Maestro Darko Butorac

Praised by the Westdeutsche Zeitung for his “exceptional combination of passion, elegance and well- timed pacing”, Darko Butorac has established himself as a conductor in demand with orchestras both in Europe and the Americas. He currently serves as the Music Director of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and the Asheville Symphony.

Notable guest conducting engagements include performances with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Neuss and the Georgische Kammerorchester Ingolstadt (Germany), the Belgrade Philharmonic (Serbia),  the Tallinn Sinfonietta (Estonia), the Rubinstein Philharmonic of Lodz (Poland),  the Xiamen Symphony (China), and the Slovenian Radio and Television Orchestra, among others.

He has appeared at such prestigious venues as the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Gran Teatro Nacional of Lima, Belgrade’s Kolarac Hall, the Teatro Magnani in Italy, and the Tartu, Aspen and St. Olav summer music festivals. From 2009 to 2013 he served as the principal conductor of the Fidenza Opera Festival. In January he led the 2022 European Capital of Culture Opening Gala concert in Novi Sad, featuring clarinet virtuoso Andreas Ottensammer.

Distinguished collaborations include soprano Renee Fleming, pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Jon Kimura Parker, tenor Lawrence Brownlee, cellist Colin Carr, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and Oscar-winning actor J.K.Simmons among others. 

Highlights of the 2022-23 season include performances with banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, violinist Stefan Jackiw,  a world premiere of Joel Thompson’s “Walk in Dignity”, as well as collaborations with Kishi Bashi, Morgan James and Ben Folds.

As the Grand Prix Laureate and Gold Medalist of the Fourth International Vakhtang Jordania Conducting Competition Butorac was invited to conduct orchestras across four continents. He was also selected to participate at the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview hosted by the League of American Orchestras and the Jacksonville Symphony.

Butorac served as the Music Director of the Missoula Symphony from 2007-2019, marking a period of tremendous artistic growth of the orchestra. He challenged the ensemble with a broader repertoire leading to greater engagement with the community, and frequently sold-out performances.

Butorac is also in demand as a public speaker on leadership. His TEDx Montana talk on the “Language of Conducting” has over 150K views on YouTube. He has appeared as a speaker on behalf of Brighthouse, a division of BCG, and was the headline speaker at the Birla International Leadership Summit in Bangkok in 2018.

He is an avid traveler, having visited almost seventy countries, and is passionate about discovering the world and bringing people together through the beauty of music.

For more information on Butorac, please visit his website.