Meet William Intrilligator:

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William Intriligator strongly believes in the power of symphonic music to transform lives, to unite communities, and to heal the world.

He currently serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra in Iowa and of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra in Wyoming. As an experienced orchestra leader, he has enabled both organizations to reach new audiences, attain new artistic heights, diversify programming, and achieve unprecedented success. He consistently brings a spirit of innovation to programming, an authentic and natural rapport with musicians, and a strong desire for community collaboration.

Intriligator’s 2024-2025 concert season at both orchestras includes carefully curated subscription programs that blend traditional concert favorites with works by women and other under-represented composers. Drawing on a wide and varied repertoire, he can deliver extraordinary interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven, yet also relishes the thrill of conducting programs with rock and country musicians. An eager opera conductor, he has led productions of works by Mozart, Verdi, Bizet, and Puccini, and was previously Assistant Conductor of the Minnesota Opera.

As a guest conductor, Intriligator has led performances with distinguished orchestras across the country, including those of Honolulu, Houston, Minnesota, Richmond, Saint Paul, Savannah, Syracuse, and Tulsa. In 2017, he made his European conducting debut in Italy with the Bari Symphony Orchestra. After the success of that concert, the orchestra immediately invited him to return to conduct two more programs.

Intriligator previously served as Staff Conductor at the Minnesota Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Southwest German Radio Orchestra. He was a regular guest conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for five seasons while living in the Twin Cities, conducting the SPCO in educational concerts, family concerts, regional tours, and concerts of new music.

This season, Intriligator celebrates his 25th anniversary as Music Director and Conductor of the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of the season include a fully staged production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake with the Heartland Ballet, two world premiere commissions--a new flute concerto by Timothy Hagen and Michael Gilbertson's Symphony No. 1--and special appearances by Zuill Bailey, Kira Guloien, Rachel Barton Pine, the rapper Wxlley, and the "Really Inventive Stuff" acting troupe.

During his tenure with the DSO, Intriligator has presented many extraordinary productions including five staged operas, four staged ballets, and a staged production of West Side Story. He has worked very closely with artistic partners The Dubuque Chorale and the Heartland Ballet on a regular basis. He has spearheaded composer festivals (Mozart, Shostakovich, Beethoven), a multi-cultural festival, partnerships with Voices Art Festival and Bluff Strokes Art Festival, new educational initiatives, and concerts with world-renowned violinist Midori as part of the Midori Residency Program. He and the DSO accompanied musical prodigy Ethan Bortnick in a concert that became a popular nationally broadcast PBS television special, “The Power of Music."

In Cheyenne, Intriligator has also initiated new concert ideas reaching more audiences through presentations such as films with live orchestra, Symphony Underground with regional bands, Symphony at Sunset, ballet productions, family matinees, multi-media productions, collaborations with local and regional choruses, a season-long exploration of women composers, and a multi-year Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss exploration. He has performed oboe concertos with the orchestra in its Baroque in the Barn series. Many will remember his unique productions with Cheyenne-native Sarah Hartmann: Music of the Spheres and Star-Crossed Lovers, the latter combined concert, opera, ballet, and theater in a staged retelling of Romeo and Juliet.

Intriligator believes that one of the most important roles of a regional orchestra is to promote local, native composers and performers. In Dubuque and Cheyenne, his orchestras have commissioned and premiered over 30 new works by such composers, as well as featured many local and regional performers as soloists.

Originally from Santa Monica, California, Intriligator earned many accolades as an oboist before turning to conducting. He graduated with highest honors in music from Princeton University. He then studied conducting in France with Charles Bruck and in Germany and Austria with Michael Gielen. He earned his masters and doctoral degrees in orchestral conducting at the University of Minnesota. Intriligator was a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival for two summers and attended the Pierre Monteux School for four summers. He was also a protégée of Christian Thielemann in Germany, Italy, and the U.S.

In 2013, Intriligator won the Dubuque County Fine Arts Society's Elisha Darlin Award in recognition of his impact on the cultural landscape of Dubuque and the Tri-State region. In 2014, Intriligator and the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra received the Dubuque365 Impact Award in Music, recognizing the many ways he and the orchestra reach out to the community.