Dr. John McKeever, Guest Conductor
John McKeever is the Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Missouri in Columbia. In 2022-23, Dr. McKeever was the Assistant Conductor for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he also worked as the Assistant Conductor for Piedmont Opera, where he conducted their 2023 production of Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale.” He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Colorado Boulder, graduating in 2021. As a graduate teaching assistant, he served as Director of the CU Boulder Campus Orchestra. He also served as an Assistant and Cover Conductor for the Boulder Philharmonic.
Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Dr. McKeever began his studies on the piano. While continuing on the piano, he switched his focus to the double bass in elementary school. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Double Bass Performance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied with Paul Sharpe. While a student at UNCSA, he developed an interest in conducting and began to work as an assistant conductor for the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, Piedmont Opera, and several UNCSA musicals. He continued his studies at UNCSA, earning a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting in 2015.
From 2012-18, Dr. McKeever served as the Assistant Conductor for Piedmont Opera in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2018, he made his conducting debut with the company in Piedmont Opera’s production of “The Pirates of Penzance.” In 2016, he shadowed the American Ballet Theatre’s spring season at the Metropolitan Opera at the invitation of the company’s principal conductor, Charles Barker. Dr. McKeever’s teachers include James Allbritten, David Amado, Charles Barker, Michael Jinbo, Christopher James Lees, Gary Lewis, Jonathan Schiffman, and Kevin Stites.
