​Kevin Zakresky

Hailed as 'un jeune chef très talentueux' by Radio-Canada, Kevin Zakresky is a conductor living in Vancouver, BC. He has recently been appointed conductor of the National Geographic 'Symphony For Our World,' debuting the concert in San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall on Earth Day, April 22, 2018. This season sees him conduct the National Geographic Symphony in San Jose, Chicago, Madison, Minneapolis, Houston, Edmonton, Calgary, Limerick, Monterrey, and Columbus.

From 2016 to 2018 he was conductor of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, a tour that saw him conduct orchestras throughout North America, South America and Europe.
Recent Zelda performances include London - to conduct the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra in Wembley Arena - as well as Montreal, Philadelphia, Miami, Los Angeles, Dublin, San Francisco, San Antonio, Charlottesville, Fresno, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Birmingham (UK), Toronto, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Vancouver, and Pittsburgh.

In 2019 he was appointed Music Director of the Vancouver Pops Orchestra and Chorus and will conduct three performances at Vancouver’s Chan Centre next season.

He is the past Music Director of the Prince George Symphony Orchestra and Pacifica Singers (an ensemble affiliated with the Vancouver Chamber Choir) and has recently conducted the St Louis Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Sudbury Symphony, and West Coast Symphony. In 2017 he guest conducted the Fort Worth Symphony in 'rePlay: Symphony of Heroes,' a concert of favourite video game music.

In 2017 Zakresky launched Players and Singers, a Vancouver-based ensemble that performs dramatic choral, orchestral and operatic works. Recent performances include 'Dido and Aeneas,' Blow’s 'Venus and Adonis,' and Britten’s 'The Little Sweep.' Next season will include works by Lully, Handel, and Gilbert & Sullivan.

During his tenure with the Prince George Symphony Zakresky presented soloists Jane Coop in Schumann’s Piano Concerto, and violinist Dale Barltrop in Ravel’s 'Tzigane' and Vaughan Williams’ 'The Lark Ascending.' The Prince George Citizen called his performance of Orff’s 'Carmina Burana' with the Vancouver Chamber Choir 'the best show the PGSO had ever done ... a rare and breathtaking night.' He also conducted symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn, and premiered twelve works by emerging BC composers. Another highlight of his time in Prince George was the establishment of a partnership between the Orchestra and the Khat’san First Nation drummers.

Zakresky received a Doctoral degree in Choral Conducting at Yale University in February 2012; at Yale he won the prestigious Aidan Kavanagh Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement.