The Cleveland Orchestra

Director of Choruses
The Cleveland Orchestra
Frances P. and Chester C. Bolton Endowed Chair

Robert Porco became director of choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra in 1998, following in a line of distinguished Cleveland choral leaders that has included Boris Goldovsky, Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Robert Page, and Gareth Morrell. In addition to preparing the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and the Blossom Festival Chorus for performances, Mr. Porco conducts the Orchestra’s annual series of Christmas concerts at Severance Hall and guest conducts both at Severance Hall and at the Blossom Festival.

During the 2009-10 Severance Hall season, Mr. Porco is preparing the Chorus for performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), Handel’s Messiah, Boito’s Prologue to Mefistofele, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He will conduct the works by Handel, Boito, and Orff.

Throughout his career, Mr. Porco has been active as a conductor of opera and of choral and orchestral works. He is a regular guest conductor and the director of choruses for the Cincinnati May Festival, and has guest-conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and other orchestras in the United States and Europe. Mr. Porco has prepared choruses for such prominent conductors as Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Paavo Järvi, Erich Kunzel, Raymond Leppard, James Levine, Jesús López-Cobos, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, Kurt Sanderling, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, and Franz Welser-Möst.

Highlights of Mr. Porco’s Cleveland tenure in recent seasons have included preparing the Chorus for a February 2009 Carnegie Hall performance of Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass and Debussy’s Nocturnes and for its May 2009 debut in the Cincinnati May Festival, performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (“Symphony of a Thousand”). He prepared the Chorus for April 2008 performances of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, which he conducted, and January 2007 performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, conducted by Mr. Welser-Möst and recorded and released on compact disc by Deutsche Grammophon. During the 2005 season, Mr. Porco prepared the Chorus for appearances with the Orchestra at the Lucerne Festival and the London Proms.

Ohio native Robert Porco served as chairman of the choral department at Indiana University School of Music from 1980 to 1998, and as artistic director and conductor of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir from 1989 to 1998. He has directed the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus since 1989.

Revised September, 2009