Biography
William Intriligator currently serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra in Wyoming and the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra in Iowa. He is an experienced orchestra leader whose musicianship, leadership, personality, and passion have enabled both organizations to reach new audiences, attain new artistic heights, diversify programming, and achieve unprecedented success.
Intriligator’s 2022-2023 concert season at both orchestras includes carefully curated programs that blend traditional concert favorites with works by women and under-represented composers, including several premieres. All season long he will collaborate with outstanding guest artists such as pianists Sara Buechner, Michael Roll, and Ilya Yakushev, violinists Eleanor Bartsch, Ariana Kim, and Michael Ludwig, cellist Philip Bergman, and more unusual soloists such as the Heartland Marimba Quartet, French Hornist Ben Shafer, and electric guitarist D.J. Sparr.
Some 2022-2023 season highlights include the world premiere of Laura Schwendinger's Nightingales for two solo violins and orchestra, as well as the world premiere of Kevin Romanski's Concerto for Marimba Quartet and Orchestra, both with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra. Also with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, he will present an all Latin-American program in an effort to reach new audiences from the local Latinx community. In Cheyenne, some highlights include Home Alone, the entire film with live orchestra and choruses, another Symphony Underground featuring band Ten Cent Stranger and the orchestra, and the local premiere of Michael Daugherty's Gee's Bend for electric guitar and orchestra.
As a guest conductor, Intriligator has led performances with many distinguished orchestras across the country, including those of Honolulu, Houston, Minnesota, Richmond, Saint Paul, Savannah, Syracuse, and Tulsa. He made his European conducting debut in Italy with the Bari Symphony Orchestra, after which the orchestra immediately invited him to return and conduct two more concerts.
Intriligator previously served as Apprentice Conductor and Staff Conductor at the Minnesota Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Minnesota Opera, and Assistant Conductor of the Southwest German Radio Orchestra. As a regular guest conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in the 1990s, he conducted the orchestra for five seasons in educational concerts, family concerts, regional tours, and concerts of new music.
Recent projects with the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra include film with live orchestra, staged ballet productions, the introduction of family matinee programs, beginning Symphony Underground in which bands join the orchestra, performances of works by local composers, a season-long celebration of women composers, round-table events, multi-media productions, a Latin-American program, and new educational initiatives. He led the orchestra on a multi-year Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss exploration and was featured as oboist in the Marcello Oboe Concerto, Mozart Oboe Quartet, and Beethoven Trio. One of his most innovative and memorable programs was a partnership with stage director and Cheyenne-native Sarah Hartmann entitled “Star-Crossed Lovers” which combined concert, opera, ballet, and theater in a staged retelling of Romeo and Juliet.
During his tenure with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra Intriligator has presented many special programs including five staged operas, three staged ballet productions, and a staged production of West Side Story. Other DSO projects have included composer festivals, a multi-cultural festival, concerts with visual artists in the Millwork District, concerts with local rock and country musicians, performing as oboe soloist with the orchestra, concerts with world-renowned violinist Midori as part of the Midori Residency Program, and accompanying musical prodigy Ethan Bortnick in a concert that became a popular PBS television special, “The Power of Music.” Audiences have reacted very favorably over the years to his themed concert seasons, such as Music & The Arts, The Four Elements, Music & Dance, and Youth. The 2022-2023 season theme is Winged & Wild.
Intriligator feels very strongly that one of the roles of a regional orchestra is to promote local composers and performers, and with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra and Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra he has commissioned and performed over thirty new works by composers from those regions, as well as featured local and native 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, then studied conducting in France with Charles Bruck and in Germany and Austria with Michael Gielen. He returned to the U.S. to earn his masters and doctoral degrees in orchestral conducting at the University of Minnesota. He was a conducting fellow twice at the Aspen Music Festival and attended the Pierre Monteux School four summers.
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. In 2014, Intriligator and the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra received the Dubuque365 Impact Award in Music, recognizing the many ways he and the orchestra impact the community.