Maestro Bernard Rubenstein

Bernard Rubenstein, Music Director of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, has held many important conducting posts, including Music Director of the Tulsa Philharmonic, an orchestra he developed with the energy and expertise that made it such an outstanding ensemble. Rubenstein was also Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and has guest conducted orchestras and operas in Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Hartford, St. Paul, Austin, and Los Angeles, in addition to appearances in Canada, Central America, Mexico, Europe and Asia.

In 2009 Rubenstein returned to Cuba to conduct the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in Havana and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente in Santiago de Cuba, his seventh conducting visit to that country. He will return to Texas this coming season for performances with the Metropolitan Classical Ballet, performing with both the Fort Worth Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony. Repertory with this company, with Russian stars from the Bolshoi Ballet, will include Khachaturian's Spartacus and Stravinsky/Ballanchine Apollo. Rubenstein has conducted repeat performances of the Grammy nominated CD, The Five Seasons, with Eddie Daniels and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; with the Pro Musica Chamber orchestra of Columbus;  the New Mexico Symphony in Albuquerque; and the Strings in the Mountains Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Other recent performances include concerts with the Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra at New York's Town Hall, in a program including the world premier of the Violin Concerto No. 1 by Cuban composer, Jorge Marín.

The Santa Fe Opera re-engaged Rubenstein as Music Director for the The Beggar’s Opera, following his conducting of their highly successful production of Benjamin Britten’s opera, Noah’s Flood. Chosen by the United States State Department as a cultural specialist, Rubenstein guest conducted the Mongolian National Opera during January and February 2000 in the first all-Asian performances of George Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess. Rubenstein was also Music Director of the San Juan Symphony, an outstanding regional ensemble that performed in two cities in adjacent States: Durango, Colorado and Farmington, New Mexico.

Recent opera performances include Puccini's La Boheme with Teatro Lírico of Holguin, Cuba; performances of La Boheme with the Emerald City Opera in Steamboat Springs, Colorado; and performances of Madama Butterfly and The Magic Flute with the Fargo-Moorhead Opera.

Rubenstein's other guest engagements include a return to Germany for concerts with the Bamberg Chamber Orchestra; return engagements with the Monterey Symphony in California; the Tulsa Philharmonic and the Santa Fe Symphony; performances with the Reno Philharmonic (NV); the Austin Symphony (TX); concerts and recording with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; the Symphony Orchestra of Bilbao, Spain; the Hamilton Philharmonic in Canada; the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; the Anchorage Symphony in Alaska; the National Symphonies of Costa Rica and Puerto Rico; the Breckenridge Chamber Orchestra in Colorado; the Santa Barbara Symphony with renowned pianist Alicia de Larrocha; the Eastman Opera Theater in performances of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte; and the League of Composers/ISCM “Then and Now” series at Lincoln Center in New York City.

A Fulbright award and Martha Baird Rockefeller grant took Rubenstein to Europe where he conducted for the Frankfurt Opera, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony, and the radio orchestras of Austria, Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne. After receiving recognition as a prize winner in the international conducting competition “Serate Musicale Fiorentino” in Florence, Italy, Rubenstein was chosen as a conductor with the Stuttgart Opera.

Rubenstein graduated with distinction from the Eastman School of Music and received his Master’s degree from Yale University School of Music. Among his teachers are the eminent conductors Max Rudolf, Rafael Kubelik, William Steinberg, Franco Ferrara, Michael Gielen, and Pierre Boulez.