Music Director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra has launched an international search for a music director. Finalists will be featured in the 2022-23 season, with the goal of a new music director being named for the start of the 2023-24 season.
Matthew Sheppard, Education Conductor
Matthew Sheppard leads a career as both performer and teacher. Outside of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra, he serves as music director of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company of Chicago, and the Hyde Park Youth Symphony.
Sheppard has guest conducted orchestras in North and South America, including the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Paraguay, the Champaign Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and the Lake Geneva Symphony. As an educator, conductor, and clinician, he is highly regarded for his passionate musicianship and technical ability, and he regularly leads masterclasses on playing and conducting in Chicago and abroad.
Sheppard studied under Donald Schleicher as a doctoral candidate in orchestral conducting at the University of Illinois. Before moving to Illinois, he attended Penn State University and earned bachelor’s degrees in Liberal Arts, Music Education, and Music Performance as well as a master’s degree in orchestral conducting under the tutelage of Max Zorin (violin) and Gerardo Edelstein (conducting).
