Bob Bernhardt, Principal Pops Conductor
Celebrating his 27th anniversary with the Louisville Orchestra, Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt continues to bring his unique combination of easy style, infectious enthusiasm and wonderful musicianship to the city and orchestra he loves. In 1981, he accepted the post of Assistant Conductor and has worked with the Louisville Orchestra in every season since.
He is also in his 15th season as Music Director of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, one of two combined companies in America, and the only one that has the same artistic leader over both genres. This season he will be a guest conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, The Woodstock Mozart Festival and the Chattanooga Ballet.
His professional opera career began with the Birmingham Opera in 1978, two years before he joined the Louisville Orchestra. He worked with the Kentucky Opera for eighteen consecutive seasons, with his own company since 1992, and has conducted dozens of fully-staged productions in a genre he adores. He has been a frequent guest of the Nashville Opera.
Born in Rochester, New York, he holds a master’s degree from the University of Southern California’s School of Music, where he studied with Daniel Lewis. He is also a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he was an Academic All-American baseball player.
His son, Alex, lives and works in Seattle, and his daughter, Charlotte, is a senior in the acting program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He and his wife, Nora, live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
