Daniel Sommerville

Daniel Sommerville is the 18th music director and conductor of the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra, which is now in its 73rd season. He has been music director of the Elkhart County Symphony Orchestra (Indiana), the Westminster Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolitan Youth Symphony of Chicago, and is Professor Emeritus of Wheaton College, where he conducted the award-winning Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra. Guest conducting stints include the Sarajevo Philharmonic (Bosnia), Camerata Chicago, DuPage Symphony, Fox Valley Orchestra, and the Marquette (MI) Symphony Orchestra. As a conductor, he has collaborated with such notable artists as violinist Rachel Barton Pine, vocalists Sylvia McNair, Lawrence Brownlee and Will Liverman, composers/pianists Marvin Hamlisch and Michael W. Smith, Broadway star Joel Grey, the Hubbard Street Dance Company, jazz trumpeter Rob Parton, classical guitarist Ernesto Bitetti, among many others. He is very excited for the opportunity to collaborate with our outstanding guest artists for the year: Leonardo Altino, Kate Tombaugh and Roger Amm—as well as with the talented winners of IVSO’s Young Performers Competition.

Maestro Sommerville has studied conducting with eminent conductors Sir Georg Solti, Herbert Blomstedt, Franz Allers and John P. Paynter. He received his Bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. After beginning his career as a high school music teacher and director, he went on to earn both masters and doctoral degrees in conducting and composition from Northwestern University. In addition to conducting orchestras, Dr. Sommerville has had extensive experience in church music ministry and choral conducting.