Ian Passmore

If you think conductors are stuffy and unapproachable, Ian Passmore will change your mind. The Filipino-American maestro is as comfortable grabbing a beer with you after the concert as he is commanding the stage — warm, down-to-earth, and driven by an unshakeable belief that classical music should be for everyone. Fanfare magazine has called him “a rising young conductor,” and his unapologetically Romantic performances of the standard repertoire harken back to a bygone generation of conductors, delivered with energy and authenticity that makes every concert feel alive.
In July 2026, Ian assumed the Music Directorship of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, following his appointment as Artistic Director of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association. His inaugural season opens with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and closes with Rachmaninoff’s Second — with Schubert, Stravinsky, Mozart, and a free family concert in between. He returns as a guest to the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra for two programs at Brendle Hall in Winston-Salem, including a fall program anchored by Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. He makes his debut with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra as a Music Director candidate, and recent guest engagements have included a Music Director candidacy with the Great Falls Symphony Orchestra, where he led Brahms’s Schicksalslied with the symphonic choir and Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony. The season further includes appearances with the East Tennessee 11th & 12th Grade Honors Orchestra, and headline engagements on both the Undertale: The Determination Symphony World Tour and the World of Warcraft: 20 Years of Music World Tour, bringing full orchestral productions to arena stages across the United States and beyond.
Following two seasons as the Omaha Symphony’s Assistant Conductor, Ian was named its Associate Conductor in 2019 — a position created for the first time in the orchestra’s 100-year history. He has since led programs with the Buffalo and Louisiana Philharmonics, the symphony orchestras of Charlotte, Delaware, Greensboro, Jacksonville, Kansas City, North Carolina, Salisbury, and Winston-Salem, the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Vietnam’s Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ian holds a Doctor of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he trained as the final student of legendary conducting pedagogue David Effron and studied with Arthur Fagen. He was the inaugural recipient of the Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Delaware, studying with James Allen Anderson, and completed additional studies at UNC Chapel Hill with Tonu Kalam. He received his Bachelor of Arts from UNC Greensboro, where he studied with the late Robert Gutter. He previously served as Associate Instructor of Orchestral Conducting at Indiana University, and his private students have earned acceptance to Indiana University, the Conservatoire de musique de Lyon, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Aspen Music Festival & School. He is a frequent guest conductor, adjudicator, and conference presenter, with appearances at the International Conductors Guild, the South Dakota Bandmasters Association, and the Nebraska Music Educators Association.
Off the podium, Ian is passionate about breaking down the barriers that keep people away from classical music — and equally passionate about good food, craft beer, road biking, and CrossFit. He lives in North Carolina with his wife, Dianna Fiore, and their two golden retrievers, Belle and Heidi. Ian Passmore is represented by Parker Artists of New York and is a performing artist for Work of Art Custom Batons. Learn more at dogdadmaestro.com.