Kristo Kondakci

Kristo Kondakçi occupies a unique platform as a conductor, social entrepreneur, teacher, and speaker. He made his professional conducting debut with the Albanian National Orchestra in fall 2014 and his opera debut with the Vienna Summer Music Festival Opera in summer 2018.

Based in Boston, MA (USA), Kondakçi is the co-founder and conductor of Eureka Ensemble, the music director of the Kendall Square Orchestra, and the music director of the Narragansett Bay Symphony. He also regularly guest conducts the National Orchestra of Albania.

His January 2020 appearance with Enigma Chamber Opera — featuring sold-out performances of Benjamin Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw” — received critical acclaim from the Boston Globe, stating that “Kondakçi commanded a keen chamber orchestra and deftly balanced its dynamics with the singers.”

As a teacher, Kondakçi coaches chamber music at Harvard University as a non-resident music tutor at Pforzheimer House. In 2019, Kondakçi served on the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst as professor and interim director of orchestras, stepping in for conductor Morihiko Nakaraha while he was on leave. He has also made a significant contribution to Mahler research through his reconstruction of the original version of Mahler's 1st Symphony. He currently teaches young conductors in a private studio.

As a social entrepreneur, Kondakçi has helped launch six different musical organizations, such as Boston Hope Music (2020), a digital platform providing musical ‘dosages’ to recovering COVID-19 patients at Boston Hope Field Hospital; and the Women’s Chorus (2018), a choral program for women experiencing homelessness & poverty in Boston, that has engaged more than 100 people, ages 17 to 82. The chorus has been featured in the Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, among other publications, with a NowThisNews video on the program reaching over 3 million views online. In 2019, Kondakçi received an Urban Service Award for his work with Eureka Ensemble from the Berklee School of Music.

As a speaker, Kondakçi works closely with corporate and executive leaders from around the globe on leadership development in collaboration with Kendall Square Orchestra and has given a TEDx@BeaconStreet talk on the power of classical music to enact social change. He also serves on the TEDxYouth@BeaconStreet Advisory Board and coaches young speakers in preparation for their TED talks.

Recent engagements include: “Symphony for Science” with Kendall Square Orchestra at Symphony Hall featuring musicians from the Boston Symphony and Pops, including Keith Lockhart on piano; concert with Eureka Ensemble entitled “Through Struggle to the Stars” featuring immigrant/refugee youth, singers from the Women’s Chorus, and the monumental Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony; and, a talk at the 2019 League of American Orchestras National Conference on the “Orchestra as a Community Organization.”

Kondakçi resides in Cambridge, MA and spends his free time composing, volunteering at local shelters, reading and hiking.