John Thomas Dodson

Previously Dodson was Music Director of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra where he invited members of the New York Philharmonic to solo with the orchestra, hosted a television program to introduce classical music to new audiences, and commissioned a new work for each of his eight seasons. The orchestra twice received the American Symphony Orchestra League's Sally Parker Education Award in national recognition of its efforts to bring classical music to children. Dodson has also been Music Director of Orchestra New York with concerts in Carnegie Hall and St. Luke's Church, and as Music Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Tucson, where he founded the Coronado Music Festival atop Mt. Lemmon in the Coronado National Forest.

As a guest conductor John Thomas Dodson has worked with the Budapest Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, National Philharmonic of Russia, National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, National Symphony Orchestra of Bashkortostan, Omsk State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Bialystok Philharmonic, Irkutzk Symphony Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra UANL of Monterrey, Mexico.

Dodson's latest recording features the music of Robert Jager with the Omsk Philharmonic, the St. Louis Children's Chorus, Leipzig Gewandhaus principal flautist Stephanie Winker, and Michael Lackey as narrator.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, John Thomas Dodson studied composition with Robert Jager at Tennessee Technological University. He was mentored in strings by Ed Meyer, father of bass virtuoso and composer Edgar Meyer. Dodson holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where he studied under renowned conducting pedagogue Frederik Prausnitz and later with Paul Vermel as a fellow at the Aspen Music School.

Photo: Jean-Luc Fievet