Dr. Andrew M. Kurtz

Music Director

Gulf Coast Symphony founder Dr. Andrew M. Kurtz enters his twenty-eighth season as the Symphony’s Music Director, President & CEO. His deep-rooted commitment to new work, community, and education, combined with a vibrant artistic vision, has led to creating and nurturing one of the most dynamic arts organizations in the region.

He was named the 2007 Performing Artist of the Year at Lee County’s Angel of the Arts Awards. Kurtz’s repertoire encompasses a wide range of music styles, from baroque to contemporary, and multiple genres, including symphonic, opera, ballet, musical theater, jazz, cantorial, and symphonic pops.

Kurtz also served as General Director of Center City Opera Theater, a professional opera company in Philadelphia dedicated to new work, new audiences, and new artists. During his sixteen-year tenure, he led over four dozen productions, including numerous world or regional premieres. Notable productions that received international praise and recognition include the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (chamber version), the East Coast premiere of Daniel Catan’s Il Postino, the world premiere of Paul Morovec’s Danse Russe, and the world premiere of Michael Ching’s Slaying the Dragon.

Kurtz was the international tour conductor for CANTORS: A Faith In Song, featuring three of the world’s leading cantors, and now is the tour conductor for the NEW YORK CANTORS. In 2022, he and the Gulf Coast Symphony recorded TRINITY: CLASSICALLY IRISH for PBS, and he serves as the show’s tour conductor. He served as the Music Director of the Florida Jewish Philharmonic Orchestra and as Producing Artistic Director of Synergy Productions, a professional musical theater company in Southwest Florida.

Kurtz is the past president of the board of the Lee County Alliance for the Arts. An avid arts educator, Maestro Kurtz was Resident Music Director at the Luzerne Music Center. In 2001, he won First Prize in the Dell’Arte di Firenze International Conducting Competition and made his European conducting debut in Florence. In 1995, Kurtz made his international operatic debut in Tel Aviv while working as a staff conductor at the Israel Vocal Arts Institute. In 1997, he conducted the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s educational tour production of The Best of Puccini. He was a scholarship conducting student at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival and boasts numerous other conducting credits, including the Pennsylvania Opera Theater, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Charlotte Symphony, Gonzaga Symphony, and the Ocean City Pops.

Kurtz completed his doctoral studies in conducting at the Peabody Conservatory and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia, where he received his master’s degree in music history and a bachelor of arts in music and drama. A native of Philadelphia, Kurtz has called Southwest Florida home for 30 years, where he currently resides with his wife, Julie, and their son, Benjamin.