Rate My Professor Mark Mandrano

An advocate of music by living composers, Mandarano has conducted world premieres and performances of works by Karel Husa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky, John Corigliano, Ellen Zwilich, Melinda Wagner, Libby Larsen, David Bruce, Nico Muhly, Roger Zare, Randy Bauer, and others. He has collaborated with conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph von Dohnányi, Antonio Pappano, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Roger Norrington, Valery Gergiev, Leon Botstein, Osmo Vänskä, Carl St. Clair, and Leonard Slatkin, holding staff positions with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, and Bard Festival. His association with Slatkin led to conducting the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. A prize-winner in the 2005 conducting competition of Nuremberg, Germany, Mandarano founded and serves as artistic director and conductor of the Sinfonietta of Riverdale in 2008, which has released recordings on Arabesque and Albany Records. In 2022, he was named Artistic Director of the Minnesota Youth Symphonies. At Macalester, he directs the Macalester Orchestra and coordinates the chamber music program, including commissioning five new works for asynchronous performance as Pandemic World Premieres in 2021.