About the SSO | Shreveport Symphony Orchestra

The SSO was formed by a handful of interested local citizens with founding Music Director, John Shenaut, and experienced tremendous growth until his retirement in 1981. After three years under Principal Conductor Paul Strauss, followed by Interim Music Director Marjorie Deutsch, the SSO selected Peter Leonard as its second Music Director and Conductor in 1984, who remained with the Shreveport Symphony until 1996. Dennis Simons was selected as the SSO’s third Music Director and served from 1996 until 2003.

An international search for the orchestra’s fourth Music Director began in the summer of 2003 and culminated with five finalists conducting the SSO during the 2004-2005 season. In August 2005, Maestro Michael Butterman was appointed the fourth Music Director in the orchestra’s 64-year history.

Kermit Poling, Associate Conductor and former Concertmaster, served as the Interim Music Director/Resident Conductor during the three-year transition period.

Music Director of three American orchestras and a sought-after guest conductor, Michael Butterman is acclaimed for his creative artistry and innovative programming. Foundational to his dynamic career is a deep commitment to audience development and community engagement. Making his home in Shreveport, he has led the Shreveport Symphony through an unprecedented era of artistic growth during his two decades of leadership. He is also the Music Director of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, which he has led to national prominence, resulting in an invitation to open the Kennedy Center's inaugural SHIFT Festival of American Orchestras in 2017, and the Williamsburg Symphony, which has been featured over two dozen times on nationwide public radio since he began his tenure there in 2022. He recently concluded a transformative tenure as Music Director of the Lancaster Symphony, during which subscriptions reached an all-time high. Prior to these appointments, Mr. Butterman was with the Rochester Philharmonic for nearly two decades as Principal Conductor for Education and Community Engagement, concurrently serving as the Associate and Resident Conductor for the Jacksonville Symphony.

As a guest conductor, Michael Butterman has led many of the country's preeminent ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Houston Symphony. Other recent appearances include performances with the Fort Worth Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Hartford Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, California Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, El Paso Symphony, Mobile Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Pensacola Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, and Victoria Symphony (British Columbia). Summer appearances include Tanglewood, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, and the Wintergreen Music Festival in Virginia. He is also a frequent guest conductor for Cuba's renowned Havana Chamber Orchestra.

Mr. Butterman gained international attention as a diploma laureate in the Prokofiev International Conducting Competition and as a finalist in the prestigious Besancon International Conducting Competition. As the recipient of the Seiji Ozawa Fellowship, he studied at Tanglewood with Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, and Maestro Ozawa, with whom he shared the podium to lead the season's opening concert. Earlier, Mr. Butterman was sponsored by UNESCO to lead the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Moldova in a concert of music by great American masters.

Also an experienced opera conductor, Michael Butterman served for six years as Music Director of Opera Southwest in Albuquerque. During much of that time, he was also Director of Orchestral Studies at the LSU School of Music and was Principal Conductor of LSU Opera Theater. As its Associate Music Director, he led Ohio Light Opera through two festivals, conducting over 35 performances each season. Previously, he held the post of Associate Conductor of Columbus Pro Musica Orchestra and served as Music Director of the Chamber Opera, Studio Opera, and Opera Workshop at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

While at Indiana University, Mr. Butterman conducted a highly acclaimed production of Leonard Bernstein's little-known 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a series of performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, receiving unanimous praise from publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Variety, and USA Today. He was subsequently invited to New York at the request of the Bernstein estate to prepare a performance of a revised version of the work.

Michael Butterman's work has been featured in more than three dozen nationwide broadcasts on public radio's Performance Today. His newest recording, Emporium: The Music of Aldo Lopez-Gavilan, on the Reference Recordings label, is garnering significant critical acclaim and radio airtime. His work can also be heard on two CDs recorded for the Newport Classics label and on an album in which he conducts the Rochester Philharmonic and collaborates with actor John Lithgow. Michael Butterman is represented by Cadenza Artists and is a voting member of the Recording Academy/GRAMMY Awards®.

Your Shreveport Symphony

Since its founding in 1948, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has become Louisiana’s oldest continually operating professional orchestra.

Our History

An international search for the orchestra’s fourth Music Director began in the summer of 2003 and culminated with five finalists conducting the SSO during the 2004-2005 season. In August 2005, Maestro Michael Butterman was appointed the fourth Music Director in the orchestra’s 64-year history.

Kermit Poling, Associate Conductor and former Concertmaster, served as the Interim Music Director/Resident Conductor during the three-year transition period.

Music Director

Michael Butterman