John Nardolillo

John Nardolillo, Music Director and Conductor of the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, has appeared with more than 30 of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, National, Milwaukee, Utah, Columbus, Indianapolis, Oregon, Fort Worth, Buffalo, Alabama, Louisville, Missouri, North Carolina, Toledo, Vermont and Honolulu symphonies. He also recently conducted concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and Carnegie Hall in New York.  In the fall of 2010 he was the Music Director and conductor for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, a performance that featured 1,500 performers and 200 horses, and was broadcast worldwide for a television audience of 500 million.

Mr. Nardolillo made his professional conducting debut in 1994 at the Sully Festival in France, and has since made conducting appearances in the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He has led  major American orchestras in subscription series concerts, summer and pops concerts, education concerts and tours, and for television and radio broadcasts. He has recorded for Naxos and Albany Records, and has been featured in articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and Vanity Fair magazine.

Mr. Nardolillo is the Founder and Music Director of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, an orchestra of top young professional musicians, drawn from the ranks of the world's leading orchestras, who travel from around the United States, Canada and Europe to perform together each season. The orchestra has appeared in the leading concert halls in the eastern United States, has been filmed for a television documentary, and has recorded Copland, Bernstein, Barber, Bach and Mozart.

Born in Bend, Oregon, John Nardolillo began his musical training at the age of three on the violin. He earned a Bachelors degree in violin from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Masters degrees in violin and conducting from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.