Wes Kenney

Kenney, director of orchestras for Colorado State University, also conducts CSU’s Ralph Opera productions and serves as music director of the Fort Collins Symphony and Opera Fort Collins. He has taken the Denver Young Artists Orchestra on two tours of Europe as well as two appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York.

A frequent guest conductor of professional and educational ensembles, Kenney has experience directing the orchestra pit for ballet, opera, and musical theater, and has guest-directed for various companies including the Virginia Symphony, the New Mexico All-State Orchestra, and the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Kenney was named a 2020 Honored Artist by The American Prize, awarded the 1992 Carmen Dragon Conducting Prize, and honored as the 2009 Outstanding Teacher by the Colorado American String Teachers Association. Kenney won the Grand Prize at the Summer 2007 Varna International Conducting Competition in Bulgaria.

Kenney holds a B.A. in music from the University of Southern California and a master’s in conducting from San Francisco State University.