Veterans Ticket Program
With generous support from The Home Depot Foundation and in appreciation of your service, members of the U.S. military and veterans with valid documentation may receive up to 2 complimentary tickets to selected performances of Don Quixote.

Jonathan  McPhee is equally at home as a conductor for the symphony, ballet, and opera. Having recently completed 28 years as music director for the Boston Ballet Orchestra and nearly a decade as music director of Symphony New Hampshire, Mr. McPhee maintains an active guest conducting lineup in addition to his position with Lexington Symphony.

In recent seasons, Mr. McPhee has conducted many orchestras at home and abroad, including London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada; Sarasota Ballet and Symphony (FL);  Germany’s Hamburg Philharmonic; Houston Ballet; and New York City Ballet.

Some of the world's most distinguished dance companies for which Mr. McPhee has served as conductor include The Royal Ballet (England), Martha Graham Dance Company, The Joffrey Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, The Australian Ballet, Den Norske Ballett in Norway, and The Royal Danish Ballet in Denmark. In addition to a broad repertoire in the field of dance, Mr. McPhee has conducted pops concerts, musical theatre, and operetta. He has also conducted grand opera with Opera Boston, the American Opera Center in New York, and Boston University Opera Institute.

Mr. McPhee was invited to conduct the Nashville Symphony as one of the conductors featured in the 2009 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview by the League of American Orchestras. His collaboration with WCRB classical radio “Kids Classical Hour” earned a Gabriel Award in 1998. As music director for the Longwood Symphony Orchestra from 2005 to 2011, he garnered a Met-Life Award for Community Engagement in 2007 from the League of American Orchestras and the State of Massachusetts’ highest award in arts and culture, the Commonwealth Award in 2011. As music director for Lexington Symphony, his Young People’s Program “Orchestrating Kids Through Classics” won the 2010 Music Advocate Award presented by the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) as well as a NEA grant in 2013. Lexington Symphony and Maestro McPhee also received a 2012-2013 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music.

Mr. McPhee's works as an arranger and composer are in the repertoires of orchestras and ballet companies around the world. His edition of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and the complete Firebird ballet are the only authorized reduced orchestrations of these works by the Stravinsky Trust. Mr. McPhee’s compositions and arrangements are published by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. & Schott Music Publishers in Germany. His arrangement of Wagner’s complete RING Cycle entitled “The Essential RING” was premiered by Lexington Symphony and has received international acclaim as a wonderful and respectfully approachable version of this masterpiece from around the world.

Mr. McPhee's best-selling recording of The Nutcracker with the Boston Ballet Orchestra has sold over 75,000 copies. He has also recorded Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty and Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet with that orchestra (available on iTunes) and Michael Gandolfi’s Caution to the Wind on the CRI CD label. Mr. McPhee conducted the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Aarhus Orchestra  for the films of Martha Graham’s works telecast by DANCE IN AMERICA that included Samuel Barber’s Cave of the Heart, Gian Carlo Menotti’s Errand into the Maze, and Edgard Varese’s Integrales, Offrandes, and Octandre. 

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. McPhee received his L.R.A.M. from the Royal Academy of Music and University of London, and a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School. While at Juilliard, Mr. McPhee was the recipient of a Naumburg scholarship in english horn and conducting. He has studied with Leonard Brain, David Diamond, Thomas Stacy, Rudolf Kempe, and Sixten Ehrling, and he has participated in master classes with Sir Georg Solti and James Levine while at Juilliard.