Mahanaim Orchestra, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall
As a conductor, Kevin Sherwin serves on the conducting faculty of the undergraduate Mahanaim Music Program in Huntington, New York, where he is Principal Conductor of the Mahanaim Orchestra. Mr. Sherwin is also Music Director of the American Romantics Orchestra, which he co-founded, as well as Associate Artistic Director of the American Baroque Orchestra. Through both organizations, he has been an Artistic Leader for Carnegie Hall’s Link Up Program.
American Baroque Orchestra
Mr. Sherwin recently made his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall with the Mahanaim Orchestra in works by Prokofiev, Mendelssohn, Gounod, and others. As well, he has conducted across the United States in a wide-range of repertoire. He has been a featured conductor with the American Baroque Orchestra, leading world-premiere arrangements on recordings projects including “Memories of Eastern Europe” and “Little Liberia: Music from their Front Porch.” As Music Director of The American Romantics Orchestra, he has developed a specialty in 19th and early 20th century repertoire, incorporating distinctive insights into performance practice and pedagogy from early sound recordings, conducting the works of Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Elgar, Fauré, and Brahms, among others. Previously, The American Romantics Orchestra has been in residence at the New Haven Lawn Club, presenting concerts in collaboration with the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings with musicians from the Yale School of Music. He has also been featured as a conductor for the YoungArts New York Gala at the Metropolitan Museum’s Temple of Dendur, working with Tony Honoree, Michael McElroy.
In Winter 2025, he will be conducting the premiere recording of his concert suite arrangement for chamber orchestra from 19th-century Viennese composer Karl Goldmark’s 1875 opera, “The Queen of Sheba.” The performance, recording, and this project aim to reintroduce to contemporary audiences the extraordinary musical world of Karl Goldmark, a once celebrated but rarely performed Jewish composer of the late 19th-century and early 20th centuries. The project also draws links to Jewish liturgical music of Goldmark’s time, given that the composer was the son of a cantor to the Jewish congregation at Keszthely, Hungary.
The American Romantics Orchestra & Kathryn Aaron, soprano
Mr. Sherwin’s ongoing work and research in historical performance practice informs His talk “The Conductor on Early Film: Coordinating Romantic-Era Expression” was featured at conferences at the University of Oxford and the Jacobs School of Music. He also given talks on orchestral and historical performance practice at the Mannes School of Music, the University of Louisville, and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. As well, he has written articles on performance practice for the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Charles Ives Society. As well, his talk, “The Synagogal Music of 18th Century Amsterdam,” was featured at the Jacobs School of Music Historical Performance Conference, in connection with his performance of the Baroque and Classical style Jewish liturgical music of Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue, as preserved in the Ets Haim Library and the National Library of Jerusalem.
Mahanaim Orchestra, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall
Mr. Sherwin studied at Yale University, where graduated with Honors. Previously, he graduated from the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School, studying with Tali Roth. He continued his studies in guitar with Christopher Ladd and conducting with Mark Bailey. Mr. Sherwin is a Fellow at Timothy Dwight College, Yale University.