BIOGRAPHY

Jeffrey Rink, Conductor “...Rink conducts a World-Class Concert Otello...” said the Boston Globe, “Boston’s pre-eminent Verdi conductor” said the Boston Phoenix, “...Rink affirmed that he is a conductor who understands and faithfully the observes the intentions of the composer, musically elegant, precise and efficient without excessive movement...” said Switzerland’s La Liberté. His performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 was described by Alejandro Fernández in Mexico's El Norte as "miraculously balanced." and Mexico City’s El Economista called him “...among the best of his generation of conductors...”. Recipient of the Jacopo Peri Award for outstanding contributions to the art of Opera he led a production of La Bohème with the Maryland Opera Theatre which was praised by the Washington Post as “good as any "Bohème" you are likely to see this side of the Metropolitan Opera or Covent Garden.” A regular musical presence in Japan he has led the New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Telemann Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Amadeus Orchestra, Tokyo Blumen Philharmonie and the Tokyo Oratorio Society. He has conducted sold-out performances of Chinese and Western music in Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls as well as Boston’s Symphony Hall. From 2007 to 2018 he served as Music Director of the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra where he was twice recognized regionally as Classical Musician of the Year and is credited for greatly improving the quality of the orchestra, for his innovative programming and for expanding the organization's presence throughout the region. While in Boston Mr. Rink served as Music Director of Chorus pro Musica, the Newton Symphony Orchestra, the New England Philharmonic, Concert Opera Boston and Director of Orchestral Activities at the Longy School of Music. Mr. Rink’s tenure with Chorus pro Musica and Concert Opera Boston was marked by numerous significant contributions to opera in concert version including performances of Carmen, Faust, Samson et Dalila, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Turandot, Otello, Macbeth, Nabucco, La Traviata, Mefistofele and Attila. During Mr. Rink’s eight-year directorship of the New England Philharmonic the orchestra was nationally recognized in three of eight seasons by ASCAP for its adventuresome programming and commitment to new music, having played over twenty premieres. He has received high praise from the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, New Yorker Magazine, the London Musical Times, Poland’s Głos Wybrzeza and Gazeta Morska as well as Mexico’s El Economista, El Norte and El Informador, the Manila Standard and Switzerland’s La Liberté. Rink is also credited with conducting the Boston premieres of Handel’s Esther, Verdi's Attila, La Cantata Criolla of Estėvez as well as the North American premieres of Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ and Roméo et Juliette with period instruments. For two seasons he served as a cover conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops assisting James Levine, James Conlon, Hans Graf, Robert Spano, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Sir Colin Davis, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Keith Lockhart. In addition to his recent performances with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra Mr. Rink's concerts include appearances with the Chamber Orchestra of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, a performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Mahler Symphonies 2 , 5 and 8 with the Tokyo Blumen Philharmonie and Tokyo Amadeus Orchestra, performances with the Teatro Lirico d’Europa’s productions of Rigoletto, Aida and Turandot, tours with the Opera Company of Middlebury (VT) of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore and Puccini's Tosca, an all-Russian program with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Tokyo Oratorio Society. He was a featured guest artist as the conductor of performances of La Traviata in Mexico's San Pedro Festival as well a performance of Mahler Symphony No. 2 in Tokyo in March 2011 as an emotional response to the earthquake and tsunami. In Spring 2019 he made his debut with a critcally-acclaimed all-German program with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco as well as with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río in Veracruz, Mexico. In 2022 he debuted with the Concord (MA) Orchestra, served as cover conductor for the Boston Pops and this spring will return to the Boston Pops as a cover conductor as well as return to the Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río.