Robert Porco became director of choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra in 1998 following in a line of distinguished Cleveland choral leaders that has included Boris Goldovsky, Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Robert Page, and Gareth Morrell. Each year, he conducts the Orchestra's annual series of Christmas concerts at Severance Hall, featuring the Chorus and Children's Chorus. Recent seasons have also featured performances of Handel's Messiah.
Throughout his career, Mr. Porco has been active as a conductor of opera and of choral-and- orchestral works. He is a regular guest conductor and the director of choruses for the Cincinnati May Festival, and has guest conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and other orchestras in the United States and Europe. Mr. Porco has prepared choruses for such prominent conductors as Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Raymond Leppard, James Levine, Jesús López-Cobos, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, Kurt Sanderling, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, and Franz Welser-Möst, among others.
Highlights of Mr. Porco's Cleveland tenure in recent seasons have included preparing the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus (or members selected from it) for Severance Hall concert performances of Verdi's Don Carlo (2003), Richard Strauss's Elektra (2004), Verdi's Falstaff (2006), and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier (2007), all under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst. Mr. Porco prepared the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for January 2007 performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, also conducted by Mr. Welser-Möst, that were recorded and released on compact disc by Deutsche Grammophon in October 2007. During the 2007-08 season, Mr. Porco prepares choruses for performances of Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”), Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, and Dvorák’s Rusalka.
Ohio native Robert Porco served as chairman of the choral department at Indiana University from 1980 to 1998, and as artistic director and conductor of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir from 1989 to 1998. He has directed the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus since 1989.
