Conductor Thomas Fortner is a passionate musical communicator, creative programmer, innovative arts entrepreneur, and dynamic educator. Since 2017, he has served as the Assistant Conductor and Youth Orchestra Music Director of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, “one of America’s boldest orchestras” –Alex Ross, The New Yorker.
In 2023, Fortner was assistant conductor of the Berlin Academy of American Music during their performance at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Romania – one of the world’s largest music festivals. In July of 2023, Fortner conducted concerts at the Crescendo Summer Institute (in Tokaj, Hungary), leading musicians from orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim, the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bremerhaven, the Filharmonia Sudecka, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
In past seasons, Fortner has appeared as cover conductor with the Omaha Symphony and the Concert Artists of Baltimore and as guest conductor with the Amarillo Symphony, the South Dakota Ballet, the Southwest Minnesota Orchestra, and the Twin Cities Symphony – a startup orchestra exploring innovative programming and venues.
In August of 2022, Fortner served as an assistant conductor at the Vienna Opera Academy in Vienna, Austria, during a production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
In the summer of 2021, Fortner served as an assistant conductor to Christian Reif at the Lakes Area Music Festival in Minnesota. In 2016, Fortner served as the assistant conductor for the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Library of Congress during their revival of the original Ballet to Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
An energetic advocate of building stronger communities through music, Fortner was the Founder and Artistic Director of the Iowa Great Lakes Music Festival, where he partnered with local performing arts presenters to bring world-class musical performances to the Iowa Great Lakes region.
Realizing that creativity education is vital to the success of future generations, Fortner founded Creativity Club, a program designed for students of the South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra to nurture their skills in music composition and other innovative approaches to problem-solving, culminating annually in a performance of their orchestral compositions by their peers.
Further highlighting his passion for new music, in the Summer of 2021, Fortner was a Conducting Fellow at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music and is currently a board member of the Minneapolis-based new music ensemble, the 10th Wave Chamber Collective.
Past highlights with the South Dakota Symphony include a classical subscription concert in 2021 featuring music of Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Debussy, selections from the Nutcracker with the South Dakota Ballet, a family concert featuring Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky/Ravel), and live soundtracks performed with film including The Wizard of Oz, and John Williams’ iconic score for Jurassic Park, for which he stepped in to conduct on short notice.
Recent education programs with the SDSO have included the 2023 and 2022 Young People’s Concerts (which was broadcast statewide in South Dakota) and Carnegie Hall’s “Link Up.”
Fortner was a member of the final conducting class selected by the late Gustav Meier to attend the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Marin Alsop and Markand Thakar, participated in masterclasses with the Baltimore Symphony, completing his Graduate Performance Diploma in conducting in 2017. Additionally, Fortner completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s of cello performance at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.
Fortner received a Graduate Performance Diploma in conducting from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Marin Alsop and participated in masterclasses with Leonard Slatkin, Markus Stenz, Nicholas McGegan OBE, and Hannu Lintu.
As a cellist, he has performed chamber music alongside musicians from orchestras such as the Houston Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra.
Off the podium, Fortner is pursuing his passion for flight by working towards earning his Pilot’s License.
More information can be found on Facebook @thomasfortner and Instagram @thomas_fortner_conductor