Matthew Mainella

Matthew Mainella is a conductor, composer, arranger, and educator. He has led professional, community, college, and youth orchestras, wind bands, choirs, and multiple stage productions. Before coming to the Salt Lake City area, Mr. Mainella served asAssistant Conductor of the Valdosta (GA) Symphony Orchestra, and wasMusic Director of the Peach State Summer Theatre, designated the Official Musical Theatre of the State of Georgia. This past year he was a guest conductor in the American Guild of Organists’ Western Region convention. Also in 2017 he led premieres of several new works written by University of Utah composition students. Mr. Mainella is Principal Conductor of the University of Utah Campus Symphony

A Connecticut native, Mr. Mainella has musical roots in piano and trumpet performance. As an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, he regularly joined the brass sections of the UConn Symphonic Band, Symphony Orchestra, and award-winning Wind Ensemble. He has served as a section trumpet player in the Utah Philharmonia for the past three years. When time allows, he enjoys exploring contemporary aesthetics and philosophies of music performance, and sometimes composes short instrumental and/or vocal works. Recently he set words from Whitman’sSong of the Open Road to music for choir and strings. During his time at UConn he composed and produced a full-length studio album featuring works for voice, trumpet, piano, and various small ensembles.

Mr. Mainella is strongly devoted to music education at all levels. From 2010 – 2013 he conducted and coached students of the South Georgia String Project as Assistant Conductor of the Valdosta Symphony Youth Orchestra. Mr. Mainella spent three years teaching music courses at South Georgia State College and Georgia Military College. He has coached student conductors, instrumentalists, and singers, and his current role as Teaching Assistant at the University of Utah’s School of Music allows him many opportunities to perform with students on a regular basis.

Mr. Mainella earned theBachelor of Music degree in music theory from the University of Connecticut, graduatingmagna cum laude in 2009,and the Master of Music Performance degree in orchestral conducting from Valdosta State University. He was recognized as the 2011-2012 Outstanding Graduate Student in VSU’s Department of Music for his achievement as a student of the arts. He will complete his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in instrumental conducting at the University of Utah in 2018.

An avid outdoorsman and Eagle Scout, Mr. Mainella’s favorite pastimes include tent camping, snowboarding, hiking, and storm chasing. He also enjoys photography, astronomy, and painting. He has camped in twenty-four states, and has summited Mount Washington, the northeastern United States’ highest peak, five times. This past summer he completed a 4,500-mile Northwest U.S. road trip, camping in California’s redwoods, Washington’s cool temperate rainforests, and Montana’s pristine Rocky Mountains along the way.