Conductor

DePonte has appeared as a guest conductor with the symphonies of Oregon, Syracuse, Spokane, Charlotte, Anchorage, Dayton, and Tulsa, as well as the Eugene, Boston and San Francisco Ballet Orchestras. He has conducted on the international stage, particularly in Russia, appearing at the Mussorgsky (Maly) Theatre in St. Petersburg and at the Nureyev Ballet Festival in Kazan. His opera background includes three seasons as music director of the Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute and he was the founding music director of the West Coast Chamber Orchestra, serving in that capacity from 1980-1990. His conducting teachers include Leonard Bernstein, Helmut Rilling, David Effron, Christopher Wilkins, and Neal Gittleman among others.