Faculty
Antonia Joy Wilson
Director of Orchestral Studies
The Central Michigan University School of Music is pleased to announce the appointment of Antonia Joy Wilson as Music Director of the CMU Orchestra and Director of Orchestral Studies. Ms. Wilson is also the newly appointed Artistic Director & Conductor with Midland Symphony Orchestra in Michigan.
As First Prize Winner of the International Conducting Competition in Mexico, Antonia Joy Wilson is a professional conductor of international acclaim. Antonia was invited to perform for Maestro Claudio Abbado after she made her professional conducting debut with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at the age of twenty-one. Then, at age twenty-three, Maestro Leonard Slatkin appointed her as Exxon Affiliate Artists Conducting Assistant with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. She conducted sixty concerts annually and edited their weekly concert recordings for National Public Radio.
Gifted as both a symphonic and choral conductor, Dr. Wilson is Founder, Artistic Director & Conductor of Mostly Mahler Orchestra and Chorus in California and of Le Festivale Orchestra and Chorus in Colorado. She is also Principal Guest Conductor with San Francisco Sinfonietta. Recently, she was Principal Resident Guest Conductor with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Wilson’s tenure there included recordings, concerts, and tours throughout Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Serbia, Macedonia, and Turkey among others.
Antonia recently conducted the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra at the world famous Teatro Colón. She also guest conducted Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra in Columbia. She was awarded two European prizes which garnered her three guest appearances in the Czech Republic. Dr. Wilson is a regular guest conductor with the Romanian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and Academic Choir. She has also guest conducted orchestras in Russia, Hungary, Poland, India, and China.
Ms. Wilson was the Artistic/Music Director of the Imperial Symphony Orchestra in Florida. Antonia was also the Music Director and Conductor with the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra in Colorado for five years. Together, they produced a surround-sound compact disc featuring Respighi’s Pines of Rome. Dr. Wilson has also been the Music Director and Conductor of orchestras in New Jersey, Maryland, Tennessee, and California.
Born in England of American parents, Antonia began studying the violin at age nine. She received a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. Antonia worked with Maestro Daniel Lewis during her Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Southern California. Following her graduate conducting studies at Yale School of Music, Antonia completed a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Since her debut as the youngest woman to conduct a major American orchestra, Ms. Wilson has gone on to an extensive national and international musical career in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Contact Information
Email: wilso6aj@cmich.edu
Room: MU 173
Ensembles involved with
