Artistic Team

Naples Community Orchestra is pleased to feature four outstanding conductors including the guest appearance of Max Rabinovitsj to open the season on January 29. Following Max are, Naples Philharmonic Associate Conductor, Radu Paponiu, Florida Gulf Coast University Director of Orchestral Studies, Kyle Szabo, and Naples own Popular Music Star, Jodie DeSalvo.

Max Rabinovitsj brings a remarkable professional background to the podium. In Europe, he founded the Trio da Vinci, which toured extensively on that continent. He was Director of Festivals in Entrecasteaux, France and in Sintra and Evora in Portugal. Max debuted as a solo recitalist in New York City at Alice Tully Hall, in Lincoln Center, and performed the Bach Double concerto in Carnegie Hall with Isaac Stern. As a conductor, he became well known for his interpretations of the classical repertoire and his work with Youth Orchestras. He conducted great artists such as Rostropovich, Jaime Laredo, Gil Shaham, Viktoria Mullova, Maria Joao Pires, Davide Gueringas, Roger Pascal, Pierre Amoyal and many others. As soloist, Max has played under James Levine, Leon Fleisher, Max Rudolf, Thomas Mayer, Walter Susskind, Vladimir Goldschman, Jerzy Semkov, Lukas Foss, Claudio Scimone, Eleazar De Carvalho, Michel Tabachnik, and Philippe Bender.

Max has been a Professor at Washington University, the University of Texas and the University of Evora (Portugal). He has also taught at the Nice Conservatory (France) and Edgecliff Academy in Cincinnati. He met his wife Mary, a harpist, when they were both students at The Curtis Institute of Music.Becoming Artistic Director of Naples Community Orchestra fulfilled a lifelong passion for conducting.

On January 29, Max returns to Naples to conduct NCO’s 2022 Season Opener featuring Beethoven’s 7th Symphony and Isabelle Durrenberger, violin.

Radu Paponiu is the Associate Conductor of the Naples Philharmonic and Director of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Since 2017, Radu has conducted the Naples Philharmonic in nearly forty different classical, education, and pops programs. As a guest conductor, Radu has appeared with the Transylvania State Philharmonic in Romania, Southwest Florida Symphony, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, North CarolinaSymphony, and National Repertory Orchestra. Radu has served as cover conductor on multiple occasions with the Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, and has assisted conductors including Andrey Boreyko, Iván Fischer, Stéphane Denève, Hans Graf, Donald Runnicles, Cristian Măcelaru, Bernard Labadie, and Leonidas Kavakos. A former faculty member of the Juilliard Pre-College Division, Radu continues his collaboration this season as conductor for the Southeast Asia Music Festival in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard in Shanghai, China.
On March 5, Radu Paponiu conducts Mozart’s Symphony #41. Alexandra Carlson, piano Chopin.

Conductor Kyle Szabo serves as Director of Orchestral Studies and Head of the String Area at the Bower School of Music, Florida Gulf Coast University. There, Szabo directs the Symphony, Chamber, and Philharmonia Orchestras, teaches violin, and runs the string chamber music program. He frequently travels throughout Florida as a clinician and adjudicator at competitions, and as a guest conductor with honors, all-state, professional and community orchestras. Szabo frequently performs as a violinist and chamber musician as well.
Szabo was previously a faculty member at Ripon College (Wisconsin) as Director of Orchestral Activities. Szabo earned a Doctorate in conducting at James Madison University, a Master of Music in violin performance from the Peabody Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Rutgers University.

On April 9, Kyle Szabo conducts the Gounod Symphony #1. Naples Philharmonic Principal Horn joins NCO for R. Strauss, Horn Concerto #1.

Jodie DeSalvo has captured national and international attention with her classical and jazz interpretations of the masters of keyboard literature. Upon winning the Artist International Competition in 1988, Ms. DeSalvo made her Carnegie Hall debut to critical acclaim with an encore performance two years later at Lincoln Center. She has been a top prize winner in the Young Keyboard Artists Competition, the American Music Scholarship Competition and the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition. A graduate of the Hartt and Manhattan Schools of Music, and a former student of John Browning and Gary Graffman, she is also a past recipient of the Artist Fellowship Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ms. DeSalvo has toured extensively as piano soloist appearing with the orchestras of Chicago, Geneva, Lucerne, San Francisco, Hartford, and Chautauqua under the batons of noted Maestros Christopher Wilkins, David Effron and Gisele Ben Dor. Having called Fort Wayne her home for nine years, she has appeared with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic numerous times under the direction of Ron Ondrejka and Edvard Tchivzhel as well as serving as principal orchestral pianist. A frequent soloist with the Naples Philharmonic, she has appeared on the classical and pops series with Jorge Mester, Jeff Tyzik, Bruce Hangen., and Stuart Chafetz. A noted chamber player, Ms. DeSalvo has appeared with cellists Sharon and Keith Robinson, violinists Glenn Basham and Jennifer Frautschi, pianist Robert Wells, the Miami String Quartet, the Bergonzi String Quartet and members of the American String Quartet. She has performed at such prestigious festivals as Brevard, Chautauqua, and Birch Creek, where she has served as the piano faculty chair for the last twenty-two seasons. She has performed over 100 times on National Public Radio.

Ms. DeSalvo has become equally proficient as a conductor. Having built choral programs in several private and public schools, she has traveled twice with her high school chorus on an extensive tour of Italy during Easter week. The chorus performed in Venice, and Florence, and Siena, culminating in a performance in Rome on Easter Sunday. She returned to Italy and Greece the following season and also completed a concert tour throughout England and France. Last spring, Ms. DeSalvo performed with the chorus on a ten day tour of Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Italy and the group also returned to Carnegie Hall for a second command performance as part of the National Youth Choir.

Jodie DeSalvo loves to play the piano and loves to have fun, so it is within the last ten years that she has broadened her horizons on the concert stage by giving tribute concerts to the art of Victor Borge, renowned pianist/comedian. She has found great joy in interpreting some of his best loved skits, including Phonetic Punctuation and Inflationary Language, as well as writing some of her own original material. These concert performances are well loved and enjoyed by the older audiences who knew him, and the younger audiences who have grown to love his artistry and humor.
Ms. DeSalvo has recorded and produced 13 CDs of solo literature, chamber, and choral music, including three CD’S with Naples Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Basham. This season, Jodie and Glenn are celebrating their thirtieth year together on the concert stage with two different performances at Artis Naples in January. Ms. DeSalvo has retired from her ten year position as Director of Fine Arts and Artistic Director of concerts at Seacrest Country Day School to concertize more extensively. Ms. DeSalvo’s recital/ lecture series at Artis-Naples is now in its fifteenth year and has sold out for the last eight seasons.

Ms. DeSalvo will conduct two performances of popular music on Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 31. The program features Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, American Favorites and Broadway star, Jonathan Zeng.