SVBF Appoints Principal Conductor, Daniel Myssyk

The Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival has named Daniel Myssyk as its principal conductor.

Myssyk, director of orchestral activities at Virginia Commonwealth University, has wide-ranging and international experience as a conductor. He also led the Bach Festival Orchestra and Chorus in 2023 as a guest conductor. The festival program that year included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) and Wynton Marsalis’ violin concerto.

The 2025 festival will include Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1, with the full season’s program to be announced soon. 

Myssyk will again be at the podium, this time without the “guest” designation.

“We are absolutely thrilled that Daniel has agreed to be the principal conductor of the festival,” said David Berry, SVBF artistic director. “He is an extraordinary artist who really knows how to inspire from the podium and bring the best from our wonderful orchestra and choir. He is a consummate musician, but also a gracious and warm personality who really connects with audiences across the board.”

Myssyk has held his position at VCU since 2007. The Canadian-American maestro was music director for Montreal-based Orchestre de chambre Appassionata from 2000 to 2016, and served as assistant conductor of the Richmond (Virginia) Symphony from 2018 to 2024. He is fluent in the repertoire from classical, romantic, modern, and contemporary periods, and accomplished in both live and recorded performances. His recordings are critically acclaimed, with some nominated for awards in the U.S. and Canada.

Click here to read Myssyk’s full biography.