New Conductors Orchestra

An Orchestra Like No Other

Who We Are

Founded in 2019, the New Conductors Orchestra (NCO) is a community orchestra unlike any other.

There is no set conductor; instead we engage emerging talent in the conducting world to lead dynamic high-level performances of works by both classical and living composers.

We hope to cultivate America’s next generation of upcoming  and diverse musicians, bridging the vast gap in the music world between a conductor’s academy training and their professional careers.  

NCO’s core is its orchestra members, who include teachers, lawyers, arts administrators, financiers, startup founders, musicians, and more. The orchestra prides itself on being a self-run, collective partnership in order to achieve an exemplary level of performance from both the conductors and the group. The ensemble is guided by its lead conductor, renowned maestro and educator Mark Powell.

The orchestra gets the versatility of working with the world’s next top music directors. The audience gets a fresh and thrilling new look into the symphonic repertoire.

We look forward to seeing you at a concert!

 It is a powerful experience to hear new interpretations of great masterpieces, but in order to grow and nurture classical music we must support and promote rising musical talent. 

The NCO is dedicated to featuring works by living composers whose repertoire might not be known to audiences. We showcase at least one such work in every concert cycle. Where there are soloist opportunities, we seek out young performers to help them launch their nascent careers in music.

The Institute for Composer Diversity reported in 2019-2020, professional orchestras programmed only 8% of their season with pieces by women, 6% by composers of underrepresented heritages, and 16% by living composers.

What We Play

NCO is dedicated to changing the landscape of orchestral music.

The Membership Experience

The NCO is a self-governing body and aims to be as collaborative as possible.

Orchestra members are invited to shape their own musical experience by adding their input for ticket prices, fundraising, performance venues, marketing, feedback regarding conductors and compositions, and more.

Mark Powell is wearing a maroon blazer and smiling at the camera

Lead Conductor Mark Powell

Mark E. M. L. Powell, DMA serves as lead conductor for the New Conductors Orchestra and is Senior Lecturer and Director of Orchestral Activities in the Arthur Satz Department of Music at the University of Rochester, where he conducts the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras and teaches conducting. A Ford Foundation American Conductors Prize winner, he was the founding music director of ARCO, the American Radio Chamber Orchestra and is currently music director of the New York New Music Collective (NYNMC) and a principal of Modern Musical Arts. Powell made his European conducting debut at the Korsholm Music Festival in Finland and his Concertgebouw debut with the Netherlands Radio Symphony. A veteran of the Malko and Besançon Conducting competitions, he was subsequently invited to Tanglewood by Jorma Panula and was one of sixteen conductors worldwide, invited by Peter Eötvös, to the Kondrashin Masterclass in Holland. His most recent graduate students have gone on to successes at Peabody, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mannes, the Boston Conservatory, and Aspen.

Augusta Read Thomas dedicated her 2021 work Dancing Stars to Powell, writing the open instrumentation piece for recording and production by individual musicians, isolated during the pandemic. Recent guest conducting and adjudication work has taken him to the Ohio All-State Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon University, the Interlochen Arts Academy, the University of Oregon, the University of Alabama, the College of New Jersey, Sam Houston State University, and Grinnell College. He has served as visiting associate professor in the conducting and ensembles department at the Eastman School of Music and as associate professor and director of orchestral studies at the Aaron Copland School of Music. Over the past four seasons, he has delivered lectures on rehearsal and performance practice for the Oxford Conducting Institute, and has published invited reviews in The Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal.

“Part of the value of this orchestra to the process of artistic growth is their immediacy of experience, their courage, and their faith in one another. I believe there is no greater laboratory for life skills than an ensemble rehearsal. What young conductor wouldn’t want that kind of advantage?”

— Mark Powell

Founding Members