Robert Moody has been Music Director of the Winston-Salem Symphony (North Carolina) since 2005, Artistic Director of Arizona Musicfest since 2007, and Music Director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine) since 2008. ... read full bio

Robert Moody has been Music Director of the Winston-Salem Symphony (North Carolina) since 2005, Artistic Director of Arizona Musicfest since 2007, and Music Director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine) since 2008.

Guest conducting appearances in recent seasons include the symphony orchestras of Houston, Indianapolis, Detroit, Seattle, Pacific, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Buffalo, Louisville, and many more.  Summer festival appearances include Santa Fe Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Brevard Music Center, Eastern Music Festival, PortOpera, and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Equally at home in the opera pit, Moody began his career as répétiteur, and later became a house conductor, for the Landestheater Opera in Linz, Austria.  He has gone on to conduct at the opera companies of Santa Fe, North Carolina, Rochester, Hilton Head, and the Brevard Music Center.  He also served as Chorus Master for a production of Verdi’s Otello at the Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Moody served as Associate, then Resident Conductor of The Phoenix Symphony (AZ) from 1998 through 2006. There he conducted a wide variety of concerts, including Classics, Chamber, Pops, Family, Handel's Messiah, and the New Year's Eve gala. His ability to speak with ease from the podium helped new converts to classical music and enthusiasts alike to gain a greater appreciation for orchestral music.  Audiences at his concerts grew considerably during his time in Phoenix.  Moody also founded The Phoenix Symphony Chorus, and for seven years was Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Prior to Phoenix, Maestro Moody served as Associate Conductor for the Evansville (IN) Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director (and founder) of the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.  Moody conducted the first professional performance of a work by the brilliant young composer Mason Bates, now Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and was instrumental in the commissioning and premiere performances of several of his important new works for orchestra.

Maestro Moody has accompanied many of the world’s greatest performing artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Renee Fleming, Denyce Graves, Andre Watts, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Midori, Time for Three and Chris Thile.

His work can be heard on several commercially released compact disc recordings. He collaborated with the Canadian Brass for their "Bach" and "Legends" CDs; he is also the conductor for the CD "4th World," highlighting the music of Native American recording artist R. Carlos Nakai (available on the Canyon Record label); and in 2010, the Winston-Salem Symphony released their performance (live from 2009) of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. A DVD of Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Arizona Musicfest was released in 2012.