Kevin R. McMahon (born October 12, 1962 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is an American, orchestra/opera conductor, composer/orchestrator/arranger, clinician/adjudicator, and violinist.
McMahon attended the University of Michigan, where his primary teachers were Jacob Krachmalnick on violin and conducting with Gustav Meier.
McMahon was awarded the Collins Wisconsin Distinguished Fellowship, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His primary teachers were David E. Becker (orchestral conducting), James Smith (as assistant conductor for the opera program), Charles Dill (musicology), Stephen Dembski (composition) and William Farlow (opera).
McMahon’s seminar and private conducting teachers were:
Margaret Hillis, Harold Farberman, Gustav Meier, and David E. Becker
Conducting course teachers include:
Gunther Schuller, Daniel Lewis, Otto Werner Mueller, Hugo Jan Huss, Carl St. Clair, Robert Bernhardt, Francesco Italiano, Maurice Abravanel, Robert McNally, Herbert Blomstedt, Donald Thulean, John Farrer, Fritz Maraffi, David Amram, Lukas Foss, Maurice Peress, Irwin Bazelon, Larry Alan Smith, Ellen Taafe Zwilich, David Diamond, John Giordano, Larry Newland, Carl Topilow, Brian Priestman, Donald Portnoy, Erich Leinsdorf, Leonard Slatkin, Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, and Bernard Haitink
His private conducting teachers included:
Elizabeth A. H. Green, Marvin Rabin, Paul Vermel, Barbara Schubert, Michael Morgan, Chai Dong Chung, Leo Najar, Patrick Strub, and Donald Schleicher
Opera teachers included:
William Farlow, Gunther Schuller, Henry Holt, Samuel Jones, James Smith, and Donald Portnoy
Choral Conducting teachers included:
Margaret Hillis, Thomas Hilbish, and Beverly Taylor
Conducting Courses included:
Bruckner Symposium (Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Sir Georg Solti and Margaret Hillis); Goettingen Symphonie Orchester, Germany with Otto Werner Mueller; Festival at Sandpoint with Gunther Schuller; League of American Orchestras Workshops; Conductor’s Guild Opera Conducting Workshop; Conductors Institute, South Carolina (three summers); New York Philharmonic Symposium with Eric Leinsdorf, Active Participant; Spoleto Festival USA; Tanglewood Music Center
Conducting Master Classes:
Giuseppe Sinopoli, Leonard Bernstein, Patrick Strub, and Marvin Rabin
Attendance at rehearsals:
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Madison Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Radio Filharmonish Orkfest (Hilversum) Amsterdam, Spokane Symphony Orchestra, Weimar Staatsoper, and the Komische Oper (Berlin)
Conducting Experience:
Former conducting positions include music director/conductor of the Symphony School of America Chamber Orchestra (1985–1986), music director/conductor of the National Arts Chamber Orchestra(1985–1988), music director/conductor Classical Symphony Chamber Ensemble (1988–1989), music director/conductor Lincoln Opera of Chicago (1989–1994), cover conductor for the South Bend Symphony (1992–1995), music director/conductor of the Northwest Indiana Youth Orchestra (1989–2000), and music director and conductor of the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra (1995–2008). He served as music director/conductor for the Wheaton Symphony and Pops Orchestra from 2009 to 2017. McMahon served as artistic director/conductor/violin recitalist for the Maud Powell Music Festival from 1999 to 2018. In October 2009, McMahon guest conducted for the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra for the first time, and on success of that appearance, in 2010 was named the orchestra's music director/conductor serving from 2010 to 2020. He served as associate conductor for the New York (City) Repertory Orchestra from 2005 to 2021.
McMahon’s operatic performance repertory in Chicago and Roma, Italia (along with other companies) includes: * = world premiere number = productions (often including multiple performances), these productions are fully staged with costumes, sets, orchestra, etc.