Jacksonville Symphony Conductors
Courtney Lewis
Music Director
Haskell Endowed Chair
Anchored in the belief that music holds the power to transform lives, Courtney Lewis has established himself as one of his generation’s most dynamic conductors. Currently in his ninth season as Music Director of the Jacksonville Symphony, Lewis has designed an ambitious mission to enrich the surrounding community with innovative symphonic programming, creating the highest quality of art possible, accessible to all. Deeply committed to new music, Lewis has worked with and commissioned many of today’s leading composers. In 2016, he assisted Thomas Adès at the Salzburg Festival for the premiere of Adès’ opera The Exterminating Angel. In Jacksonville, recent and upcoming commissions include works by Carlos Simon, Sean Shepherd, Tarik O’Regan, Courtney Bryan and Conrad Tao.
BIO
Kevin Fitzgerald
Associate Conductor
Kevin Fitzgerald has been the Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony since the 2022/23 Season, during which he conducted over 35 performances. In July 2023, he won the Special Prize for the Best Performance of the Contemporary Piece at the Mahler Competition; a prize sponsored by the Mahler Foundation. In 2021, he was a Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellow and, beginning in 2019, has been awarded Career Assistance Grants by the Solti Foundation U.S. for four consecutive years. In the 2023/24 Season, Fitzgerald is excited to lead a recording of Sean Shepherd's Concerto for Ensemble with the University of Chicago's Grossman Ensemble and to make his subscription debut with the Cape Symphony. Also this season, Fitzgerald will return to the New York Philharmonic as a cover conductor for three programs.
BIO
Grant O'Brien
Assistant Conductor
Winston Family Endowed Chair
Grant O'Brien is a conductor, composer, and producer of music and musical productions. During his studies at the Eastman School of Music, he worked extensively with conductors Dr. Oliver Hagen, Dr. Mark Scatterday, Professor Brad Lubman in addition to the Emmy Award winning Mark Watters. Currently, Grant is studying orchestral conducting with Neil Varon at the Eastman School of Music. Upcoming performances include engagements with JoAnn Falletta and Peter Bay at the Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs and work as a playback operator for Cineconcerts. As a classically trained artist with a devotion to popular AND contemporary music, Grant continues to display himself as a versatile musician and an inventive concert producer.
Grant has conducted many ensembles in the Rochester area including the Syracuse Society for New Music, New Horizons String and Full Orchestra, Upstate Brass Band, Eastman Tuba Mirum, MO Ensemble and Empire Film and Media Ensemble. He has also conducted in countless degree recitals at the Eastman School of Music in addition to several recording sessions with ensembles ranging from octet to a 50-piece orchestra. Most notably, Grant has conducted recording sessions for the award winning web-series, “Star Trek Continues” and film, “Aquarium” by Stephanie Maxwell.
Grant has conducted many ensembles in the Rochester area including the Syracuse Society for New Music, New Horizons String and Full Orchestra, Upstate Brass Band, Eastman Tuba Mirum, MO Ensemble and Empire Film and Media Ensemble. He has also conducted in countless degree recitals at the Eastman School of Music in addition to several recording sessions with ensembles ranging from octet to a 50-piece orchestra. Most notably, Grant has conducted recording sessions for the award winning web-series, “Star Trek Continues” and film, “Aquarium” by Stephanie Maxwell.
BIO
Donald McCullough
Director, Jacksonville Symphony Chorus
Tom Zimmerman Endowed Chair
Hailed by the Washington Post for his “dazzling expertise” on the podium, Donald McCullough is considered one of America’s pre-eminent choral conductors. He became the Director of the Jacksonville Symphony Chorus in 2012. In November 2014 he led the Jacksonville Symphony Chorus on its first appearance in Carnegie Hall. Previously, he was the director of the Master Chorale of Washington in the John F. Kennedy Center Concert Hall for more than a decade, developing a reputation for creating choruses that sang “with an innate sense of lyricism and musical poise” and “sensitive, scrupulous and heartfelt” (Washington Post).
During his tenure with the Master Chorale, the 120-member symphonic chorus performed 16 world premieres, produced three nationally distributed CDs, and toured twice throughout Central Europe. The Chorale earned The Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence in North America.
During his tenure with the Master Chorale, the 120-member symphonic chorus performed 16 world premieres, produced three nationally distributed CDs, and toured twice throughout Central Europe. The Chorale earned The Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence in North America.
BIO