Rate My Professor Mark Mandrano

Mark Mandarano is Professor and Department Chair in the Music Department at Macalester College, where he also serves as Director of Instrumental Activities. He holds a BA from Cornell University and an MM in Conducting from the Peabody Conservatory. Mandarano joined Macalester in 2012 as a tenure-track assistant professor and director of instrumental activities. He enjoys an international career as a conductor, with performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and other prominent venues in the U.S. and abroad. In 2017 and 2018, he served as a cultural ambassador to Russia, leading tours featuring American music by Gershwin and Bernstein, with sold-out performances in cities including Kaliningrad, Voronezh, Nizhny-Novgorod, Volgograd, Novosibirsk, and at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Svetlanov.” He conducted two new works with the New York City Opera in 2009, served as principal guest conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and has led performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Nürnberger Symphoniker, and Ural Philharmonic.

An advocate of music by living composers, Mandarano has conducted world premieres and performances of works by Karel Husa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky, John Corigliano, Ellen Zwilich, Melinda Wagner, Libby Larsen, David Bruce, Nico Muhly, Roger Zare, Randy Bauer, and others. He has collaborated with conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph von Dohnányi, Antonio Pappano, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Roger Norrington, Valery Gergiev, Leon Botstein, Osmo Vänskä, Carl St. Clair, and Leonard Slatkin, holding staff positions with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, and Bard Festival. His association with Slatkin led to conducting the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. A prize-winner in the 2005 conducting competition of Nuremberg, Germany, Mandarano founded and serves as artistic director and conductor of the Sinfonietta of Riverdale in 2008, which has released recordings on Arabesque and Albany Records. In 2022, he was named Artistic Director of the Minnesota Youth Symphonies. At Macalester, he directs the Macalester Orchestra and coordinates the chamber music program, including commissioning five new works for asynchronous performance as Pandemic World Premieres in 2021.