Jan Wagner, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, launched his professional conducting career after winning First Prize at the 1995 Nicolai Malko International Conductors Competition in Denmark. In 2002, he completed a five-year tenure as Principal Conductor of the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark, which he led in more than 200 performances, conducting more than 200 different works both on subscription concerts and on two separate tours to the United States and Spain.

Simultaneous with his appointment in Denmark, Jan Wagner regularly conducted the Danish National Radio Symphony, the Danish Radio Sinfonietta (including two tours to Paris and Sweden), the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Danish Royal Theater, as well as most of the principal Danish and Scandinavian orchestras. Other notable orchestras he has worked with include the Royal Philharmonic, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony, the Hannover Radio Symphony, the Halle Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Symphony, the West Australian Symphony (Perth), and the Melbourne Symphony.

In North and South America, Wagner has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Aspen Festival Orchestra and the Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera on a United States tour of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the U.N.A.M in Mexico City, and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. He has also been a regular guest conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, the country's national symphony orchestra, since 1998. Throughout the current 2016/17 season, Wagner will continue to serve as one of a few resident assistant/cover conductors for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, an association that began in March 2016.

Throughout his career Wagner has collaborated with many distinguished artists such as clarinetists Richard Stolzman and Sabine Meyer, singers Anna Larsson, Bo Skovhus and Yvonne Kenny, cellists Ralph Kirshbaum, David Geringas, and Andrés Díaz, violist Nobuko Imai, pianists John Browning, Ivan Moravec, Grigory Sokolov, Andrei Gavrilov, Nikolai Demidenko, Vanessa Perez, and John O’Conor, violinists Mark Kaplan, Arve Tellefsen, Kristof Barati, and Anne Akiko Meyers, and trumpeters Håkan Hardenberger, Jens Lindemann, and Wynton Marsalis.

Contemporary composers with whom Jan Wagner has collaborated include Danish composers Poul Ruders (world premiere performance and recording of his Guitar Concerto), Per Nørgård, Anders Nordentoft, American composers William Bolcom, Kevin Puts, and Richard Wilson. The 2014/15 season brought collaborations with Jennifer Higdon and Wynton Marsalis as part of the world premiere performance of the complete Blues Symphony at the Strathmore Music Center with the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. The current 2016/17 season will bring a collaboration with iconic American composer John Corigliano.

Jan Wagner has also been very active recording for labels such as Denon (Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Debussy's L'apres-midi d'un faune-DVD audio), DaCapo (works by Paul von Klenau which received a Danish Grammy nomination), Classico (world premiere of Poulenc’s Les animaux modele), Bridge Records (world premiere of Poul Ruders’ Guitar Concerto, works by Ginastera, Villa-Lobos, including the world premiere of Villa-Lobos’ ballet Emperor Jones, and Carl Nielsen’s Violin Concerto), Silverline (Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben and Vier letzte Lieder-DVD audio) and Danacord (Mussorgsky-Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition). In 2010, Wagner initiated a long-term project with the Naxos label and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela to launch a new series called “Latin-American Classics” which will feature symphonic works by leading Venezuelan composers from the twentieth century. The first CD featuring works by Evencio Castellanos was released in January 2012.

Jan Wagner currently holds the position of Professor of Music at Shenandoah University where he serves as the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra and Kammermusik Players. He also serves as the music director of the school's fully staged opera productions. He has also served as the artistic director and conductor of the Shenandoah Conservatory Performing Arts Festival, Shenandoah Performs, between 2004 and 2008.

He is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Vienna, Austria, where he completed his studies with Karl Österreicher and Günther Theuring. He has furthered his studies with Murry Sidlin and Lawrence Foster as a Fellow Conductor at the Aspen Music Festival and has participated in master classes with John Nelson, Leonard Slatkin, and James Conlon.

Following his studies, he was the Top Prize Winner at the 1994 Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition in New York and was the recipient of the 1994 Conducting Prize at the Aspen Music Festival. He has also served as assistant conductor to Lawrence Foster at the Aspen Music Festival, assistant/apprentice conductor under Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra, and as assistant/cover conductor to Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic.

Argentina (March 2017)
Spain (March 2014)

Shenandoah Conservatory is committed to fostering a safe environment for our students and faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are equally committed to providing exceptional opportunities for our students aligned with preparation for 21st century careers in the arts. This commitment begins with your audition! As the arts industry has responded to our current reality by modifying rehearsal and audition practices, Shenandoah Conservatory has also adopted the most recent industry standards, while maintaining a commitment to innovation and collaboration. Visit the Ensemble & Production Auditions webpage for the most up-to-date information about auditioning for our music, theatre and dance ensembles and productions.

Ensemble & Production Auditions

SHENANDOAH CONSERVATORY INVITES provides instrumental high school students multiple opportunities each year to make music with Shenandoah faculty, students and ensembles. Musicians playing string, brass, woodwind and percussion instruments will find events enabling intensive study with Shenandoah’s world-class faculty and the opportunity to make music alongside current conservatory students. Each of these events take place on Shenandoah’s beautiful Winchester campus.

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