Kypros Markou

conductor

Kypros Markou has been Professor and Director of Orchestral Studies at Wayne State University since 1994. Additionally, he is Artistic Director of the Detroit Camerata. He has served long tenures as Music Director of the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra (MI), the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra (PA), and the Brevard Symphony Orchestra (FL). His guest conducting activities include concerts with Sinfonia Varsovia, Krakow Philharmonic, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Romanian National Radio Symphony, Benatul Philharmonic of Timișoara, Slovak State Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic (NY), Orquesta Orquestra Sinfonica de Concepcion in Chile, and the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra in his native Cyprus. His CD of music by Dvořák, Bartók, and Skalkottas with the Sinfonietta Cracovia has been received with great enthusiasm. A CD with the London Octave chamber orchestra, featuring music by Arthur Foote and Victor Herbert was released internationally by Dutton Epoch Records of UK and has been featured extensively on radio stations such as BBC, Radio New Zealand, and many stations in the US. His video recording of Dances by Skalkottas has been featured on Cyprus and Greek television.  Maestro Markou has conducted an extensive repertory that spans the Baroque to contemporary and includes a number of premiers by composers such as Ellen Taafe Zwilich, Daniel Godfrey, James Lentini, James Hartway, and Anthony Iannacone. Maestro Markou’s work includes collaborations with the Pittsburgh Opera Theater, the Pittsburgh Ballet, the Laurel Ballet Company, and the Dance Alloy and soloists such as Ilya Kaler, Leonidas Kavakos, Vladimir Feltsman, Jeffrey Biegle, Ralph Votapek, Marcy Rosen, Timothy Eddy, and many others. A number of his concerts have been broadcast on radio and television.

Kypros Markou began his studies in his native city of Nicosia, Cyprus, and continued at the Royal College of Music in London, Indiana University in Bloomington, and the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he served as associate conductor of the New England Conservatory Symphony under the distinguished composer/conductor Gunther Schuller. His awards include fellowships from the Aspen Festival and the American Symphony Orchestra League, and invited participation at the Cleveland Orchestra’s Conductors Symposium under the direction of Maestro Lorin Maazel. He has served as cover conductor for a number of concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Detroit Symphony. His conducting mentors included Sir Adrian Boult, Richard Pittman, and Dr. Richard Hans Lert.

He began his musical journey as a violinist and studied violin with Antonio Brosa and Ruggiero Ricci, and chamber music with the Amadeus Quartet. He was a member of several chamber ensembles, including the Pittsburgh Chamber Soloists and the Canton (OH) Symphony’s Resident String Quartet and continues to perform chamber recitals and as a soloist. Recognitions include an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania (1989), Distinguished Performing Artist of the Year by the Cultural Council of Greensburg, PA (1994), Board of Governors Award, Wayne State University (2010), and the Key to the City of Dearborn (2018).