Edward Markward, Music Director

Equally at home as conductor of orchestral, opera, and choral music, Edward Markward has served as Music Director/Conductor of the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra since 1987.  He has enjoyed a distinguished and varied career as a conductor and educator since joining the faculty of Rhode Island College in 1973, where he conducts the Symphony Orchestra, teaches conducting and serves as co-director of the Opera Workshop. Guest conducting engagements have included the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Oratorio Choir, the Newport Music Festival, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brooklyn Heights Symphony Orchestra, Festival Ballet Providence, and the Perrysburg (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra. Markward has served as Music Director for the Bel Canto Opera Company, Music Director/Conductor for Opera Rhode Island, Associate Conductor of the Providence Opera Theater, principal guest conductor for the Brooklyn Heights Symphony, and was founding conductor of the Festival Chamber Orchestra of Rhode Island.  Prior to his Rhode Island appointments, he was Music Director/Conductor of the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers and Chamber Orchestra and Musical Director for the Ann Arbor Civic Theater in Michigan.

 A champion of contemporary music, he has been praised by such composers as Elie Siegmeister, Paul Cooper, Paul Nelson, Richard Cumming and Aleksandra Vrebalov and has received numerous accolades, both from music colleagues and the press.  Composer Paul Cooper called him”...a miracle worker;” while Elie Siegmeister stated, “the world should get around to discovering him.”  According to the Providence Journal-Bulletin, “Edward Markward led a musical performance that possessed subtleties, a fine beat and generous fizz,” and “...a reading that provided nuance, steady organization and a remarkable feeling for style.”  The Providence Journal-Bulletin also described Edward Markward as, “a pillar of the music community.”  During the past several seasons, he has led performances of Rhode Island premieres of Carl Ruggles’s Men and Mountains, Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Splendid City, and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”) among others.  He has collaborated with such international artists as Maria Spacagna, Dominic Cossa, Enrico di Giuseppi, Gary Glaze and Cynthia Munzer (all of the Metropolitan Opera) as well as Joseph Silverstein, Walter Trampler, Samuel Baron, Michael Boriskin, Arturo Delmoni, Judith Lynn Stillman, Frederick Moyer and Eric Ruske.  In February, 1999, Markward served as conductor for the world premiere performances of Richard Cumming’s opera The Picnic and in July of that year, made his acclaimed conducting debut at the internationally renowned Newport Music Festival, leading performances of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll.  In September 2004, he led the world premiere performances of John Sumerlin’s opera Air. 

In addition to his duties at Rhode Island College and with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale& Orchestra, Markward also serves as Conductor for Festival Ballet Rhode Island.  He made his debut with that company in 2002-2003 conducting performances of Giselle and The Nutcracker, and in October, 2004 led world premiere performances of Aleksandra Vrebalov’s The Widow’s Broom.  In March, 2007, he led the RI Civic Chorale & Orchestra and soloists in the much anticipated world premiere performance of Vrebalov’s Stations.  Markward is the recipient of numerous awards including the Rhode Island College Alumni Association Outstanding Faculty Award, the Rhode Island Choral Directors Association’s first Outstanding Conductor Award, and the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra’s first President’s Award.  He is the recipient of the 2006 Martha & Ronald Ballinger Distinguished and Sustained Scholarship and Creativity Award given by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Rhode Island College. He has recently had his bio included in the 2009 Who’s Who in America. His ensembles at Rhode Island College have appeared by invitation at three MENC conventions, Eastern Regional ACDA convention, World’s Fair, Festival International de Musique (Québec, Canada) and toured thirteen states and the District of Columbia.  Currently, Markward is serving as music consultant to Arlene Croce, former dance critic of The New Yorker Magazine, who is writing a biography of George Balanchine, founding choreographer of the New York City Ballet.  Next season he will be a guest conductor for the Montpelier (VT) Chamber Orchestra Society.