Robert Porco has been recognized as one of the leading choral musicians in the United States. For more than 35 years he has been an active conductor of choral and orchestral works, as well as opera. During his career Mr. Porco has conducted or prepared most of the major choral repertoire, ranging from the cantatas of Bach to the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning On the Transmigration of Souls performed by the May Festival Chorus in 2008 under the baton of the composer John Adams. Of the Chorus’s performance the composer wrote, “The pure American quality of their enunciation and their perfectly balanced sonorities lifted the matter-of-fact plainness of the words to transcendental level, and for once the piece did not seem as compromised and uneven as I had previously thought.”

Mr. Porco’s 2008-2009 conducting schedule includes the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in a program of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Poulenc’s Gloria; Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor and Brahms’ Ziguenerlieder during the May Festival; nine holiday concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra; and classical and Broadway programs at the Blossom Festival.

Mr. Porco’s conducting career has spanned geographic venues across western Europe and the United States, including performances in the Edinburgh Festival; Lucerne, Switzerland; and Reykjavik, Iceland; and in the May Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Berkshire Music Festival, Blossom Festival and Grant Park Festival. He has been a regular guest conductor in the May Festival since 1991, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 1996 and the Cleveland Orchestra since 2000.

The 2008-2009 season marks Mr. Porco’s 20th season as Director of Choruses for the May Festival. Highlights of his tenure include three highly acclaimed appearances in Carnegie Hall: a 1991 performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; a 1995 performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Robert Shaw, the Cleveland Orchestra, and other choruses; and an October 2001 performance of Britten’s War Requiem with James Conlon and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

This season is Mr. Porco’s 11th year as Director of Choruses for the Cleveland Orchestra, during which he is preparing the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for a Carnegie Hall performance of Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass and the Debussy Nocturnes and its debut in the May Festival, where it will join the May Festival Chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Mr. Porco has also prepared the Chorus for appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra in the Edinburgh Festival in 1999, in Carnegie Hall in 2002, and at the Lucerne Festival and London Proms in 2005.

Mr. Porco has gained national recognition for his preparation of choruses for such prominent conductors as John Adams, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Paavo Järvi, Erich Kunzel, Raymond Leppard, James Levine, Jahja Ling, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Zubin Mehta, John Nelson, Andre Previn, Kurt Sanderling, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Shaw, Franz Welser-Möst, John Williams and David Zinman.

From 1988 to 1998, Mr. Porco was Artistic Director and Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir. From 1979 to 1998, he was Professor of Music and Chairman of the Choral Department of Indiana University School of Music, where he was also a frequent conductor of opera and choral/orchestral programs. While at IU, Mr. Porco led a wholly student choral and orchestral ensemble of 250 in a highly acclaimed performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass as part of the Tanglewood Music Festival’s celebration of the composer’s 70th birthday.

As teacher and mentor, Mr. Porco has guided and influenced the development of hundreds of musicians, most of whom are now active as professional conductors, singers or teachers in schools of music, performance ensembles or solo careers. Mr. Porco remains a sought-after guest instructor and coach for conservatory students; young, professional conductors; and singers. His guest teaching venues have included Indiana University School of Music, Harvard University, the University of Miami Frost School of Music and Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ).