Founder and Director

Kenneth Kiesler is one of the prominent conductors of his generation, and one of the world’s most sought-after mentors to conductors. He is Professor of Conducting and Director of Orchestras at the University of Michigan. This year he leads the Grammy award winning University Symphony Orchestra on tour ending with a performance of Mahler Symphony No. 5 at Carnegie Hall, and will conduct the world premiere recording of The Old Burying Ground by Evan Chambers.

Mr. Kiesler is the founder and director of the Conductors Retreat at Medomak, which was the subject of a feature article in the April, 2002 Atlantic Monthly: “Conducting: A backwoods Guide.” Pianist Lorin Hollander said, “Mr. Kiesler’s ability to conjure up the creative energies of the works of music which he explores is nothing short of astonishing and the atmosphere of love and empowerment which envelops the community of musicians and conductors is beyond anything I have ever experienced.” Kiesler is Conductor Laureate of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra where, as Music Director from 1980 to 2000, he founded the Illinois Symphony Chorus and Illinois Chamber Orchestra, and led debuts at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and won several awards. Mr. Kiesler also serves as Visiting Artist and Advisor of the orchestras at the Manhattan School of Music, where he oversees orchestral programming and conducts one concert with each orchestra annually.

Since the summer of 2006, at the invitation of Music Director Pinchas Zukerman, Kenneth Kiesler has been Director of the Conductors Programme of Canada's National Arts Centre. In early 2007, he was named Director of the Vendome Academy of Orchestral Conducting, a program of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, in France. Kiesler also leads masterclasses and courses for the Philharmonisches Kammer Orchester Berlin and Deutsches Musikrat in Germany. He has led many master classes for the American Symphony Orchestra League and Conductors’ Guild, at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

His students have won major international competitions such as the Maazel/Vilar and Nicolai Malko Competitions, and hold positions with major orchestras, opera companies, and music schools.

He was an honored participant in the Leonard Bernstein American Conductors Program, and conducted the Ensemble Intercontemporain in sessions with Pierre Boulez at Carnegie Hall. At the 1986 Stokowski Competition, he was awarded the Silver Medal by Maurice Abravanel. He received the 1988 Helen M. Thompson Award presented by the American Symphony Orchestra League to the outstanding American Music Director under the age of 35.

Kiesler has conducted the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Symphony, the orchestras of Utah, Detroit, New Jersey, Florida, Indianapolis, Memphis, San Diego, Albany, Virginia, Omaha, Fresno, Long Beach, Long Island, Portland, Jerusalem, Haifa, Osaka, Puerto Rico, Daejeon and Pusan in Korea, the New Symphony Orchestra in Bulgaria, Hang Zhou in China, and at Meadowbrook, Skaneateles, Sewanee, Breckenridge, and Aspen. His operatic conducting includes Bright Sheng’s The Silver River in Singapore, and Britten's Peter Grimes and Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. His dance performances include Appalachian Spring with Martha Graham and Cinderella with the Indianapolis Ballet.

James Wierzbicki writing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said, “Spectacularly sung, wittily staged and propelled by a conductor with a knack for rhythm and tempo and balance, Rossini’s Turk in Italy provided the audience with a delightful evening of music-theater. Of all the reasons why this ‘Turk’ sounded so good, foremost among them is the firm and stylish conducting of Kenneth Kiesler.”

Kiesler is the conductor of several acclaimed recordings on the Naxos and Equilibrium labels, with the BBC in London, Third Angle, and the University Symphony Orchestra. He has led premieres by Steven Stucky, Gunther Schuller, Leslie Bassett, James P. Johnston, Aharon Harlap, Gabriela Lena Frank, Steve Rush, Evan Chambers and Paul Brantley. At the age of 19, he conducted the first performance of Gershwin's original jazz-band score of Rhapsody in Blue since 1925, and he conducted the US Premiere of Mendelssohn's Third Piano Concerto, the world premiere of James P. Johnson's The Dreamy Kid and the first performance since 1940 of Johnson's blues opera, De Organizer.

David Amram, one of America’s distinguished composers said “Ken Kiesler is the kind of conductor who brings joy and honor to the creation of every composer whose music he performs, from pre-Bach works to World Premieres. It is a thrill to see and hear him, and know he is one of the rare conductors who finds hidden beauty in everything he conducts, and communicates to the musicians in a way that makes them fall in love with the music all over again. I had the pleasure of seeing him at work. My music never sounded better. I feel fortunate and blessed that he is recording some of my music for the historic Milken Foundation Series. He is one of the finest conductors America has ever produced.”

Kiesler’s teachers include Carlo Maria Giulini, Fiora Contino, Julius Herford, Erich Leinsdorf, John Nelson, and James Wimer. He is included in Jeannine Wagar's book, Conductors in Conversation: Fifteen Contemporary Conductors Discuss Their Lives and Profession, and Shostakovich Reconsidered by Allan Ho.

He began his career as Assistant Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony, where he led annual concerts on the Masterworks, All-Mozart, and All-Bach Series, choral, ballet, opera and educational concerts as well as concerts in a dozen Indiana cities. Charles Staff of The Indianapolis News, praising a Kiesler performance during his second year with the Indianapolis Symphony, said: “Kiesler is a man with a musical mind at work. He recognizes a piece for what it is, whether it be Bach’s ‘Third Suite’ or Respighi’s delicious ’Roman Festivals.’ He reads, interprets and conducts idiomatically, in the spirit, in which a given work was written.”

Also early in his career, he was Music Director of the South Bend Symphony and Principal Conductor of the Congress of Strings and the Saint Cecilia Orchestra where his “Tribute to Shostakovich” and national broadcasts brought widespread acclaim. Kenneth Kiesler is a trained wilderness guide and occasionally leads expeditions in the wilderness areas of Maine.

More: Score-Study :: Conducting

The 2008 application deadline has passed, however applications submitted now will be received and considered, as a few positions occasionally become available during the weeks prior to the beginning of the Conductors Retreat. If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to info@conductorsretreat.org.