“Butterman… is an elegant figure, the master of gestures as graceful as they are meaningful. His instructions are precise. He evokes, rather than giving commands, and in all sections of the ensemble, Phil members played their hearts out for him.” — Boulder Daily Camera

Music Director of three American orchestras and a sought-after guest conductor, Michael Butterman is acclaimed for his creative artistry and innovative programming. Foundational to his dynamic career is a deep commitment to audience development and community engagement.

Butterman is Music Director of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, which he has led to national prominence, resulting in an invitation to open the Kennedy Center’s inaugural SHIFT Festival of American Orchestras in 2017. He is also Music Director of the Shreveport Symphony, which has experienced an unprecedented era of artistic growth under his two decades of leadership. More recently, Butterman assumed the role of Music Director of the Williamsburg Symphony, which has since been featured over two dozen times on nationwide public radio. He recently concluded a transformative tenure as Music Director of the Lancaster Symphony, during which subscriptions reached an all-time high. Prior to these appointments, he was with the Rochester Philharmonic for nearly two decades as Principal Conductor for Education and
Community Engagement, concurrently serving as the Associate and Resident Conductor for the Jacksonville Symphony.

As a guest conductor, Michael Butterman has led many of the country’s preeminent ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Houston Symphony. Other appearances include the Fort Worth Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Hartford Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, California Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, El Paso Symphony, Mobile Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, and Victoria Symphony. Summer appearances include Tanglewood, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, and Wintergreen Music Festival. He is also a frequent guest conductor for Cuba’s renowned Havana Chamber Orchestra. Butterman gained international attention as a diploma laureate in the Prokofiev International Conducting Competition and as a finalist in the prestigious Besançon International Conducting Competition. As the recipient of the Seiji Ozawa Fellowship, he studied at Tanglewood with Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, and Maestro Ozawa, with whom he shared the podium to lead the season’s opening concert. Earlier, he was sponsored by UNESCO to lead the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Moldova in a concert of music by great American masters.

Also an experienced opera conductor, Butterman served for six years as Music Director of Opera Southwest in Albuquerque and was Director of Orchestral Studies at the LSU School of Music and Principal Conductor of LSU Opera Theater. While at Indiana University, he conducted a highly acclaimed production of Leonard Bernstein’s little-known 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at the Kennedy Center, receiving unanimous praise from The New York Times, Washington Post, Variety, and USA Today. He was subsequently invited to New York at the request of the Bernstein estate to prepare a revised version of the work.

Butterman’s work has been featured in more than three dozen nationwide broadcasts on public radio’s Performance Today. His newest recording, Emporium: The Music of Aldo López-Gavilán, on the Reference Recordings label, is garnering significant critical acclaim and radio airtime. His work can also be heard on recordings for Newport Classics and in collaboration with actor John Lithgow.

Michael Butterman is represented by Cadenza Artists and is a voting member of the Recording Academy/GRAMMY® Awards.

Music director Michael Butterman’s balance between both reduced strings and full orchestra and Vieaux was the absolute, most total perfection of balance one could ask for. It simply could not get any better. Bravo to all…Butterman and company beautifully shaped the work (Brahms’ Symphony No. 3), its lines and sensations captivating attention, checking all the boxes for cohesion, clarity, blended sound, truly fine playing and nothing-left-to-be-desired excellence….READ MORE…