Photo by Steven
Begleiter PhotographyDARKO BUTORAC, Music Director

Seldom does an artist satisfy the triumvirate of audience, critic and orchestra as adeptly as Darko Butorac. Butorac serves as Music Director of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and maintains a very active guest conducting schedule. This season he will appear in subscription concerts with the Charleston Symphony, the Belgrade Philharmonic, Orchestra Seattle, and the Georgisches Kammerorchester in Ingolstadt, Germany. His inspired interpretations, imaginative programming and passion for working with musicians have earned him a growing international reputation. Although among the youngest music directors in the United States, Butorac couples extraordinary musical maturity with unbridled energy to create performances marked by “great range of expressiveness,” “extraordinary refinement of dynamic shading” and a “fine sense of shape and color.”

Since taking the baton in 2007, Butorac has propelled the Missoula Symphony to a new level of musical achievement, with an expanded repertoire and local premieres of works by established and emerging composers. Butorac and the orchestra have shared the stage with renowned guest artists, including Grammy-nominated violinist Robert McDuffie, pianists Stewart Goodyear and Antonio Pompa-Baldi, and Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo. The Symphony’s growing popularity has ignited ticket sales and established Butorac as a cultural leader in the community. An enthusiastic ambassador for classical music, he also creates the award-winning “Downbeat DownLow” podcasts with radio personality Leah Lewis.

Within North America, Butorac has been featured as a guest conductor with such orchestras as the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Charleston Symphony, the Canton Symphony, the Montana Lyric Opera and as the Principal Conductor of the Northwest Mahler Festival in Seattle. Highlights of his guest conducting engagements abroad include the Trondheim Symphony in Norway, the Mendoza Symphony in Argentina, the Xiamen Philharmonic in China, the Kharkov Symphony Orchestra and Kharkov Philharmonic in the Ukraine, and the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra of Parma. Butorac has also appeared with the Danish National Radio Symphony as part of the prestigious Nikolai Malko Conducting Competition, where he was a semi-finalist.

The League of American Orchestras recognized Butorac as one of the foremost young conductors of his generation with an invitation to participate in the prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in March 2005. The preview showcased eight young conductors from across the world chosen for their experience, talent and potential to assume a greater role with American orchestras.

In addition, Butorac was the 2004 Gold Medalist and Grand Prize Winner of the Fourth Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition, where he was selected out of 24 competitors from 17 countries. Butorac also received the Audience Favorite Prize. His success here led to professional engagements across three continents during the 2006-2008 seasons.

In 2003, Butorac was awarded a fellowship by maestro David Zinman to study at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival. Upon his return to the festival in 2004, Butorac was named Assistant Conductor of the Aspen Opera Theater Center and worked with noted opera conductors Arnold Oestman and Julius Rudel.

Darko Butorac earned his Master of Music degree from Indiana University, where he conducted over thirty concerts with the school's five major ensembles. He has also worked extensively at the Brevard Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and the University of Toronto, his alma mater. His principal mentors are David Effron, Jorma Panula and David Zinman.

For more information on Butorac, visit www.darkobutorac.com.