About New Haven Chorale

Dr. Bolkovac started his teaching career at Holy Names University in Oakland, California where he was appointed as a full-time faculty member at age 26 to teach in the Kodály Graduate Music Education Program. He taught ear training, choral conducting, conducted the college choirs, and later directed the college orchestra for three years, and eventually became the Director of the Kodály program. Shortly after his arrival at Holy Names, he also began the first of over 30 international trips to teach and conduct in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, The Philippines, Taiwan, and Vienna. Prior appointments include Music Director of the Bay Area Lutheran Chorale and Artistic Director of the California Bach Society. Following his appointment to the California Bach Society, he became very involved in the San Francisco Bay Area’s rich early music scene, revitalizing the California Bach Society into one of the Bay Area’s finest Baroque ensembles, and working frequently with some of the finest singers and orchestral players.

After 16 years in the Bay Area, he moved to Australia to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Queensland in Brisbane where he directed the university choral ensembles and taught ear training and choral conducting. While at the University of Queensland, Dr. Bolkovac was nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award, and also won a competitive national grant to travel to Berlin and The Library of Congress to study performance practice styles in early commercial recordings of the choral music of Brahms. He became known throughout Australia for his performances of Baroque oratorios, his many international workshops, and artistic leadership of the Brisbane Early Music Festival.

His performances in Australia received consistently favorable reviews in the local and national press:

• “An inspired performance . . . Handel’s noble phrases were shaped with skill and ingenuity . . .” –The Sunday Mail, Brisbane, Australia
• “Bolkovac’s Maccabeus has, before all else, style . . . Concentus, now three years old, has developed a distinctive, baroque tone of colour, light and sharp definition.” –The Australian, Sydney
• “The general joy of the Concentus singers responding to conductor Bolkovac’s exacting sensitivity made this a performance to savour.” –Courier-Mail, Brisbane

After four busy and productive years in Australia he returned to the United States in 1999 and took up the position of Primrose Fuller Professor of Choral Music at The Hartt School, leading its Vocal Studies Division from 2001-2013 and retiring in 2020. In 2003 he became the Artistic Director of the New Haven Chorale. He has conducted numerous performances with the New Haven Chorale in collaboration with The Hartt School choruses and Symphony Orchestra, The Hartford Symphony, The New Haven Symphony, and the Hartford Chorale. He studied conducting for 2 years in Hungary and earned his doctorate from Stanford University.