Conductor George Stelluto plays in Peoria — and around the world

George Stelluto is a jack of all trades. He has served as a guest conductor for many acclaimed ensembles, including the Atlanta, Milwaukee and San Diego symphonies, and in major concert halls of Europe, Asia and South America. From 2006 to 2016, he was resident conductor at New York’s Juilliard School, where he prepared the orchestra for visiting guest conductors. His first such assignment was rehearsing Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin for legendary maestro Pierre Boulez. “So, no pressure there,” Stelluto said with a chuckle.

Stelluto will be centerstage on Aug. 20 as he leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Ravinia’s annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular, which features the famed Russian composer’s 1812 Overture, complete with cannons. This year’s program also showcases three other Tchaikovsky masterworks: his Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Kevin Murphy as soloist), The Tempest Symphonic Fantasy and arias from the opera Eugene Onegin (featuring singers from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute).

The conductor’s anchor post is serving as music director of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, where he will start his 14th season this fall. It is a per-service or part-time orchestra, which draws musicians from Chicago, Bloomington, Ind., and St. Louis, as well as central Illinois. The ensemble presents one subscription concert a month from September through May, plus a range of auxiliary projects. Among them are two televised concert series, “SoundBites” and “Musical Discoveries,” which are broadcast across central and southern Illinois via public televisions stations in Peoria and Champaign.

Of his Peoria tenure, Stelluto said, “It’s been a real pleasure, because we’ve got a really good board and a great staff. Especially during COVID, we have courageous people down there, and we never shut down our season. I have to say I really couldn’t have been happier with the organization and the musicians. We were able to keep everybody employed and keep ourselves out there, providing cultural leadership for the region.”

At Juilliard, where he received an artist’s diploma in 2006 (he also holds two degrees from Yale), Stelluto directed programs for the school’s dance, theater and jazz departments. “I hate to use this hackneyed term, but it just became part of my DNA that you were going to do collaborative things,” he said. “I was exposed to this whole set of projects that really broadened my whole perspective, and I think that is really valuable.”