Leslie Dunner
Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra Conductor Leslie B. Dunner maintains an active performance life. He has had numerous engagements with major orchestras including the Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas,Detroit, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Seattle Symphony Orchestras in addition to his many years with the Detroit Symphony. Outside of the USA, he has conducted concerts in Canada, Estonia, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and Ukraine.
An avid ballet conductor, Dr. Dunner has taken the podiums of the American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Michigan Opera Theatre, Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and South African Ballet Theatre, among others, nationally and abroad.
Dr. Dunner was the first American prize-winner in the Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition, a recipient of three prizes in the International Jordania Competition. He received the Leonard Bernstein American Conductors Award, and the NAACP James Weldon Johnson and Distinguished Achievement Awards.
Tours have included performances and festivals across the USA, Europe, Scandinavia, South America, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa. In addition to his position as orchestra conductor for Interlochen Arts Academy, Dr. Dunner is interim artistic director of Chicago’s South Shore Opera Company, and
resident conductor of New Jersey’s Trilogy: An Opera Company. His stirring performances with the Long Beach Opera of Anthony Davis’ historical work The Central Park Five received the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music. When not conducting, Dr. Dunner composes and performs as a clarinetist.