James Feddeck
Assistant Conductor
Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra
Music Director
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
The 2011-12 season marks James Feddeck's third season as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. He was appointed to the conducting staff of The Cleveland Orchestra by Franz Welser-Möst in March 2009. Mr. Feddeck made his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra in August 2009. This past March, he led a performance of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni with The Cleveland Orchestra, stepping in for Welser-Möst, and in May he led performances with the Orchestra as part of a new collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art in the museum’s Italian Masterworks series.
Before coming to Cleveland, James Feddeck served as assistant conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2009, he served as assistant conductor at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He earlier completed three summers as an Aspen conducting fellow, studying with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin. He received the Aspen Conducting Prize in 2008 and was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize in 2007. In addition, he was the unanimous winner of the Sixth Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition, and, at twenty-two, was its youngest participant. He recently received a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., a new prize for talented young American conductors.
Mr. Feddeck was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in four areas: piano, oboe, organ, and conducting. He studied conducting with Steven Smith, Timothy Weiss, and Bridget-Michaele Reischl. While at Oberlin, he was music director and conductor of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Following undergraduate and graduate degrees from Oberlin, he continued conducting studies at the University of Michigan, working with Kenneth Kiesler. In 2010, Mr. Feddeck was recognized by Oberlin as the first recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award for professional achievement and contributions to society.
An accomplished organist, Mr. Feddeck has performed recitals throughout Europe and North America and has been featured on the nationally syndicated radio program Pipedreams. As an oboist, he has taken a special interest in new music, having commissioned and premiered works including Daniel Pinkham’s Oboe Quartet.
Recent or upcoming conducting engagements include appearances at the Aspen Music Festival and with the orchestras of Atlanta, Charlotte, Omaha, St. Louis, and Toledo, as well as the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra (for performances in the Ballet Across America Festival).
Updated: October 2011
