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Jonathan McPhee is equally at home as a conductor for the symphony, ballet, and opera. As Music Director for Boston Ballet, he has received critical acclaim for his work with the Company and Orchestra, which is the second largest musical organization in Boston. Mr. McPhee is also Music Director for the Lexington Symphony. and Symphony New Hampshire
Mr. McPhee was invited to conduct the Nashville Symphony as one of the conductors featured in the 2009 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview by the League of American Orchestras. His collaboration with WCRB classical radio "Kids Classical Hour" earned a Gabriel Award in 1998. As Music Director for the Longwood Symphony Orchestra from 2005-2011, he garnered a Met-Life Award for Community Engagement in 2007 from the League of American Orchestras and the State of Massachusetts’ highest award in arts and culture, the Commonwealth Award in 2011.
Mr. McPhee has had guest conducting engagements with many orchestras at home and abroad in recent years including the Hamburg Philharmonic in Germany, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife in Spain, and the Lithuanian National Orchestra. Other orchestras Mr. McPhee has conducted are the BBC Scottish Symphony, The Hague Philharmonic, Orchestre Colonne (Paris), the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in London, and the Bergen Philharmoic iorway to name a few.
Some of the world's most distinguished dance companies for which Mr. McPhee has served as conductor include the New York City Ballet, The Royal Ballet (England), Martha Graham Dance Company, National Ballet of Canada, The Australian Ballet, Den Norske Ballett in Norway, and The Royal Danish Ballet in Denmark. In addition to a broad repertoire in the field of dance, Mr. McPhee has conducted pops concerts, musical theatre and operetta. He has also conducted grand opera with Opera Boston, the American Opera Center in New York, and Boston University Opera Institute.
Mr. McPhee's works as arranger and composer are in the repertoires of orchestras and ballet companies around the world. His edition of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is the only authorized reduced orchestration of this work. Mr. McPhee’s compositions and arrangements are published by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Original works include Nightingale, Images for Orchestra and a revised arrangement of Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo, commissioned by the Copland Trust and Boosey & Hawkes, as well as a new edition of Stravinsky’s complete Firebird for Boosey & Hawkes recently performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony.
Mr. McPhee's best selling recording of The Nutcracker with the Boston Ballet Orchestra has sold over 75,000 copies. He has also recorded Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty and Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet with that orchestra available on itunes, and Michael Gandolfi’s Caution to the Wind on the CRI CD label. Mr. McPhee conducted the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra for the films of Martha Graham’s works telecast by DANCE IN AMERICA that included Samuel Barber’s Cave of the Heart, Gian Carlo Menotti’s Errand into the Maze, and Edgard Varese’ Integrales, Offrandes, and Octandre.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. McPhee received his L.R.A.M. from the Royal Academy of Music and University of London, and a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School. While at Juilliard, Mr. McPhee was the recipient of a Naumburg Scholarship in Conducting and English Horn. He has studied with Leonard Brain, David Diamond, Thomas Stacy, Rudolf Kempe, Sixten Ehrling, and participated in master classes with Sir Georg Solti and James Levine while at Juilliard.