The Festival Orchestra
Each year, Arizona Musicfest assembles some of the nation’s finest orchestral musicians to perform as the Festival Orchestra—the jewel in Musicfest’s crown. Under the direction of Festival Orchestra Music Director Robert Moody, the acclaimed symphonic ensemble annually performs five distinct concert programs over one week. Along with being an important destination for North America’s premiere orchestral musicians, Festival Orchestra Week has become a popular destination for classical music fans from Arizona and beyond. Guest soloists featured with the Festival Orchestra have included Joshua Bell, Midori, Renee Fleming, Andrew Von Oeyen, Gil Shaham, Sarah Chang, Denyce Graves, Olga Kern, Chris Thile, Haochen Zhang, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, Inon Barnatan, Lynn Harrell, Conrad Tao, Andrew Watts and many others.
Arizona Musicfest is proud to include musicians from these distinguished institutions as part of our Festival Orchestra family:
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Internationally acclaimed conductor Robert Moody is currently enjoying his 20th season as Festival Orchestra Music Director of Arizona Musicfest, his 10th season as Music Director of The Memphis Symphony Orchestra (Tennessee), 4th as Principal Conductor for Lakeland Opera, and celebrates his 2nd season as Music Director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.
This season Maestro Moody debuts with Cincinnati Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and The Philadelphia Orchestra; as well as Tampere Philharmonic (Finland) and Banatul Philharmonic (Romania). Other notable guest conducting has included Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Dallas and Houston Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Aachen and Baden Symphony Orchestras in Germany, Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogotá (Colombia), Wuxi and Shenzhen Symphonies in China, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra (Austria). He is also a frequent guest conductor in South Africa, and returns often for concerts with the three major orchestras there – the Cape Town, Johannesburg, and KZN (Durban) Philharmonics.
Moody is a frequent collaborator with multi GRAMMY® winning artists soprano Renée Fleming, cellist Yo Yo Ma, composer Mason Bates, and many more. GRAMMY® winners Time For
Three and AZMF Festival Orchestra are proud to present the world premiere of Bates’ Silicon Hymnal, concerto for string trio and orchestra this season.
Prior positions for Maestro Moody have included music director for both the Portland Symphony (Maine) and the Winston-Salem Symphony (North Carolina). Earlier in his career, he held conducting positions with the Phoenix Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera, Brevard Music Center, Interschool Orchestras of New York City, and apprenticed at Landestheater Opera in Linz, Austria.
Moody’s work is available on several commercial recordings, including the Canadian Brass albums Bach and Legends, R. Carlos Nokai’s Fourth World album, and with Memphis Symphony Orchestra and trumpet legend Ryan Anthony on his Re:Mission Rubato album.
Moody celebrates the life and work of organist/conductor Jimmy Jones, his spouse of 18 years who passed away unexpectedly early in 2024. He now dedicates all his musical endeavors to Jimmy.
Moody lives in Memphis with their two dogs; he is an avid runner, swimmer, history buff, “Jeopardy!” addict, and snow-skier.
See our full 2025 Festival Orchestra listing by clicking the button below.
Click the button below to hear past Orchestra Recordings from Central Sound at EIGHT, a part of Arizona PBS. Arizona Musicfest thanks Central Sound for recording Festival concerts and producing broadcasts heard on KBAQ-FM 89.5 and on Eight-Classical, digital TV channel 8.4.