DONALD PORTNOY

Recently Appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the National Opera of China

    Maestro Portnoy currently holds several posts. In early 1999, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the National Opera Symphony & Ballet Orchestra of China in Beijing where his duties include conducting both operatic productions and orchestral concerts. He additionally holds posts as Music Director and Conductor of the Augusta Symphony Orchestra, the Koger Chair for Fine Arts at the University of South Carolina, and is founding Director of the Conductors Institute which now holds annual summer sessions in Columbia and Charleston (Spoleto Festival), South Carolina as well as in China drawing participants from around the world.

    For many years he held posts as Music Director and Conductor of the Pittsburgh Opera Theater, Pittsburgh Civic Symphony and conducted for the Pittsburgh Chamber Opera and the Columbia Lyric Opera. He earned an exceptional reputation as a guest conductor with the orchestras of Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Baltimore in the United States and throughout France, Germany, Poland, China, and South Korea, among many other countries.