Conductor

In January of 1998, Peter Bay was named Music Director and Conductor of the Austin Symphony and has been Music Director of the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, OR since 1993.

Maestro Bay’s guest appearances have included the National, St. Louis, Houston, Dallas, Baltimore, New Mexico, North Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia, West Virginia, Colorado, Hawaii, Richmond, Alabama, Canton, Bochum (Germany), Carinthian (Austria), Lithuanian National Symphonies, the Minnesota and Algarve (Portugal) Orchestras, the Louisiana, Buffalo, Rhode Island and Tulsa Philharmonics, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Eastman and Aspen Opera Theaters, and the Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center. Summer music festival appearances have included Aspen (CO), Grant Park and Ravinia (IL), Round Top (TX), OK Mozart (OK) and Skaneateles (NY).

Other positions held by Mr. Bay have included Music Director of the Erie Philharmonic, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Breckenridge Music Festival (CO) and four different conducting posts with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Richmond Symphony in Virginia. Bay and the Richmond Symphony recorded the US premiere performance of Britten’s "The Sword in the Stone" for Opus One Records. His most recent recording, "Voices," features the percussion group. NEXUS, with the Rochester Philharmonic, and can be found on the Nexus CD label.

A native of Washington, DC, Mr. Bay is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the Peabody Institute. In 1994, he was one of two conductors selected to participate in the Leonard Bernstein American Conductors Program. He was also the first prize winner of the 1980 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Young Conductors Competition and a prize winner of the 1987 Leopold Stokowski Competition sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra in New York. Bay made his Austin Lyric Opera debut in January 2002 with Andre Previn’s "A Streetcar Named Desire," conducted Verdi’s "La Traviata" in November 2002, Puccini’s "Turandot" in November 2003, and Mozart’s "The Marriage of Figaro" in April 2005. In the 2006-2007 season he returns to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for subscription concerts, and appears as a guest conductor at the Music In The Mountains festival in Durango, CO.