Stephen Blackwelder, conductor

DCC conductor Stephen Blackwelder has enjoyed an active and artistically diverse career since age 20, when he was invited to conduct the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra while assisting Eve Queler with a production of Così fan tutte. He is currently Director of the DePaul Community Chorus (since 2005), Director of the Chicago Bar Association Chorus (since 2017) and Music Director of North Shore Unitarian Church in Deerfield (since 2016).

Previous positions include Music Director of the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra (2000-2018) and Music Director of the Hinsdale Chamber Orchestra (1983-94), plus numerous civic/educational orchestral, opera, and choral ensembles in the greater Chicago area. Highlights of past seasons include performances with celebrated flautist Carol Wincenc, Metropolitan Opera artists Jane Bunnell, Richard Leech and Nancy Gustafson, Chicago Symphony principals Ruben Gonzalez and John Sharp, and the NIU Philharmonic with soloists from the famed Vermeer Quartet. Guest conducting engagements include the Richmond, Bremerton and Sacramento Symphonies, as well as the Chicago String Ensemble, where he was praised for his “warmly expressive conducting” by Robert Marsh of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Choral music has always been an active component of Blackwelder’s musical life and he has led multiple performances of the Downers Grove Oratorio Society, Camerata Singers of Lake Forest, Waukegan Festival Chorus and various university, church and temple ensembles. While he was conductor of the early music ensemble Ars Musica Chicago, he led that group in numerous concerts and recordings over eight concert seasons. As a professional singer, he performed frequently under conductors Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Robert Shaw and Margaret Hillis while a member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Aspen Chamber Choir.

Also an accomplished opera conductor, Blackwelder has directed over 20 staged productions including Ars Musica Chicago’s North American premiere of La púrpura de la rosa, the first opera ever composed in the Americas. He served on the conducting staff of the Harford Opera Theater of Baltimore, Hinsdale Opera, Opera Illinois, Opera da Corneto and Chicago Opera Theater. Academic teaching positions include Northern Illinois University, East Carolina University, Lake Forest College and DePaul University’s Community Music Division. Blackwelder holds a BM from the University of North Carolina and a MM from Northwestern University. Professional study included four seasons with the Aspen Music Festival and conducting master classes with Sir Georg Solti, Max Rudolf and Erich Leinsdorf.