BRADEN TOAN

Conductor Braden Toan’s eclectic career crosses from opera to American musical theater, as well as the symphonic and choral worlds.  His versatility and artistic integrity has earned him the appreciation of singers, musicians, directors and critics. Trained as a symphony and opera conductor, opportunity took him on a detour to Broadway, where he conducted the legendary hit Miss Saigon and the revival of Man of La Mancha starring Brian Stokes Mitchell.  During this same time he also remained in the opera world conducting Rameau’s Les Indes Gallantes, and the New York City Opera National Company’s production of Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment. This has led to being engaged at New York City Opera and Chautauqua Opera for every musical produced by those two companies since 2004, in Sweeney Todd, Fiddler on the Roof, Candide, The Music Man, Cinderella, Once Upon a Mattress and The Most Happy Fella. Maestro Toan has led David Pittsinger, Carmen Cusack, Mark Delavan, Timothy Nolen, Elaine Paige, Jonathan Price, Lea Salonga, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Carolann Page, Lisa Vroman, Richard Kind, Alexander Gemignani, Judith Blazer, Daniel Reichard, George Dvorsky, John Cullum, Karen Murphy and Paul Sorvino. Since 2009 he has again straddled the opera and musical theater worlds, leading Paula Kimper’s opera Patience & Sarah in New York, Camelot for Ash Lawn Opera in Charlottesville, Virginia, and then embarking on the National Tour of South Pacific as associate conductor (music director in Los Angeles) of the Tony Award winning revival from Lincoln Center.  In 2012 Maestro Toan led Amarillo Opera in Offenbach’s La Perichole returning there in 2013 to conduct his third Candide and Amahl and the Night Visitors, and in 2014 for The Threepenny Opera. A gifted teacher, Maestro Toan has given more than seventy master classes to visiting ensembles at Lincoln Center’s Meet the Artist program.  He is also artistic director of the US Performing Arts Music Theater Camp at Oberlin College, and in 2009 was guest faculty conductor at Westminster Choir College.