ERIK

Erik Rohde is the Music Director and Conductor of the Winona Symphony Orchestra, and the Director of String Activities and Orchestra at Indiana State University.  He maintains a diverse career as a conductor, violinist, and educator, and has performed in recitals and festivals across the United States and in Europe and Asia.  At Indiana State University he conducts the Indiana State University Symphony Orchestra and teaches violin, chamber music, and Suzuki pedagogy.  He is also the artistic director of the Salomon Chamber Orchestra, an orchestra dedicated to promoting the works of living composers and of Haydn and his contemporaries. 

A committed advocate for contemporary music, he has premiered many new works, and is constantly seeking to discover new compositional voices.  At Indiana State University he helps host the annual Contemporary Music Festival – now running for over 50 years.  He also performs with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, and is the violinist in the new music duo sonic apricity.

In his native Minnesota, Rohde has served as the Music Director of the Buffalo Community Orchestra, conductor and violinist for the Contemporary Music Workshop, Camarata Suzuki orchestra conductor for the MacPhail Center for Music, String Ensemble conductor at the Trinity School, and first violinist of the Cantiamo and Enkidu String Quartets.  He has taught courses at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, conducting for the Campus Orchestras and Opera Theatre, in addition to guest conducting appearances with the Symphony Orchestra.  Rohde holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, where he studied with conductors Mark Russell Smith, Kathy Saltzman Romey, and Craig Kirchhoff and violin pedagogue Mark Bjork.  He also holds degrees in Violin Performance and Biomedical Engineering.

Rohde currently resides in Terre Haute, IN with his wife Erin and their two sons and daughter.  More at http://erikrohde.com/.