Music Director, John Masko

Rhode Island native John Masko is a rapidly rising conductor who works with professional and semi-professional orchestral ensembles around the U.S. He is currently music director of the Brockton Symphony and principal conductor at the Boston New Music Initiative. From 2018 to 2024, he was founding music director of the Providence Medical Orchestra. During the COVID- 19 pandemic, he cofounded the National Virtual Medical Orchestra, an ensemble of doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals around the country. He serves regularly as an assistant and cover conductor with ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, where he has assisted conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Osmo Vänskä, Fabien Gabel, and Krzysztof Urbański.

John holds a master’s degree in conducting from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Dr. Eric Dudley. He has also studied conducting with Charles Peltz at New England Conservatory and participated in masterclasses with Cristian Măcelaru, James Ross, Sian Edwards, Paavo Järvi, Jorma Panula, Benjamin Zander, and Rüdiger Bohn. He won the American Prize in Conducting in 2021 for his work with the Wellesley Symphony and was a finalist for the 2018 Boston Pops Orchestra Leonard Bernstein Conducting Competition.

Outside of music, he enjoys the novels of Thomas Hardy and fancies himself maker of the best gumbo north of the Mason-Dixon Line.