David Commanday is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Heartland Festival Orchestra, Music Director of the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, and Director of Orchestral Activities and Instructor of Cello at Eastern Illinois University.

 Maestro Commanday began his professional conducting career as Music Director of the Boston Ballet, performing with the company and distinguished guest soloists.  Commanday’s work with the Boston Ballet included international tours throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Great Britain, and Mexico, as well as coast-to-coast tours of the United States.  These tours featured Rudolf Nureyev dancing in Giselle, Don Quixote, and Swan Lake.

Commanday is known for inspired concert programming – combining cross-currents and contrasts, or exploring imaginative themes. A broad range of styles, music periods, and genres gives variety and depth to his concert programs. Adept as a speaker, he often introduces, explains, or surprises with commentary – making for a relaxed, spontaneous vibe in the concert hall. 

 Maestro Commanday has performed with orchestras in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North America – among them the Israel Philharmonic, Belgian Radio Orchestra. Vienna Pro Arte Orchestra, and the Arad Philharmonic; the Singapore NYO; and here at home the National Symphony, the American Symphony; the Louisville Orchestra, the South Carolina Philharmonic, and the Boca Raton, Eastern Connecticut, Seattle, Atlanta, Flagstaff and Richmond Symphonies. 

 He has conducted for many ballet companies, including Orlando, Kansas City, Washington, Richmond, Peoria, and Sacramento, and Joffrey Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Ballet West.  He conducted Victoria Morgan’s Cinderella by Orlando Ballet and the Orlando Philharmonic, and most recently led the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in the Oklahoma City Ballet’s 2023 performances of The Nutcracker.

 Commanday’s musical training began with piano and cello, followed by studies at Harvard College (A.B. cum laude) and Boston University.  He trained in conducting at the University of Vienna, where he earned the Austrian Staatsdiplom with unanimous distinction.   His professional orchestral posts have included Assistant Conductor of the San Diego Symphony, Music Director of Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras and Peoria Symphony Orchestra, and Associate Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. 

 Commanday has taught at Harvard University, Boston University, MIT, the Longy School of Music, Tanglewood Music Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Montclair State University, Eureka College, and Webster University. 

 Commanday also performs as cellist in chamber music, collaborating, among others, with artists Bobby McFerrin, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Matt Haimovitz, Adam Neiman, Jason Vieaux, Elena Urioste, Stefan Milenkovich, Michael Brown, and Yo-Yo Ma.