The Pikes Peak Philharmonic is proud to call Dr. Luciano R. Silvestri, Jr. our conductor. Maestro Silvestri begins his eleventh season with the Pikes Peak Philharmonic creating enriching musical experiences for players and audience alike. He has planned an exciting season in which music associated with the orchestra choosing all of the music for this season’s concerts. He has titled this season “Our Favorite Things.”
Maestro Silvestri is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and has received degrees in Music Education and Conducting from Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio and Colorado State University. He has recently completed a Doctor of Arts degree in Music Education with a secondary emphasis and minor in statistics and research methods from the University of Northern Colorado. He is at home in all areas of conducting from symphony to musicals to opera. His conducting teachers include Paul Vermel, Will Schwartz and Lawrence Leighton Smith, with additional studies under Kenneth Kiesler and Donald Portnoy.
A strong believer in working with and promoting highly talented young musicians, Luciano has dedicated much time to student orchestras, musicians at the middle school, high school, and college levels. He’s in his thirteenth year as the Director of Orchestras at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, and has grown the program from one orchestra of 15 students in 2005, to three orchestras currently comprising 100 students. In addition to his orchestra work he is also the director of AP Music Theory at the high school, which has grown to two classes annually, as well as an advanced Music Theory & Composition class. He is a College Board consultant, having presented sessions on music theory at the AP National Conference in 2008, 2009, 2014, 2016, and 2018. He is scheduled to present again during the summer of 2023. He has participated in the AP Music Theory Reading in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the summers of 2010 through the present and served as an AP Music Theory textbook reviewer/consultant for the College Board, and is currently co-chair of the AP Music Theory Development Committee, the 8-member national team of high school and college music theory teachers who set the curriculum direction for AP Music Theory and who write the annual AP Music Theory Exam given every May.
Maestro Silvestri is also in his 20th season as the Music Director and Conductor of The Loveland Orchestra. During his tenure, the orchestra has experienced unprecedented growth in all aspects of its music-making from the addition of many outstanding musicians to new heights of orchestral performance. The orchestra now performs six concerts annually, including a very popular “Mozart Birthday Concert” every January.
Luciano is married to Amanda, a highly talented vocalist, elementary school music teacher and mom to their three children, Luke (age 16), Joanna (age 13) and David (age 10).