Antonia Joy Wilson

Guest Conductor on May 3, 2009

As First Prize Winner of the International Conducting Competition in Mexico, Antonia Joy Wilson is a professional conductor of international acclaim. Antonia was invited to perform for Maestro Claudio Abbado after she made her professional conducting debut with Colorado Symphony Orchestra at the age of twenty-one. Then, at age twenty-three, Maestro Leonard Slatkin appointed Antonia as Exxon Affiliate Artists Conducting Assistant with Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. She conducted sixty concerts annually and helped edit their weekly concert recordings for NPR.

Ms. Wilson is the newly appointed Artistic Director & Conductor with Midland Symphony Orchestra in Michigan. Gifted as both a symphonic and choral conductor, Antonia has been the Founder, Artistic Director & Conductor of Mostly Mahler Orchestra and Chorus in California and of Le Festivale Orchestra and Chorus in Colorado. Dr. Wilson is also Principal Guest Conductor with San Francisco Sinfonietta. Recently, she was Resident Principal Guest Conductor with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Wilson’s tenure there involved recordings, concerts, and tours throughout Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Serbia, Macedonia, and Turkey among others.

Antonia recently conducted the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra at the world famous Teatro Colón. She also guest conducted Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra in Columbia. Ms. Wilson was awarded two European prizes which garnered her three guest appearances in the Czech Republic. Dr. Wilson is a regular guest conductor with the Romanian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and Academic Choir. She has also guest conducted orchestras in Russia, Hungary, Poland, India, and China.

In addition to guest conducting many American orchestras throughout the United States, Antonia has been reinvited to guest conduct the Colorado Symphony numerous times since her debut. A Fellowship Conductor at Aspen Music Festival, Dr. Wilson was Assistant Conductor of Concert Orchestra and taught conducting for composers. She was also honored as a top finalist in three American Symphony Orchestra League Conductors Workshops.

Ms. Wilson was the Artistic/Music Director of the Imperial Symphony Orchestra in Florida. Antonia was also the Music Director and Conductor with the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra in Colorado for five years. Together, they produced a surround-sound compact disc featuring Respighi’s Pines of Rome. Dr. Wilson has also been the Music Director and Conductor of orchestras in New Jersey, Maryland, Tennessee, and California.

Born in England of American parents, Antonia began studying the violin at age nine. She received a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. Antonia worked with Maestro Daniel Lewis during her Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Southern California. Following her graduate conducting studies at Yale School of Music, Antonia completed a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Since her debut as the youngest woman to conduct a major American orchestra, Ms. Wilson has gone on to an extensive national and international musical career in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.