DAVID COMMANDAY, MUSIC DIRECTOR

David Commanday, Music Director of the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, is also the founding Artistic Director and Conductor of the Heartland Festival Orchestra, and Director of Orchestral Activities and Instructor of Cello at Eastern Illinois University.

Over a career spanning three continents, Maestro Commanday has earned recognition for performances distinguished by musical insight, compelling immediacy, and a vital connection with musicians and audiences alike. As one critic observed:

“Clearly, Commanday isn’t satisfied with a business-as-usual concert. He is trying to open up the ears of his listeners—to stir them, lead them. His feeling for and excitement about the music he conducts is palpable and contagious.”
— Gary Panetta, Peoria Journal Star

Commanday founded the Heartland Festival Orchestra in 2009, an innovative ensemble performing in Greater Peoria. The Heartland Festival Orchestra and Commanday were honored by the Illinois Council of Orchestras as Professional Orchestra and Conductor of the Year.

Previously, Commanday was Music Director of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure the PSO emerged as an ensemble of regional distinction, doubled its endowment, and featured internationally acclaimed guest artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Hilary Hahn, Bobby McFerrin, Joshua Bell, Sharon Isbin, Emanuel Ax, and Itzhak Perlman.

His conducting career began with his appointment as Music Director of the Boston Ballet, where he toured throughout Europe, the United States, and Mexico with the legendary Rudolf Nureyev, conducting productions of Swan Lake, Giselle, and Don Quixote. He subsequently served as Assistant Conductor of the San Diego Symphony and Associate Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

As a guest conductor, Maestro Commanday has appeared with orchestras throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. International engagements include the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Belgian Radio Orchestra, and the Pro Arte Orchestra of Vienna. In the United States he has conducted the National Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Las Vegas Philharmonic, North Carolina Philharmonic, Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, and Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, among others.

A sought-after ballet conductor, he has also appeared with the Joffrey Ballet, Ballet West, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the ballet companies of Richmond, Sacramento, Washington, Peoria, Kansas City, Orlando, and Oklahoma City.

As Music Director of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, Commanday led the organization to national recognition, earning three ASCAP Awards for adventurous programming and leading four international tours. During his tenure, the BYSO commissioned and premiered Ivan Tcherepnin’s Double Concerto with soloists Lynn Chang and Yo-Yo Ma. The work subsequently received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

Commanday has held faculty appointments at Harvard University, Boston University, MIT, Virginia Commonwealth University, Montclair State University, and Eureka College. The Singapore Ministry of Education invited him to four annual residencies in Singapore, where Commanday conducted the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, adjudicated the Singapore National Youth Festival, and presented conducting, chamber music, and cello master classes. 

An active cellist, Commanday frequently performs chamber music with distinguished guest artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Matt Haimovitz, Adam Neiman, Rachel Barton Pine, Jason Vieaux, and Michael Stephen Brown. At Eastern Illinois University he is the cellist of the Eastern Piano Trio with colleagues Shichao Zhang and Ji Myung Kim.

Commanday graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he studied psychology, music, and languages. As principal cellist at Tanglewood, he performed under Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Aaron Copland—experiences that inspired his transition to conducting. He later studied at the University of Vienna under Otmar Suitner, General Musik Direktor of the Berlin State Opera.  There he was awarded the Austrian Staatsdiplom in orchestral conducting with highest distinction, following a final performance in the famed Grosser Musikvereinsaal with the Niederösterreiches Tonkünstler Orchester.

David and his wife, Karla Commanday-Mirosav, have three grown children and live with four champion Scottish Terriers.