Music Director • Conductor • Pianist • Composer • Conducting Change Leader
David Stewart Wiley has conducted such distinguished symphonies as Atlanta, Buffalo, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Saint Louis, Oregon, Honolulu, and Utah, among others. Wiley’s music has taken him to dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe including Italy, Germany, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. David Stewart Wiley has served as Music Director and Conductor of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra since 1996; the RSO has undergone a remarkable period of artistic growth, expansion and innovation under his extraordinary artistic leadership. This past year, Roanoke City Council honored him as Roanoke’s “Citizen of the Year” for his outstanding service and outreach to diverse communities, separate from his professional duties. He previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Wiley also served as Music Director & Conductor of the Long Island Philharmonic from 2001 until last year, and continues to travel regularly to NY to conduct programs as the new Principal Conductor of the Long Island Concert Orchestra, as well as guest conducting other orchestras and festivals in the NYC area.
Wiley’s energetic and inspiring leadership with the RSO since 1996 has been a remarkable success story, with consistently stellar reviews, a diverse and impressive list of guest artists and composers, and innovative commissions of new music in various styles (some fusing Classical and Bluegrass). The RSO has hired over 50 new professional musicians during his tenure, collaboratively raising the RSO to new artistic heights. The RSO works with public radio WVTF to broadcast RSO concerts, and produced its first live TV web broadcast in conjunction with WDBJ-7. Wiley partners with schools and numerous arts and civic organizations throughout the region, and the RSO & Wiley this past year received a Distinguished Music Educator Award from Yale University. Innovative events like “RSO Rocks” and the “Destination” series have broadened what a symphony event can be for new audiences, and the RSO has increased both its masterworks series and its pops series offerings. The RSO expanded its runouts to the new Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and the holiday pops at Tech is a quick sellout each year. His energetic work bringing classical music to youth in our minority communities has been steadfast, and he was honored by the NAACP as Citizen of the Year in the Arts for his service. Wiley also continues as Artistic Director of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Music Festival.
As a solo pianist, Wiley has performed with numerous major orchestras throughout the United States including Minnesota, Indianapolis, Oregon, Honolulu, Wheeling, and West Virginia, performing major concerti by Baroque to contemporary, often conducting from the piano. He has appeared as both a jazz and classical pianist in Boston’s Symphony Hall and in recital and chamber music appearances throughout the U.S. as well as in China, Russia, Romania, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria.
Summer engagements include the Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Garth Newel, Wintergreen, Park City (Utah), Minnesota Orchestra Summerfest, Sitka (Alaska) and Prince Albert (Hawaii) summer music festivals. From 1999 until 2006 Wiley was the Artistic Director & Conductor of the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival, where he founded the festival orchestra, created the academy, and led the festival to remarkable artistic growth in seven years, tripling the balanced budget. Wiley created an acclaimed event with business executives and musicians together on stage titled “Conducting Change”, which helps executives to model leadership skills in a fun and engaging atmosphere.
Wiley’s CDs include an album of French Cello Concerti with Zuill Bailey & the Roanoke Symphony on Delos International, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 “Choral” with the RSO & Choruses, American Piano Concertos with Norman Krieger & the RSO on Artisie 4, Wiley & Friends: Classical Jazz, American Trumpet Concertos with the Slovak Radio Symphony/Neebe, and violin/piano duo CD Preludes & Lullabies with Akemi Takayama. As a composer, he collaborated on the film “Lake Effects”, which featured a symphonic soundtrack performed by the RSO, Wiley conducting, with original music by Boyle and Wiley. His CD Full Circle, with all original compositions, continues to sell briskly, as does his solo piano release Piano Bells – Reflections on Classic Carols.
David Stewart Wiley won the Aspen Conducting Prize, was Assistant Conductor for the Aspen Music Festival, and was awarded a Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood. Wiley holds both a Doctor and Master of Music in Conducting from Indiana University, a degree in Piano Performance with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a degree in Religion, summa cum laude, from Tufts University. He is a recipient of the Perry F. Kendig Prize for service to the arts and is a Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary International. He and his wife Leah Marer Wiley (soprano soloist, teacher, and owner of Muevela Fitness) have a son and a daughter who play cello and violin and enjoy travelling, hiking, biking, chess, and making music together. www.DavidStewartWiley.com
