Kypros Markou,conductor

Mr. Markou is Director of Orchestra and Head of Strings at Wayne State University. He is also Music Director of the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and was recently named Music Director of the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra in Dearborn, Michigan. From 1987 to 1994 he was Music Director of the Brevard Symphony Orchestra in Florida. Previous conducting positions include posts with the Cyprus Radio Orchestra, the Canton Symphony in Ohio, and the Somerset Summer Festival in Pennsylvania. Before joining the faculty at Wayne State University he was Director of the Orchestra at the University of Pittsburgh and has also been a member of the conducting faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Recent guest conducting engagements include concerts with the Sinfonietta Cracovia in Poland, the Slovak Sinfonietta of Zilina, the Cyprus State Chamber Orchestra, the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra in Germany and the San Remo Symphony in Italy. He has also conducted the London Concertante in England, the State Orchestra of Northern Greece and a number of orchestras in the United States including the Richmond Symphony, Virginia, and the Pittsburgh Symphony in Pennsylvania. He has served as associate conductor of the New England Conservatory Symphony under Gunther Schuller and as associate to the late Thomas Michalak with the Canton Symphony in Ohio. In addition he has served as assistant to Maestros Maazel, Eschenbach and Lankester for a number of subscription concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony and as cover conductor for the Detroit Symphony. Other conducting collaborations include The Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra, the American Dance Ensemble, the Pittsburgh Ballet, the Pittsburgh Opera Theater, the Canton Symphony's Opera, and New Music concerts at the Unversity of Pittsburgh. During the current season he will be returning to Poland to conduct concerts with the Sinfonietta Cracovia as well as the Krakow Philharmonic.Kypros Markou had his early training at the National Conservatory of Greece in his native city Nicosia, Cyprus, the Royal College of Music in London, the University of Indiana in Bloomington and the New England Conservatory in Boston where he earned his graduate degree in Orchestral Conducting. He has won serveral awards including conducting fellowships from the Aspen Festival and the American Symphony Orchestra League and in 1978 he was invited to participate in the Cleveland Orchestra's Conductors Symposium under the direction of Maestro Lorin Maazel.In addition to his conducting, Kypros Markou is an accomplished violinist having studied violin with Ruggiero Ricci and chamber music with the Amadeus Quartet. He was a member of the Ronda String Trio, the Canton Symphony's Resident String Quartet and the Pittsburgh Chamber Soloists.In 1989 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Seton Hill College in Pennsylvania, and in 1994 he received the Distinguished Performing Artist of the Year Award from the Cultural Council of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.