Markand Thakar, Music Director

Markand Thakar is in his third successful season as music director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Thakar is also enjoying a remarkable tenure as the music director of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, which in the five-plus years of his leadership has experienced dramatic and sustained growth.

Creative programming and profound musical experiences that energize and grow audiences have been a hallmark of Thakar's tenures in both Duluth and Baltimore. He was cited by the ASOL's SYMPHONY Magazine for "creative programming and rising artistic stands [that] fill the house;" by New Yorker critic Alex Ross, who writes, "On the subject of brilliant programming see this season's programs by the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra;" and by the Baltimore Sun, which suggests he "may turn out to be a classical music hero....anyone who can point to the sort of trend-bucking success that Thakar has generated seems more powerful than a speeding finale by Beethoven." The Sun also praises his "novel programming concepts" for the BCO's 2005-06 season, and "one of the most successful examples of thematic programming heard around here in some time."

Thakar first came to national attention in 1997 when he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic, stepping in for Leonard Slatkin on short notice and with no rehearsal. He returned to the podium that summer, opening the Philharmonic's outdoor season with concerts in Central Park and the boroughs. Appearances in recent seasons include additional concerts with the New York Philharmonic, and with the National, San Antonio, Columbus, Birmingham, Winnipeg, Charlotte, Knoxville, Richmond, Colorado Springs, Greensboro, Illinois, Kalamazoo, Windsor, Flint, Lansing, Maryland, Ann Arbor, Waterbury, Annapolis, and Florida West Coast Symphony Orchestras; the Long Island Philharmonic; the National Chamber Orchestra and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

A frequent guest conductor at the Aspen Music Festival, Mr. Thakar has appeared with Yo-Yo Ma and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and with Itzhak Perlman and the Boulder Philharmonic, and is a recent winner of the Geraldine C. and Emory M. Ford Foundation Award. Familiar to national radio audiences as a frequent commentator for National Public Radio's Performance Today, he has appeared on CBS This Morning and CNN conducting the Colorado Symphony.

Formerly Associate Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and conductor of the Eugene Symphony's “NightMusic” pops series, Mr. Thakar was music director and conductor of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra in New York City, the Barnard-Columbia Philharmonia, the Classical Symphony of Cincinnati, the Penn's Woods Philharmonia, and the National Festival Orchestra of the Great Lakes Festival of Musical Arts. He is currently co-director, with Gustav Meier, of the graduate conducting program at the Peabody Conservatory.

Mr. Thakar's conducting studies include extensive work with the Munich Philharmonic under the mentorship of Sergiu Celibidache. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for study of orchestral conducting in Europe, and is a past winner of the national Exxon Conductors Program auditions. His training includes a bachelor’s degree in composition and violin performance from The Juilliard School, a master's degree in music theory from Columbia University, and a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, as well as special studies in orchestral conducting at the Curtis Institute and the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory in Bucharest, Romania. Other conducting studies were with Gustav Meier, Max Rudolf and Peter Perret.

Mr. Thakar is the author of Counterpoint: Fundamentals of Music Making (published in English by Yale University Press and in Italian by Rugginenti Editore of Milan), which uses species counterpoint to promote an understanding of how both composer and performer contribute to the experience of musical beauty. He has also lectured on the musical experience at Harvard University.

Markand Thakar and his wife, violist Victoria Chiang, live in Baltimore, Maryland with their son Oliver.