Jeffrey Rink, Music Director and Conductor

“...Rink conducts a World-Class Concert Otello...” said the Boston Globe, “Boston’s pre-eminent Verdi conductor” said the Boston Phoenix, “...Rink affirmed that he is a conductor who understands and faithfully the observes the intentions of the composer, musically elegant, precise and efficient without excessive movement...” said Switzerland’s La Liberté, and Mexico City’s El Economista called him “...among the best of his generation of conductors...”.

Recipent of the 2005 Jacopo Peri Award for outstanding contributions to the art of Opera, Mr. Rink is the newly appointed Mattie Kelly Distinguished Chair in Orchestral Music and Music Director of the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. As guest conductor he recently led a production of La Bohème with the Maryland Opera Theatre which was praised by the Washington Post as “ good as any "Bohème" you are likely to see this side of the Metropolitan Opera or Covent Garden.” Mr. Rink recently made his conducting debuts with The New Japan Philharmonic and the Philharmonic of Tokyo and in 2002 conducted a sold out performance of Chinese and Western music in Carnegie Hall. Mr. Rink recently concluded his eighteen-year tenure as Music Director of the Chorus pro Musica, and thirteen-year tenure as Music Director of the Newton Symphony Orchestra. While in Boston he was also Director of Orchestral Activities at the Longy School, and is currently celebrating his fourteenth season as Music Director of Concert Opera Boston. In Fall of 2000 he conducted to high critical acclaim the world premiere of Uruguayan composer León Biriotti’s Sinfonía da Requiem which was voted as one of the top 3 Classical performances in Boston for 2000. Mr. Rink’s tenure with Chorus pro Musica was marked by numerous significant contributions to opera in concert version, including performances of Carmen, Faust, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Turandot, Otello, Macbeth, Nabucco, La Traviata and Mefistofele. He has also conducted notable performances with the Handel and Haydn Society of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Handel’s Messiah. Under Mr. Rink’s eight year directorship of the New England Philharmonic the orchestra was nationally recognized in three of eight seasons by ASCAP for its adventuresome programming and commitment to new music, having played over twenty premieres.

In 1986 he was appointed by Christopher Hogwood as Assistant Conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society, a position that he held until the summer of 1990. He has received high praise from the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, New Yorker Magazine, the London Musical Times, Poland’s Glos Wybrzeza, El Economista in Mexico City, the Manila Standard and La Liberté in Switzerland .

In 1993 he made his Asian debut conducting concerts in Manila that featured Metropolitan Opera soprano Barbara Kilduff. Since the beginning of 1996, Mr. Rink has twice lead the L’Orchestre de Fribourg (Switzerland), the Nashua Symphony Orchestra (New Hampshire), the Tuscaloosa Symphony (Alabama) , the Polish Baltic State National Philharmonic in Poland where he was the only American selected to participate in Gdansks’ millennium celebration, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Telemann Chamber Orchestra in Japan and the Filarmónica de Querétero in Mexico.

In November of 2000 Mr. Rink led a highly successful performance of Bach’s St. John Passion with the Ensemble of Tokyo and in March of 2002 conducted acclaimed performances of The Magic Flute at the New National Theatre, Tokyo. Since the fall of 2002 Mr. Rink has twice led programs with both the Carlos Chavez Symphony and Chamber Orchestra of the Teatro de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. During the past few seasons he has conducted the North American premieres of Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ and Roméo et Juliette with period instruments and in January 2006 appeared as a guest conductor with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. In September 2006 Mr. Rink conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic in an all-Berlioz program featuring the recently- discovered Messe Solonnelle. In June of 2006 he led the Boston premiere of Verdi’s Attila and in the 2003 and 2004 seasons he served as a cover conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra assisting James Levine, James Conlon, Hans Graf, Robert Spano, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Sir Colin Davis and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

In addition to his work with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra this season Mr. Rink will lead performances with the Chamber Orchestra of the Teatro de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Bach’s B minor Mass in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and a performance of Puccini’s Turandot in Boston’s Jordan Hall.