Music Director and Principal Conductor
Philadelphia, PA
Jonathan McPhee is equally at home as a conductor for the symphony, ballet, and opera. As Music Director for Boston Ballet, he has received critical acclaim for his work with the Company and Orchestra, which is the second largest musical organization in Boston. Mr. McPhee is also Music Director for the Nashua Symphony & Chorus in New Hampshire, the Lexington Symphony, and the Longwood Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra of Boston’s Medical Community).
Recent guest engagements include the Nashville Symphony where he was selected to participate in the Bruno Walter Conductor Showcase by the League of American Orchestras, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Plymouth Philharmonic, Youngstown Symphony, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife in Spain, and the Lithuanian National Orchestra. Other orchestras Mr. McPhee has conducted are the BBC Scottish Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, the Louisiana Philharmonic, The Hague Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Colonne (Paris), the National Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway.
Some of the world's most distinguished dance companies for which Mr. McPhee has served as conductor include the New York City Ballet, The Royal Ballet (England), Martha Graham Dance Company, National Ballet of Canada, The Australian Ballet, Den Norske Ballett in Norway, and The Royal Danish Ballet in Denmark. In addition to a broad repertoire in the field of dance, Mr. McPhee has conducted pops concerts, musical theatre and operetta. He has also conducted grand opera with Opera Boston, the American Opera Center in New York, and Boston University Opera.
Mr. McPhee has conducted many of the world’s leading soloists as well as the generation of rising stars including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, flutist Paula Robison, pianists Max Levinson and Virginia Eskin, violinists Stephane Chase, Augustin Hadelich, and Stefan Jackiw, as well as singers Robert Honeysucker and Harolyn Blackwell.
Mr. McPhee's works as arranger and composer are in the repertoires orchestras and ballet companies around the world. His edition of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is the only authorized reduced orchestration of this work. Mr. McPhee’s compositions and arrangements are published by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Original works include Nightingale, Images for Orchestra and a revised arrangement of Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo, commissioned by the Copland Trust and Boosey & Hawkes. His new edition of Stravinsky’s complete Firebird for Boosey & Hawkes was recently performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony.
Mr. McPhee's best selling recording of The Nutcracker with the Boston Ballet Orchestra has sold over 70,000 copies. He has also recorded Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty and Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet with that orchestra. Mr. McPhee’s film credits include the sound track for the film Ballets Russes released in 2006. He also conducted Samuel Barber’s Cave of the Heart, Gian Carlo Menotti’s Errand into the Maze, Edgard Varese’ Integrales, Offrandes, and Octandre with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Aarhus Symphony for the films of Martha Graham's works telecast by DANCE IN AMERICA. He recorded Michael Gandolfi’s Caution to the Wind on the CRI label. His collaboration with WCRB classical radio “Kids Classical Hour” earned a Gabriel Award in 1998.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. McPhee received his L.R.A.M. from the Royal Academy of Music, and a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School. While at Juilliard, Mr. McPhee was the recipient of a Naumburg Scholarship in Conducting and English Horn. He has studied with Leonard Brain, David Diamond, Thomas Stacy, Rudolf Kempe, Sixten Ehrling, and participated in master classes with Sir Georg Solti and James Levine at Juilliard.
Mr. McPhee’s position as Music Director is supported in part by the Beatrice H. Barrett Performance Fund.
www.jonathanmcphee.com
