Joseph Illick
Joseph Illick has been Executive and Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Concert Association since May 2008. During that time, he has raised SFCA's artistic profile and creative reach as well as guiding it to greatly improved fiscal and administrative health.

For the just-completed 2011-11 season Mr. Illick programmed a wide variety of concerts, including pianist Lang Lang in recital at the Santa Fe Opera, Apollo's Fire performing Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, violinist Robert McDuffie soloing in Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Philip Glass's The American Four Seasons with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, the Grammy Award-nominated Tierney Sutton Band, and Tango Buenos Aires. Other presentations included a touring production of Meredith Willson's The Music Man, The National Philharmonic of Poland, the Setzer-Finckel-Han trio performing both of Schubert's piano trios, The King's Singers, and in recital, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, the Takás String Quartet, guitarist David Russell, and saxophonist Ashu. He led the Santa Fe Concert Association Orchestra for sold-out concerts on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve; the SFCA Chorus and four world-famous soloists joined the orchestra January 31, 2010 for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Mr. Illick also brought the Spanish Brass Quintet from Valencia, Spain, to give a free community concert in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and provide four days of school performances and master classes. In January 2011, he mounted SFCA's second Free Community Opera, Hansel and Gretel, produced at the Scottish Rite Center with a professional cast, orchestra, and production values. There were three free public performances and four performances for Santa Fe Public School students. Illick's popular Notes on Music series offered insights into Schumann, Liszt, and the role of order and chaos in Classical-period music.

Mr. Illick is Music Director and Principal Conductor of Fort Worth Opera, a post which he has held since 2002. During the 2010 festival season, he conducted performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Jorge Martin's Before Night Falls (based on the life and works of gay poet Reinaldo Arenas), both to tremendous critical and audience acclaim. He also led the premiere recording of Martin's opera for the Albany label. During the 2011 festival season, he led Fort Worth Opera performances of Verdi's Il trovatore and Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado, again to full houses and critical applause.

Illick was artistic director of Voices of Change, the new music ensemble of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, for three years. He has also served as artistic director of the Lake George (NY) Opera Festival; as interim artistic director of Greater Miami Opera (now Florida Grand Opera); as music director of the Pittsburgh Opera Theater; and as artistic director of Shreveport (LA) Opera. For Teatro Lirico D'Europa, he has conducted performances of Rigoletto, Tosca, Nabucco, Turandot, and Aida in Copenhagen, Paris, and Siena, as well as New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, and other U.S. cities.

Mr. Illick's other operatic engagements include Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Carolina, San Francisco Opera's Merola program, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Augusta Opera, Skylight Opera Theater, Eugene Opera, Nevada Opera Theater, Minnesota Opera's national tour, Atlantic Opera USA, Stadttheater Aachen in Germany, the Vienna Chamber Opera, and London's Covent Garden Ensemble. He is the conductor of the
2007 world premiere recording of Thomas Pasatieri's opera Frau Margot, and the conductor and pianist on the CD Monologues with soprano Lauren Flanigan and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, both released on the Albany label.

Mr. Illick's symphonic engagements include the Augusta (GA) Symphony, the Austrian Radio Orchestra in Vienna, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Vizcaya Mozart Festival in Miami, Mid-Columbia Symphony (Washington), Naples Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. As a concert pianist he won first prize in the Mid-Somerset Festival in Bath, England, and he is active both as a piano soloist and chamber musician in Europe and in the United States.

As a composer, Mr. Illick won first prize in the 1978 Van Someren Award Competition in England for an original song cycle. His monodrama Emma was performed on Miami Public Television. His symphonic works have been performed in New York, Washington, and Santa Fe. Recent compositions professionally performed include Ulysses for soprano, violin, and piano; Trio in B minor for piano, violin and cello; Genetic Love for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, violin, and double bass; Union for soprano, French horn, and piano; and Fantasy for Violin and Piano. His full-length opera Bliss was workshopped in August 2009 in New York, and in April 2010 in Fort Worth.

Mr. Illick is a strong advocate of outreach and education for all audiences. His lectures and informal talks on classical music, composing and opera, illustrated with live musical examples, are extremely popular – including his "Notes on Music" for SFCA. He has given hundreds of live presentations to audiences around the United States and in Europe, as well as on numerous radio and television broadcasts about classical and symphonic music.

A native of San Francisco, Mr. Illick is married to soprano Virginia Browning. They and their son, Eric, live in Santa Fe.