Conor Whalen is a Los Angeles based conductor, currently serving as the Music & Artistic Director of the Conejo Valley Choral Society and Director of Choral Activities at Chaminade Preparatory High School. In his first season with CVCS, he successfully put on concerts of Beethoven’s Mass in C, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, Duruflé’s Requiem, and Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs. Previously, he has served as the assistant conductor for the Newburyport Choral Society, Boston Conservatory at Berklee Opera, and OperaNEO (San Diego). Recently, his conducting credits in opera include working on productions of Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and a concert of Finzi and Tchaikovsky, featuring tenor Fran Daniel Laucerica.

Conor had his European conducting debut in 2021, conducting the Morovian Philharmonic in a performance of Dvorak Symphony 7. He has also appeared in masterclasses with Maestro Charles Olivieri-Munroe and Alice Parker. Conor also was invited to compete in Budapest, Hungary in the Anal Doráti International Conducting Competition in 2021, and was a top 20 contestant in the Erich Bergal Conducting Competition in Targu Mures, Romania. Conor completed his Master of Music in Choral Conducting at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in the Spring of 2020 as a student of Maestro Andrew Altenbach and Dr. George Case. He has also done extensive research on English composers with Dr. John Dressler. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Conor has a Bachelor of Science in Music from Murray State University. He currently resides in Los Angeles.