Dr. Allan Dennis Conductor        
|
© Highland Park Strings,
All Rights Reserved.
Dr. Allan Dennis brings a rich heritage of experience and energy to the Highland Park Strings. He is the Founder & President and conductor of Midwest Young Artists Conservatory Concert and Symphony Orchestras, with decades of experience motivating, rehearsing and reaching young people. He is formerly the Music Director of the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra and was recognized as the 2001 Music Director of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras, as well as awarded the 2001 Heidi Castleman Award by Chamber Music America, given as recognition for "excellence in chamber music teaching."
Dr. Dennis also has extensive experience conducting musical shows, operas and ballets and is highly sought after as a guest conductor for festivals and all-state orchestras. His conducting teachers have included Gunther Schuller, Harold Farbermann, and David Effron. Dr. Dennis received his doctorate, with distinction, from Indiana University in Bloomington, and bachelor's and master's degrees from the State University of New York at Fredonia. He studied at the Eastman School of Music and received a Performer's Certificate from the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2017, he was awarded the Cultural Leadership Award by the Illinois Council of Orchestras, one of only seven Illinois arts leaders in the past 25 years to be recognized.
|
He studied at the internationally renowned Tanglewood Institute in Lennox, MA in 2000. In 1996, he was also chosen as both an active conductor at the Festival in Sandpoint, ID, and a Fellow at the Conductors' Institute in South Carolina. 