Cliff Colnot

conductor

In recent years Cliff Colnot has emerged as a distinguished conductor and a musician of uncommon range. He is principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's contemporary MusicNOW series, resident conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and principal conductor of the Contemporary Chamber Players. Colnot also conducts the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), various orchestras at Indiana University, the Callisto Ensemble and the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra.

One of the few musicians studying orchestral repertory with Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Daniel Barenboim, Colnot is the assistant conductor for Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Workshops for young musicians from Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries. He is also assistant conductor at Pierre Boulez’s Lucerne Academy. Colnot received acclaim for his performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire at Carnegie Hall and Pierre Boulez’s Le marteau sans maître with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His orchestration of Duke Ellington’s New World Coming for piano and orchestra had its world premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2000 with soloist Daniel Barenboim, and he recently arranged, conducted and co-produced the compact disc Tribute to Ellington, which features Daniel Barenboim as piano soloist.

Colnot graduated with honors from Florida State University and received the 1995 Ernst von Dohnanyi Distinguished Alumni Award. He earned his doctorate from Northwestern University and has taught jazz arranging and advanced orchestration at DePaul University and the University of Chicago, respectively. As a bassoonist, he was a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, Music of the Baroque and the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players.