Jherrard Hardeman

Jherrard Hardeman begins his first season with the RPO as Assistant Conductor (The Louise and Henry Epstein Family Education and Community Engagement Chair). Hardeman will also serve as Music Director of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (RPYO).

A rising star in the symphonic- and chamber-music worlds, the 25-year-old Hardeman will lead the RPO’s signature OrKIDStra family series, education concerts at Kodak Hall, concerts for the community and beyond, our July summer series, and a Mozart and Dvořák program on the Sunday Matinee series on March 24, 2024.

By his mid-teens, Detroit native Hardeman was already attracting national attention as a classical conductor, composer, and violinist. He studied orchestral conducting under internationally renowned conductor David Robertson at The Juilliard School. Hardeman notes he cannot overstate the importance of mentorships by conductors Mei-Ann Chen, Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, and Kevin Noe, Executive Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.

Hardeman has appeared with the Seattle Symphony, Grosse Pointe Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, and the Longy Conservatory Orchestra. An innate leader, he has also formed and/or conducted orchestras at such prestigious institutions as the New England Conservatory of Music, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and the AVANTI Summer MusicFest.