Eric Dudley, Assistant Conductor

Eric Dudley is currently Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, a position he has held since August 2004. In addition to his work with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops, Mr. Dudley also conducts the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. Just recently, he stepped in at the last minute to replace conductor Eivind Gullberg-Jensen with the CSO, garnering rave reviews for his "absolutely convincing" performances (The Cincinnati Enquirer).

During his time with the CSO, Mr. Dudley’s role has grown to include the planning and conducting of the complete Young People’s Concerts series, as well as the popular Lollipop Family Concerts. Throughout the year, he conducts the orchestra’s Regional Pops series, numerous outreach concerts, and leads the CSO and Pops in summer performances at Riverbend. In February 2006, Mr. Dudley replaced guest conductor William Eddins on less than a day’s notice to lead the CSO in two subscription concerts with pianist Jon Kimura Parker. Hailing his last-minute success, Mary Ellen Hutton of the Cincinnati Post wrote that he “stepped in confidently and elegantly…Dudley has the right stuff.” In March 2007, he made his critically acclaimed scheduled debut with the CSO and pianist Denis Matsuev. He has also conducted the orchestras of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, the 2005 World Piano Competition, and on Cincinnati’s Linton Chamber Series. Recent engagements include the Camerata Orchestra of Bloomington, Indiana in October 2007 and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in February 2008.

Born in Canada in 1979, Mr. Dudley grew up in Connecticut. He began lessons in piano, composition and voice at the Hartt School of Music at the age of eight and made his debut with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra as both a soloist and composer before graduating from high school. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in composition, and earned his graduate degrees in orchestral conducting from Yale University’s School of Music, where his principal teacher was Lawrence Leighton Smith. He was named an Academy conductor at the Aspen Music Festival in 2003, where he studied with David Zinman, Murry Sidlin and Michael Stern, and was a conducting fellow at the Brevard Music Center in 2000, where he studied with Gunther Schuller and David Effron. He previously held the position of Music Director of the Albano Ballet in Hartford, Connecticut from 2001-2004.

In May of 2007, Mr. Dudley was the recipient of a Meet the Composer/New England Foundation for the Arts grant to return to his home state of Connecticut as composer-in-residence for the Simsbury Chamber Music Festival. He also played a key role in the CSO’s 2006-2007 Music Alive residency grant, conducting the American premiere of resident composer Charles Coleman’s The Lime Factory and guiding the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra’s “Variations on a Theme by Coleman” composition project. An avid chamber musician, he has performed in Cincinnati as a pianist for the Taft Museum of Art’s Chamber Music Series and the LaSalle Foundation concerts. Mr. Dudley is the recipient of the 2001 Louis Lane Prize in Composition, given by the Eastman School of Music, and the 2004 Dean’s Prize from Yale.

(April 2008)