Guy Victor Bordo
Title: Professor of Music
Dept/Program: Music
Phone: 330/972-6204
Email: gvbordo@uakron.edu
Biography
Guy Victor Bordo
Dr. Guy Bordo holds the position of Professor of Music at the University of Akron School of Music. In this role, he Exploring Music: Bach to Rock. In 2015, the UASO was featured in a series of Children’s Concerts sponsored by Akron’s Children’s Concert Society that included over 3500 children.
As Music Director of The University of Akron New Music Ensemble from 2013 to 2019, Dr. Bordo programmed a variety of compositions from contemporary composers. In those seven seasons, the NME premiered a number of works by UA faculty and students, as well as performing works by Stuart Greenbaum, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Libby Larsen, John Luther Adams, Edgard Varese, David Skidmore, Kevin Puts, and David Lang.
From 1997 to 2022, he was Music Director of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in Indiana, a term lasting 25 years. Dr. Bordo enjoyed a long and exciting relationship with the orchestra and the community. Upon the announcement of his retirement in the fall of 2021, Life Board member Dave Rodgers made a significant gift to the RSO in order to endow the conductor’s chair as, The Guy Victor Bordo Endowed Conductor’s Chair. In the past 25 years, the RSO built a strong reputation for innovative programming and attracted many fine musicians in the region. Because of the outstanding skill and musicianship of the orchestra members, Dr. Bordo had the freedom to explore the repertoire by programming challenging works, both classical and contemporary.
Having a strong interest in bringing new music to the Richmond audience, Dr. Bordo and the RSO presented diverse compositions by many living composers. In 2019, the RSO commissioned and premiered a work by composer Alyssa Morris to an enthusiastic response from the audience and the orchestra. Another highlight was the October 2001 residency of the great American composer John Corigliano. The RSO, with soloist Maria Bachmann, performed his composition Chaconne from the film The Red Violin, for which he won an Academy Award.
At home with a wide variety of styles and concert formats, Dr. Bordo has conducted prominent soloists including Yakov Kasman, Ilya Kaler, Lorin Hollander, Andres Cardenes, Anton Nel, Andres Diaz, William Wolfram, Michael Chertock, and Spencer Myer, as well as popular artists Aretha Franklin, Marvin Stamm, The Beach Boys, and Wynonna Judd.
From 2006-2015 Dr. Bordo was Music Director/Conductor of Akron Baroque, a professional, self-governing orchestra with musicians from Akron, Canton and Cleveland. Active as a guest conductor, Dr. Bordo made his European debut in 1994 with the Lithuanian National Opera Theatre in Vilnius, conducting Verdi's La Traviata. He was invited to return in 1997 where he conducted the State Symphony Orchestra, the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, and the Kaunas Opera Theatre in a production of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Additional engagements include Light Opera Works in Chicago and orchestras in Lexington (KY), Cheyenne (WY), Waterloo/Cedar Falls (IA), Fort Collins (CO), the Westshore (MI) Symphony Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, the Omaha Symphony, the Elmhurst Symphony (IL), the Cleveland Philharmonic, and the Akron Symphony Orchestra.
In 2017 Dr. Bordo appeared as guest conductor with the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, WI on a program that included the music of Falla, Zoghbi, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Massenet. This season will include a return to guest conduct the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic in April.
Dr. Bordo earned a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting as a student of Victor Yampolsky at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, as well as Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Music Education from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He studied conducting with his father Victor Bordo, Gustav Meier at the Tanglewood Music Center; Carl St. Clair, Music Director of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra; and Elizabeth Green, author of The Modern Conductor.