Artistic Director Kevin McMahon conducts Carmen Sitzprobe with the Hungarian State Opera in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Kevin McMahon
Conductor

Dr. Kevin McMahon is currently in his eleventh year as Music Director and Conductor of the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra. He is also Resident Conductor of the Rome (Italy) Festival and Artistic Director for the Maud Powell Music Festival and related programs.

Dr. McMahon made his symphonic conducting debut with the Symphony School of America Chamber Orchestra, subsequently returning as Music Director. In the same period, he served as Music Director and Conductor of the National Arts Chamber Orchestra. This ensemble toured major cultural centers in Cleveland, Ann Arbor, Milwaukee, Washington DC, Madison, Chicago, and numerous other communities and was a resident orchestra for the XIVth International Viola Congress.

In 1989 Dr. McMahon became Resident Conductor for the Lincoln Opera of Chicago. In this position he led productions of standard operatic repertoire. Simultaneously, he served as Music Director and Conductor for the Northwest Indiana Youth Orchestra. This ensemble's tours included major centers in Italy.

Dr. McMahon's guest work has included the Spokane Symphony (WA), Damiana Ensemble (Czech Republic), Elgin Choral Union (IL), Varna Philharmonic (Bulgaria), Forfest (Czech Republic), South Bend Symphony (IN), Northwest Indiana Symphony, Elgin Symphony (IL), Florida All-State Orchestra, Indiana Opera North, Marquette Symphony (MI), Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Orchestra of Colours (Athens, Greece), Evanston Symphony (IL), Lincoln Park Sinfonietta (IL), Southwest Michigan Symphony, Hinsdale Chamber Orchestra (IL), Hungarian Opera of Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Göttinger Symphonie Orchester (Germany), and the Saginaw Symphony (MI).

In Rome Dr. McMahon has regularly mounted operatic productions including works of Puccini, Bizet, Humperdinck, Mozart, Verdi, J. Strauss II, and Donizetti. With the Classical Symphony Chamber Ensemble, he presented Barber's A Hand of Bridge. Locally Dr. McMahon collaborated on a production of Moore's The Devil and Daniel Webster. He led Rossini's The Barber of Seville and numerous opera gala concerts with the Indiana Opera North. He has recorded works of Francesco Veccia in Los Angeles and a video version of an excerpt from Puccini's Suor Angelica. He has been responsible for a number of European premieres and forty-one world premieres including his own opera Marilyn Monroe (2004).

Dr. McMahon has studied with luminaries in the music profession including Gunther Schuller, Harold Farberman, Margaret Hillis, Gustav Meier, Maurice Abravanel, and with Erich Leinsdorf and Leonard Slatkin at the New York Philharmonic Symposium. Dr. McMahon has attended the Tanglewood Music Center and master classes of Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, and Bernard Haitink. Other master classes include the Chicago Symphony Bruckner Symposium with Sir Georg Solti.

Dr. McMahon has a bachelor's degree in violin performance from the University of Michigan. He also earned two master's degrees in orchestral and opera conducting and violin performance from the University of Michigan. While attending the university, Dr. McMahon received scholarships from the McFeely-Rogers Foundation and Mary Baloyan. He graduated with honors and was given membership in Pi Kappa Lambda. Dr. McMahon has also received artistic support through grants from the Hegeler-Carus Foundation. He recently received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting, working with David Becker and made possible by the Collins Wisconsin Distinguished Fellowship. He has also been a two-time recipient of the Church Memorial Award in Conducting. He served as an Assistant Conductor for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Orchestras and Opera.

Dr. McMahon's plans for 2005-06 include guest conducting locally and abroad. He will be conducting and performing on violin in New York City and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra will inaugurate a summer season to be held at Starved Rock State Park. The Maud Powell Music Festival's theater productions will include dance music and a world premiere opera about Maud Powell (June 15-16, 2006). He is coauthor of this opera libretto with Carol Shamory. He will return to Germany to conduct in Dresden.

Dr. McMahon resides in LaSalle, Illinois, and Madison, Wisconsin.