In addition to Maestros Kern and LaMarche, Adam Sklute and Ballet West are presenting a 2nd guest conductor to Salt Lake City during the Nutcracker run!

Please welcome Maestro David Commanday.

David Commanday began his conducting career as Music Director of the Boston Ballet, performing with the company over five seasons in Boston and on tours through the United States, Britain, Western and Eastern Europe, and Mexico. He has conducted for Rudolf Nureyev and prima ballerinas Yoko Moroshita, Laura Young, Marie-Christine Mouis, Elaine Bauer, Patricia Barker, and Monique Loudières.  His extensive repertoire includes such classics as Giselle, Coppelia, Don Quixote, the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Cinderella, The Prodigal Son, and Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev), and contemporary masterworks by choreographers Balanchine, deMille, Joffrey, Arpino, Paul Taylor, Choo San Goh, Merce Cunningham, Elliot Feld, Sir Frederick Ashton, Jose Limon, William Soleau, and Violette Verdy.

Maestro Commanday has guest-conducted the Joffrey, Pacific Northwest, and Sacramento Ballets in wide-ranging works in performances across the continent.  He collaborated with Stoner Winslett as Principal Conductor of the Richmond (VA) Ballet, and in 1997 conducted for ABT Stars Irina Dvorenko and Maxim Belotserkovsky in the nationally-televised Gala opening of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.  Commanday is currently Music Director of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, and conducts for the Peoria and Joffrey Ballet Companies.

-Mark