Music Director​/Conductor

Location: Lake Placid & Adirondack Region, New York

Position Status: Summer seasonal (Six weeks; July-August), with some off-season artistic responsibilities as described below.

Compensation: $30,000-$35,000;
Lodging is provided in the Lake Placid area during the summer season.

Final date to receive applications: Applications considered on a rolling basis with a final.

Anticipated start date: Fall 2027

The Lake Placid Sinfonietta seeks an exceptional musician and visionary, engaging leader to be music director and shape the Orchestra of the Adirondacks’ future. This unique orchestra is a close-knit family of dedicated and talented musicians from across the country who come together to serve the Adirondack community as the leading performing arts ensemble in New York’s North Country. The music director is responsible for setting the artistic vision of the Sinfonietta, crafting engaging programs and choosing repertoire, and serving as a public ambassador for classical music in the Lake Placid community.

The Sinfonietta seeks a music director who respects, supports, and leverages the musicianship of the orchestra and who is able to foster a sense of community not only among the musicians, but also with the Lake Placid community.

The music director collaborates with the Board of Directors and Executive Director, playing a supporting artistic role in deepening community relationships, including with donors, and in fundraising activities.

As conductor of the Sinfonietta, the music director is in residence in Lake Placid during the six-week summer season, with housing provided. Additionally, the music director is expected to be in Lake Placid up to two times during the off-season for chamber concerts and community engagement opportunities.

Now in its 108th season, the Sinfonietta is a professional 20-member chamber orchestra based in Lake Placid, New York, with a long tradition of artistic excellence and community outreach. The orchestra traces its roots to 1917, when a small ensemble of Boston Symphony musicians began playing at the Lake Placid Club in the summer. During World War II, a group of musicians from the Rochester Philharmonic and Eastman School of Music built on those roots to form the Lake Placid Club Sinfonietta, which grew into a premier ensemble, performing major works scaled for chamber settings.

Since 1983, the Lake Placid Sinfonietta has been a community-supported non-profit that seeks to unleash the power of music to entertain, educate and inspire people of all ages. The orchestra is now in an exciting period of growth and transition, seeking to build on its history to expand its reach and programming.

The Sinfonietta currently presents a six-week summer season – and increasingly, additional off-season chamber performances – and is a cornerstone of the region’s cultural life, serving both local residents and seasonal visitors. The Sinfonietta maintains a music library of nearly 2,000 works, including historic scores and custom arrangements for the small ensemble. A defining feature of the orchestra’s artistic identity is the presentation of major symphonic repertoire reimagined for chamber orchestra.

The orchestra’s core instrumentation is 1-1-1-1 / 2-1-0-0 / 1 percussion/timpani / 4-3-2-2-1, with flexibility to engage additional musicians for larger programs (commonly second clarinet, trombone, additional percussion, harp, or keyboards). Musicians join the Sinfonietta from across the country, representing leading orchestras and universities.

The summer season includes three distinct concert series:

• Park Series: Free outdoor concerts on the shores of Mirror Lake featuring light classics and pops programs. Concerts run approximately one hour.
• Adirondack Series: Runout concerts in regional communities, often presented in partnership with local organizations or schools. Programs are approximately one hour.
• Symphony Series: Ticketed concerts in Lake Placid highlighting major classical repertoire. These programs typically run about 1.5 hours.

Lake Placid is a world-renowned mountain village in the Adirondack Park…