Paul Polivnick is the music director and conductor laureate of the New Hampshire Music Festival, appointed to this position for a 3-year term as of the 2017 season. 
A major figure on the world stage, Paul has guest conducted more than 80 orchestras in Europe, the United States and Asia, and has recorded numerous CDs for Naxos, Harmonia Mundi, Nonesuch, Albany, Christal and Universal Music France. Maestro Polivnick was the Music Director of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestras.
Prior to these activities, Paul was the Associate Principal Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of Harmonia Classica of Vienna, Founder of the Los Angeles Radio Orchestra and Conductor of the Debut Orchestra of the Young Musicians Foundation of Los Angeles. Paul graduated from the Juilliard School as a conducting major having studied with the legendary Jean Morel. Paul also studied with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Franco Ferrara at the Academia Chighiana in Siena, Italy, Walter Susskind at the Aspen Music Festival and his father, Sidney Polivnick, a brilliant music educator who was Paul’s first teacher on the violin and trumpet at the age of eight.
In recent seasons he has focused on guest conducting, continuing long associations with the National Orchestra of Lille, France, and Symphony Silicon Valley in San Jose, California for performances and recordings. Other notable recent engagements include a production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, return engagements with the orchestras in Barcelona, Spain, Bucheon and Gwangju, Korea, and Portland, Maine and debuts with the UNAM Orchestra in Mexico City and the new orchestra in Boca del Rio. On the educational front, Paul conducted filmed concerts with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic.
