NSO Music Director
Adam Flatt
Adam Flatt is now in his third season at the helm of the Newport Symphony where he is leading the NSO in exciting, sold-out performances at home in the Performing Arts Center, and is widely credited as bringing the orchestra to new artistic heights.
He first led the NSO as a guest conductor in 1998. After returning in 2006 he was invited to succeed Sylvain Frémaux as the orchestra’s Music Director.
Adam Flatt is a versatile conductor who excels in many kinds of musicmaking. Whether in a formal symphonic concert, an informal performance for families or children, a performance with talented student musicians, or in the opera or ballet theater, Adam’s warm musical style and affable stage presence connects audiences to great music all over the United States.
Adam also serves as Music Director of the Colorado Ballet in Denver and is principal conductor of Emerald City Opera, a summer festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He appears as a guest with many ensembles.
When Marin Alsop invited Mr. Flatt to join the Colorado Symphony as Associate Conductor in 2001 he began a five-year tenure during which he conducted over 250 performances with the orchestra, including classical subscription, parks, outreach, special event performances, and live broadcasts for radio and television. He created and hosted family and educational concerts that reached tens of thousands of children and families in the region.
In 2001 he also began his seven year tenure as Music Director of the Denver Young Artists Orchestra, during which the DYAO created its own training programs for younger musicians, and the organization celebrated its 25th and 30th anniversaries. He led the DYAO in acclaimed concerts at home in Denver and on tours to central Europe and South America. The DYAO under Flatt’s leadership was widely regarded as one of the most exciting and well trained such ensembles in the nation.
His professional career began as Apprentice Conductor of the Oregon Symphony.
Mr. Flatt has guest conducted the orchestras of Alabama, Cheyenne, Dallas, Delaware, Houston, Lubbock, Midland, Missoula, Monterey, Oregon, Sacramento, Saint Louis, San Juan, Santa Rosa, South Carolina, and many others. He has led performances with the major ballet companies of Portland and Salt Lake City as well as that of Denver. Mr. Flatt returns each summer to conduct a production for Emerald City Opera, a festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In addition, he has led productions for Colorado Light Opera, Eugene Opera, and Colorado Symphony collaborations with Central City Opera and Opera Colorado, including the wildly popular “Opera on the Rocks” at Red Rocks.
Adam Flatt has his bachelor’s degree with honors in music from the University of California at Berkeley, and his master’s degree in conducting from the Indiana University School of Music. He studied music for two years in Austria and Germany, and studied at the Aspen Music Festival.
