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Leslie B. Dunner-Guest Conductor
One of the premiere American conductors of his generation, LESLIE B. DUNNER enjoys an international career, distinguished by the breadth of his repertoire as well as his electrifying and critically lauded performances.
Following a summer that included three different programs with South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, Leslie B. Dunner’s current season includes return engagements with California’s Symphony Silicon Valley and the Chicago Sinfonietta, as well as debuts with the San Angelo Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco. With the Louisville Ballet, he returns as Principal Conductor, leading productions of Giselle, The Nutcrackerand Le Sacre du printemps.
Leslie B. Dunner's guest conducting engagements have taken him around the globe. United States concert engagements have includes the major orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Louisville, Minnesota, New York, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC, in addition to numerous regional orchestras. Other North American orchestras have included those of Edmonton, Halifax, Québec, Windsor and México City. Abroad, he has conducted Russia's St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Camerata, the Estonian National Symphony, South Africa's Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestras, National and Transvaal Symphony Orchestras and Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia-Romagna "Arturo Toscanini" in Italy and the Symphony Orchestra of Madrid on tour in Portugal. In 1996, he stepped in as a last-minute replacement for Lord Yehudi Menuhin on the Warsaw Sinfonia's debut tour of South Africa, earning enthusiastic critical acclaim for three "Mostly Beethoven" programs.
Equally at home with ballet and opera, Leslie B. Dunner has led performances of American Ballet Theatre (at New York City’s City Center and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC), New York City Ballet, The Washington Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet (in Chicago and at Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion), Dance Theatre of Harlem, Madison Ballet, Orlando Ballet, The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, The Birmingham Royal Ballet (at home, in London and on tour throughout England), Michigan Opera Theatre and The South African Ballet Theatre, while opera productions have been conducted in Pretoria, South Africa and with Opera Ebony in New York City. Of special note is his having conducted Opera Africa’s production of Mziliazi Khumalo’s Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu at Oslo’s Den Norske Opera. From 2003 to 2009, Dr. Dunner served as Music Director and Principal Conductor of The Joffrey Ballet.
Leslie B. Dunner is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including both the "Distinguished Achievement" and "James Weldon Johnson" awards from the NAACP, the 1996 "Distinguished Young Alumnus" award from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, proclamations and commendations from city and state chambers throughout Maryland, Michigan and New York as well as the National Association of Negro Musicians. In Detroit, he has also received the "Man of the Year" and "Spirit of Detroit" awards from Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. Dr. Dunner was the first winner of the Colorado Philharmonic National Conducting Competition, the first American prize-winner of the prestigious Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition and the first multiple prize-winner from Ukraine’s 2003 International Jordania Conducting Competition. In 1994, he was chosen to participate in the American Symphony Orchestra League's "Leonard Bernstein American Conductors' Program." Most recently, he was the recipient of Chicago’s 2009 "3Arts Award" for his contributions to the musical life of Chicago.
When not conducting, Leslie B. Dunner composes and performs as a clarinetist. As a clarinetist, he has been heard in the United States and throughout Canada on CBC Radio, while his compositions have been successfully performed, throughout the United States and abroad. His Motherless Child Songs, recorded by the Minnesota Composers Forum, is available on the Innova label, and his 1993 recording with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Magical, Mystical Mouse (music from animated films), is available on the Pro Arte label. His most recent work, The Whirligigs of Time: Twelfth Night Suite for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra, was premiered by the Prince George’s Philharmonic in March 2006. His newest recording, Five Movements in Color, a symphonic work by the African-American composer Mary Watkins, was released by Albany Records in July, 2010.
A native New Yorker, Leslie B. Dunner holds advanced degrees in music from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, Queens College in New York City and the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. He serves on the advisory boards of Houston’s Opera Vista, World Artist Experience in Annapolis and The International Jordania Conducting Competition in Chattanooga.
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