Biography

As a conductor, composer and broadcaster, Boston native Steven Karidoyanes brings a wealth of musical experiences to the podium.

This is Mr. Karidoyanes' 15th season as Conductor and Music Director of the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, a professional orchestra on Boston’s historic South Shore. There is continued praise for the level of distinction to which he has brought the orchestra. One reviewer said "The performance by the Plymouth Philharmonic...was excellent" and " the program was so lively that it proved impossible to sneak away..." (Richard Dyer, Boston Globe, October 8, 2004). He is also the Music Director of Masterworks Chorale, conducting choral/orchestral masterworks in Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, and the New England Conservatory Youth Symphony, leading concerts in Boston’s most prestigious concert venues and in past concert tours of Italy and Greece.

He returns to Prague this season to conduct the North Czech Philharmonic in Dvořák Hall. Past guest conducting engagements include Hungary's Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Prague (CZ) Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and orchestras in the Washington, D.C. region. Recent opera productions conducted include Cape Cod Opera’s Carmen, The Mikado by the Bostonian Opera & Concert Ensemble [a.k.a. “The Bostonians”] and Opera-by-the-Bay’s (MA) Die Fledermaus.

He has held the posts of Music Director of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Winston-Salem Symphony and Greensboro Symphony orchestras in North Carolina, and Assistant Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. He has conducted many subscription, pops, educational and family concerts, as well as annual ballet performances of The Nutcracker with the North Carolina School of the Arts. He has served on the faculty of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute for ten seasons, and on the conducting faculty of the New England Conservatory.

Complementing his performing activities, Mr. Karidoyanes is also a composer and member of ASCAP. His composition, Yerakína: Dionysian Dance for Orchestra, was written for and premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and has already been performed by the Boston Pops. His Café Neon: Fantasy on Greek Songs and Dances has been performed nearly thirty times by over a dozen orchestras coast to coast plus Italy and Greece. His cantata, Cherished Youth, was twice choreographed by the Commonwealth Ballet (MA). A classical music announcer/producer, Mr. Karidoyanes is a frequent fill-in host for Boston's WGBH Radio, and has worked for National Public Radio affiliates in North Carolina and Indiana.

Steven Karidoyanes holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Boston University. He received training in orchestral conducting at the Canford School of Music in Dorset, England, where he studied with the renowned British conducting coach, George Hurst. Additional orchestral studies earned him the Outstanding Graduate Student Award for two consecutive years from Ball State University in Indiana.

Mr. Karidoyanes lives in Boston with his wife, Amy, and their two sons, Michael and Nicholas.