John Bernard Zoltek – Music Director & Conductor
Music Director & Conductor
jzoltek@glaciersymphonychorale.org
John Zoltek is entering his tenth year as Music Director and Conductor of the Glacier Symphony and Chorale. A New England native born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, John began studying jazz and classical guitar at the age of seven. He holds degrees in music composition from The University of British Columbia (1983, M.M.), and Berklee College of Music in Boston, (1981, B.M. cum laude). At Berklee he received the prestigious “Youth Concerts at Symphony” prize for composition. He also studied conducting privately with Attilio Poto at the Boston Conservatory.
Mr. Zoltek’s previous positions include: Conductor of the Vancouver Pro Musica Orchestra; Conductor for Marzena, a Seattle-based new music ensemble associated with Seattle Spring; Music Director of the Renton Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Seattle. He has also conducted the Southwestern Honors Orchestra in Knoxville, Tennessee and made his European debut with the Philharmonic Bohuslav Martinu in Luhachovice, Czech Republic. Mr. Zoltek appears as conductor with that same orchestra on The Spirit Emerges, a CD of music of Canadian composer Mark Armanini. John’s other recordings include: The Music of Diane Thome on the Opus One label and three live CD concert recordings of the Montana Summer Symphony where he conducts the music of Rossini and Dvorak. He was selected to attend the Pierre Boulez Carnegie Hall Foundation program in New York City for composers and conductors and has twice attended the International Conductor’s Workshop in Zlin, Czech Republic.
In July, 1999, Mr. Zoltek led a special festival orchestra in a memorable performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the first time this great work had been performed in the Flathead Valley. In July, 2000, John conducted the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, performing the premiers of three newly commissioned works by three Canadian composers, during the du Maurier International Jazz Festival in Vancouver, Canada. In the summer of 2003, John traveled to Riga, Latvia to conduct the National Latvian Symphony Orchestra, one of the finest orchestras in the Baltic Regions. A CD recording of this project is titled “Rain in the Forest”, and features two concerti by Mark Armanini.
