Dr. Matthew Mainella is Music Director of the Utah Medical Orchestra, an ensemble comprised of students, professionals, faculty, and staff in the healthcare community in Salt Lake City. Throughout his varied career, Dr. Mainella has led professional, college, community, and youth orchestras, wind bands, choirs, and stage productions. He has enjoyed collaborations with many Salt Lake City-based ensembles and artists, including the Salt Lake Symphony, Westminster College Opera, Sinfonia Salt Lake, the University of Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble, and Utah Philharmonic. Dr. Mainella served as Visiting Orchestra Director at Weber State University in 2020, where he led a project to create a virtual “Pomp and Circumstance” concert that was played for thousands in attendance at WSU’s commencement in lieu of live performance in the midst of the COVID pandemic. In 2019, he led the Salt Lake Symphony in a rousing performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.Dr. Mainella has conducted at Brigham Young University, led several world premieres at the University of Utah, and has been featured as guest conductor in the American Guild of Organists’ Western Region convention. Dr. Mainella served asPrincipal Conductor of the University of Utah Campus Symphony, Assistant Conductor of the Valdosta (GA) Symphony Orchestra, and Musical Director of the Peach State Summer Theatre, where he led performances of The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Les Misérables, and A Little Night Music, among others.

Dr. Mainella is deeply devoted to music education at all levels and enjoys collaborating with students and community orchestras on a regular basis. He has led orchestra and conducting master classes with the Skyward Symphony, Olympus High School, and the Granite Youth Symphony Orchestras. Dr. Mainella was a guest clinician and adjudicator at the 2022 Wyoming Music Educators Association’s Southwest District Music Festival, where he was invited to coach numerous large ensembles and solo performers. While at the University of Utah, he was instrumental in launching the Conducting Master Class Series and led the musicians of the Utah Philharmonia and Campus Symphony through the core orchestral repertoire. During his time in Georgia, he conducted and coached middle and high school students of the South Georgia String Project. A passionate and engaging teacher, he has taught music courses at Weber State University, Salt Lake Community College, Valdosta State University, South Georgia State College, and Georgia Military College.

Mainella earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Utah, the Master of Music Performance degree from Valdosta State University, and the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Connecticut. During his time at UConn, he produced a full-length studio album featuring original compositions. Dr. Mainella resides in Salt Lake City, where he maintains a busy music-editing and arranging studio. Recent compositions and arrangements include a setting of Walt Whitman’s Song of the Open Road for choir and orchestra, a setting of three scenes from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, and new arrangements of favorite Christmas carols Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, and Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. He also enjoys playing the trumpet and/or piano when the mood strikes. In his fleeting spare time, he loves to cook, camp, hike, fiddle with his Pentax 6×7, and chase thunderstorms. His podcast, Conductors’ Brew, combines two of his greatest passions: good coffee and great classical music, and can be found on most streaming services.

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May 2024 – Discard all previous versions