fanfare).

In addition to his performing career, Mark Mandarano maintains an active interest in the musical education of young people and in reaching out to all audiences. His article on Brahms's Eight Piano Pieces, Op. 76 has been published in The Compleat Brahms (Norton). A National Merit Scholar and a Presidential Scholar Finalist, Mr. Mandarano holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and Cornell University as well as a diploma with honors from the Fontainebleau Conservatory in France. He has studied conducting, orchestration and composition with Pulitzer-Prize winning composer, Karel Husa and continued conducting studies with Frederik Prausnitz, and Harold Farberman. In 1998, he was invited by the New York Philharmonic to participate in a masterclass with Kurt Masur and performed in a workshop with Zdenek Macal. In 2005, he traveled to Germany to study with the renowned Finnish conducting teacher, Jorma Panula, and won a concert performance with the Nuremberg Symphony during its first annual competition. In 1995, he was selected by the American Symphony Orchestra League to participate in its first National Conductor Preview.