Constantine Kitsopoulos

Constantine Kitsopoulos has made a name for himself as a conductor with musical experiences comfortably span the worlds of opera and symphony. He’s conducted in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Royal Albert Hall, and musical theater, as he can be found leading orchestras on Broadway. The 2018-2019 season marks his ninth as Music Director of the Festival of the Arts BOCA, an extraordinary multi-day cultural arts event for South Florida. He was Artistic Director of the OK Mozart Festival, Oklahoma’s premier music festival from 2013 to 2015, and he recently completed an eight-year tenure as Music Director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with the New York Philharmonic; the Atlanta, Baltimore, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Toledo, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Vancouver symphony orchestras; the Philadelphia Orchestra; the Calgary and Louisiana Philharmonics; the National Arts Centre Orchestra; and the New York Pops Orchestra. Summer concerts have included those at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Ravinia Festival, Blossom Festival, and Sun Valley Festival. International appearances have seen him conduct China’s Macao Orchestra with Cuban band Tiempo Libre, as well as the Tokyo Philharmonic and Russian National Orchestra.

Above and beyond his symphonic work, Kitsopoulos maintains busy opera and educational schedules. In recent seasons, he has led annual productions at the Indiana University Opera Theater, as well as concerts at New York University and Michigan State University, where he also made his debut as a composer with a workshop of a new music theatre piece entitled “Temple.”

Also much in demand as a theater conductor, both on Broadway and nationwide, Kitsopoulos has been Music Director and Conductor of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella on Broadway and of the Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical revival featuring Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis which ran until September 2012. Prior to that, he was Conductor and Musical Director of the Tony-nominated musical A Catered Affair; the Tony-nominated musical Coram Boy; and the American Conservatory Theatre’s production of Kurt Weill’s Happy End, for which he recorded the cast album at Skywalker Ranch. Other musical theater highlights include serving as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Baz Luhrmann’s highly acclaimed production of Puccini’s La bohème.

 

Kitsopoulos studied conducting with Gustav Meier; Sergiu Comissiona; Semyon Bychkov; and his principal teacher, Vincent La Selva.