Eric Dudley, conductor of ISO’s Concert Orchestra, has as a career distinguished by his versatility. Having completed a four-year tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Pops and Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, he now resides in Brooklyn and enjoys a diverse career as a professional vocalist, pianist and composer in addition to his work on the podium with various ensembles. He is Assistant Conductor of New Jersey’s Princeton Symphony Orchestra and has conducted their BRAVO Educational Concert Series, and his work as a guest conductor with New York’s International Contemporary Ensemble has included world-premiere recordings of music by Australian composer David Chisholm and a tour to Finland for the 2009 Musica Nova Helsinki Festival. This season, he travels to Melbourne to lead the premiere of Chisholm’s new oratorioKURSK with Australian soprano Jessica Aszodi and bass-baritone Joshua Bloom of the Metropolitan Opera.
In Cincinnati, he served as the primary assistant and cover conductor to Paavo Järvi, James Conlon, Erich Kunzel and numerous guests and led the orchestra frequently in performance, conducting the CSO Regional Pops, Young People’s and Family Concerts series. In 2006, he replaced guest conductor William Eddins on a day’s notice for subscription concerts with pianist Jon Kimura Parker. Hailing his last-minute success, Mary Ellen Hutton (The Cincinnati Post) wrote that he “stepped in confidently and elegantly…Dudley has the right stuff.” Again in 2008, he replaced conductor Eivind Jensen, earning rave reviews for his “absolutely convincing” performances (The Cincinnati Enquirer). He showed “authority and inspiration” (The Cincinnati Post) in his critically acclaimed scheduled debut with the CSO and pianist Denis Matsuev in 2007. Apart from his work in New York, Finland and Australia, his guest engagements have included the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Camerata Orchestra (IN), and the orchestras of the 2005 World Piano Competition and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. He previously held the position of Music Director of the Albano Ballet in Hartford, CT from 2001-2004.
An avid chamber musician, he performed in Cincinnati as a pianist and conductor for the Linton Chamber Series, the Taft Museum of Art’s Chamber Series, the LaSalle Foundation concerts, and as a founding member of the multi-media ensemble Concert:Nova. In New York, he is a member of the acclaimed choir of historic Trinity Church on Wall Street, and is featured as a soloist on their concerts and recordings. He sings regularly with the Collegiate Chorale, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran, and Miami’s premiere professional chamber choir, Seraphic Fire. He performs in the opera chorus at the Bard Music Festival, and made his Lincoln Center vocal debut in the role of Lennsmor for the U.S. premiere of D’Indy’s Fervaal with the American Symphony Orchestra in October 2009. He is also a member of the new ensemble Roomful of Teeth, dedicated to the creation of repertory with a genre-defying blend of vocal styles. The group gave its debut performance in June 2009 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, with one of his compositions featured on the program, and made its New York debut at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn this past fall. In May of 2007, he received a Meet the Composer/New England Foundation for the Arts grant to return to his home state of Connecticut as composer-in-residence for the Simsbury Chamber Music Festival, where the Quey Percussion Duo and pianist Ignacio Prego premiered two of his most recent works.
Born in Canada, Eric Dudley studied piano, composition and voice during his childhood in Connecticut and made his debut with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra as both a soloist and composer while in high school. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music in 2001, where he studied composition with Joseph Schwantner, Augusta Read Thomas and Christopher Rouse while continuing studies in voice and piano. He earned his graduate degrees in orchestral conducting from Yale University’s School of Music, where his principal teacher was Lawrence Leighton Smith. An Academy Conductor at the Aspen Music Festival in 2003, he worked with David Zinman, Murry Sidlin and Michael Stern, and he was a conducting fellow at the Brevard Music Center in 2000, studying with Gunther Schuller and David Effron. Mr. Dudley is the recipient of the Louis Lane Prize in Composition, given by the Eastman School of Music, and the 2004 Dean’s Prize from Yale.
Email: Mr. Eric Dudley
