American conductor Kyle Dickson is quickly building a reputation as an inspiring and compelling presence on the podium. Recipient of the 2021 Grant Park Music Festival Advocate for Arts Award and the Concert Artists Guild’s (CAG) Robert S. Weinart Award, Dickson is a Salonen Conducting Fellow with the San Francisco Symphony and the Colburn School under the guidance of Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.

From 2021-22, Dickson was Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, and he previously served as Music Director of the South Loop Symphony. He’s been engaged as guest conductor with the Detroit, Wichita and Oakland Symphonies, the Chicago Philharmonic, and as cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony. Additionally, he has served as Assistant Conductor for concerts with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Orchestra de Paris, the Chicago Symphony and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Dickson was selected as a Conducting Fellow at the 2021 National Orchestral Institute’s Conducting Academy led by Marin Alsop and from 2019-2021 was a Paul Freeman Conducting Fellow under the mentorship of 
Maestra Mei-Ann Chen.

Passionate about music education, Dickson has worked regularly with many youth ensembles including the Chicago Youth Symphony Ensembles, ICYOLA, Ravinia’s El Sistema program, and the Colburn Youth Orchestra. He served as Assistant Conductor with Carnegie Hall’s 2022 NYO-USA/NYO2 Tour and this season he will appear as guest conductor at the 2022 ILMEA District 7 Senior Orchestra Festival.

Through his work with Chicago Sinfonietta’s Project Inclusion Ensemble and chamber ensemble D-Composed, Dickson has given numerous masterclasses, presentations and webinars for arts programs including the National Symphony Orchestra’s 2021 Summer Music Institute, the Naperville School of the Arts, and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. In 2018, Dickson debuted the Chicago West Community Music School Orchestra and has since directed several programs for “After School Matters,” including the South Side Chicago Youth Symphony.

Also a violinist, Dickson was a prizewinner at the 2010 NANM National Concerto Competition and has held residencies at Indiana University-South Bend and the United World College of South East Asia as a chamber musician. He has appeared as soloist the Chicago Sinfonietta and the MSU Concert Orchestra, and performed regularly as Concertmaster of the Chicago Composers Orchestra. Dickson earned his MM in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University studying with Victor Yampolsky. He also received degrees in violin performance from Michigan State University (BM) and DePaul University (MM). His principal violin teachers included Walter Verdehr, Laura Roelofs, and Olga Kaler.