Thomas Fortner

Background

About Thomas Fortner

Berlin-based American conductor Thomas Fortner is active across symphonic, operatic, ballet, and educational settings in Europe and North America. From 2017 to 2024, he served as Assistant Conductor and Youth Orchestra Music Director of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, hailed by The New Yorker as “one of America’s boldest orchestras.” During his tenure, he led more than 50 performances spanning subscription concerts, pops, film with live orchestra, education, family, and youth programs, and statewide broadcasts of Young People’s Concerts. In September 2025, Fortner makes his European opera stage debut conducting Kurt Weill’s Street Scene with the Brandenburger Symphoniker. Highlights of the 2024–25 season include symphonic debuts with the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Staatsorchester Braunschweig, and the Filharmonie Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic; and assisting Vladimir Jurowski (RSB), Steven Sloane (Bochumer Symphoniker), and Konrad Junghänel in Haydn’s Armide with Kammerakademie Potsdam. In the U.S, Fortner has worked with the Amarillo Symphony, South Dakota Ballet, Southwest Minnesota Orchestra, and the startup Twin Cities Symphony. He has appeared as cover conductor with the Omaha Symphony and the Concert Artists of Baltimore, and the Martha Graham Dance Company. A strong advocate for new music, he was a conducting fellow at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, served on the board of the 10th Wave Chamber Collective, and founded the Iowa Great Lakes Music Festival to bring world-class performances to rural communities. Fortner earned a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute, studying with Marin Alsop, Markand Thakar, and holds degrees in cello performance from McGill University. He was a postgraduate conducting fellow at the Universität der Künste Berlin under Harry Curtis, participating in projects with orchestras including the Komische Oper Berlin, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, Theater Magdeburg, Preußisches Kammerorchester, and the Philharmonisches Orchester Cottbus. His training also includes masterclasses with Leonard Slatkin, Hannu Lintu, Markus Stenz, and Nicholas McGegan.