Music Director/Conductor

Philip Bauman, Music Director / Conductor
Maintaining an active schedule in both operatic and symphonic music, Philip J. Bauman continues to build a distinctive career as a dynamic and sensitive interpreter. In addition to frequent engagements as a guest conductor, Mr. Bauman is Music Director/Conductor of the LaPorte County Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Chicago Brass Choir. For the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Bauman is Assistant Conductor and conductor of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Youth Orchestra.

A native of Battle Creek, Michigan, Mr. Bauman made his symphonic conducting debut leading the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra and was subsequently engaged for future performances. In 1983 he founded the Camera da Musica Concert Society–a chamber music concert series and professional orchestra–noted for innovative programming, stylistic interpretation, and high performance standards.

Through his work with Chicago Opera Theater, The Opera Factory, and Light Opera Works and the Jarvis Conservatory, Mr. Bauman has gained a reputation as a highly respected conductor of the stage. His 1993 performances of Four Saints in Three Acts with Chicago Opera Theater were unanimously praised by the press. John Von Rhein, music critic of the Chicago Tribune said of his performances, "Philip J. Bauman drew a clean, buoyant and lively reading from the 21 piece orchestra, coordinating stage and pit very well. The final scenes in fact were very moving."

Mr. Bauman made his podium debut with Chicago Opera Theater in 1989, when as assistant conductor, he led the season's final performance of Romeo and Juliet on five minutes notice. Since that dramatic and successful debut, his ten year association with the company has seen him conduct highly acclaimed performances of Where the Wild Things Are, Carousel, Count Ory (Rossini), La Traviata, A Waterbird Talk (Argento) and The Medium with Metropolitan Opera star Mignon Dunn. In 1994, Mr. Bauman once again stepped in on short notice, this time for the Elgin Symphony and conducted a subscription concert for the ailing Margaret Hillis to much acclaim.

Mr. Bauman has conducted Adios a la Bohemia, Bohemios, La Purpura de la Rosa and two productions of Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve for The Opera Factory, Desert Song and Princess Ida for Light Opera Works, and Attila, Don Carlo, Lucrezia Borgia and the Verdi Requiem with the da Corneto Opera Ensemble. He has conducted The Saffron Rose, La Revoltosa, Agua, Azucarillos y Aguardiente, Doña Francisquita, La Alegria de la Huerta and Gigantes y Cabezudos for the Jarvis Conservatory in Napa, California, El Barbero de Sevilla for the Amarillo Opera in Texas and The Opera Factory in addition to traveling to Idaho to conduct Boise Opera in productions of Carousel and South Pacific.

In the Chicago area he has served as music director and conductor of The Opera Factory (IL), the Lake Shore Symphony Orchestra and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra, associate conductor of the Elgin Symphony and director of orchestras at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park (IL) . He has also conducted the da Corneto Opera Ensemble, Indiana Opera North, the Downers Grove Oratorio Society, North Shore Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Youth Symphony Orchestra, DuPage Repertory Theater, and Circle Theater of Forest Park. He holds a master's degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in music theory from Western Michigan University.