Itasca Symphony Orchestra

Keith Swanson, Symphony Conductor

Conductor Keith Swanson, orchestra musicians and IOSP staff celebrated his 20th anniversary with the ISO in May of 2012. As a graduate of the University of Minnesota (UMD), he recently retired as the Director of Music at Hermantown High School. He also has conducted the UMD Symphony Orchestra and orchestras for the Northland Opera Theater Experience and Colder by the Lake. As an avid opera fan and Music Director of Duluth’s Lyric Opera of the North (LOON), he has conducted for productions of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman, Mozart’s Magic Flute, Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Handel’s Semele, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Once each summer you may also catch him playing French Horn in the Coleraine City Band under the direction of ISO’s trombone player, Tom Patnaude. You may also engage him in any discussion about the Minnesota Twins or Vikings.