Daniel Sommerville

Daniel Sommerville, ConductorConductor Daniel Sommerville is Professor of Orchestral Studies at the Conservatory of Music of Wheaton College, where he conducts the award-winning Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra (third place in The American Prize for college/university orchestra performance, 2012) and teaches conducting. Under his leadership, the orchestra has collaborated with such notable musicians as Sylvia McNair, Marvin Hamlisch, The Hubbard Street Dance Company II, Joel Grey, as well as many of the outstanding faculty performers of the Conservatory of Music. In addition, Dr. Sommerville has prepared the orchestra for the eminent conductor John Nelson on seven major choral-orchestral collaborations over the past twenty years. Other notable musicians with whom Dr. Sommerville has collaborated include Alexandre Da Costa, Christopher Frohn, Judith Ingolfsson, Ignaz Michieles, Albert Wang, Oliver Colbentson, Douglas Yeo, Denis Azabagic, Nicholas Roth, Gwynne Geyer, William Dresden, and Vakhtang Kodonashvili. He has served as conductor for the Alexander Toradze Piano Festival in South Bend, Indiana. Collaborations with notable jazz musicians include Frank Mantooth, Rob Parton, and Margaret Carlson.

As a teacher of conducting, Dr. Sommerville has been one of two master teachers at daniel-sommerville-3493-0300x0450one of the Conductors Guild National Workshops, at which the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra was the host orchestra. He has also served as one of two master teachers at the national conference of the College Orchestra Directors Association held in Atlanta. In both instances, he coached promising young conductors from across the country, from undergraduate students to post-doctorate.

Daniel Sommerville holds Masters and Doctorate degrees in music from Northwestern University. In addition, he has studied conducting with such notable conductors as Sir Georg Solti and Herbert Blomstedt. Past conducting posts include the Elkhart County Symphony Orchestra (Indiana), the Westminster Chamber Orchestra (Illinois) and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Chicago. He has been guest conductor of the Sarajevo Philharmonic in Bosnia. He has had recent guest conducting appearances with the Fox Valley Orchestra and the DuPage Symphony Orchestra, and is an active clinician and guest conductor for high school honors orchestras.

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