Artistic Director and conductor Pasquale Laurino is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his career in music this season with conducting engagements throughout the Midwest including the world premiere of the Milwaukee Ballet’s critically acclaimed Peter Pan. Guest conducting appearances this season include the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Elmhurst Choral Union, the Sheboygan Symphony, the Skokie Valley Symphony and the Skylight Opera Theatre. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and trained as a violinist and conductor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Indiana University, his principal teachers were Thomas Moore and Franco Gulli.  Pasquale Laurino began his professional career in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he has appeared regularly with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and as concertmaster of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, the Skylight Opera Theatre, the Bel Canto Chamber Orchestra and several community ensembles. It was in his capacity as concertmaster of the Milwaukee Opera Company that he was first approached to conduct his first opera, I Pagliacci. This "trial by fire" led to an invitation to conduct the popular Music Under the Stars series. For several years, Mr. Laurino was the conductor and later music director of some of the most important works in the symphonic, popular, musical theater and fully staged opera productions. He served as the artistic director for five years of the chamber orchestra Sinfonia Concertante where he led concerts from the concertmaster position. He was appointed conductor and artistic director of the Concord Chamber Orchestra from 1987-92. Maestro Laurino’s artistic home for over two decades has been the Skylight Opera Theatre where he has conducted everything from the bel canto masterworks La Cenerentola, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Pasquale, The Abduction from the Seraglio and Lucia di Lammermoor to La Boheme and The King and I. In 2002, the Copland opera The Tender Land appeared on PBS with Maestro Laurino conducting and providing commentary during the intermission feature. In 2004 he conducted the premiere production of Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince directed by Francesca Zambello. He is returning to the Skylight to conduct Cosi fan tutte in 2011. Mr. Laurino is the associate conductor of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra and regularly conducts the popular Nutcracker productions. Long committed to string pedagogy, he has been on the faculty of Carroll College, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and the University of WI- Fox Valley as conductor, violin/viola teacher and as a chamber music coach. Maestro Laurino currently resides in Chicago where he is a conductor with L’Opera Piccola and guest conductor of Light Opera Works. He plays baroque violin in Ars Antiqua and Haydn on the Lake. Mr. Laurino has served as concertmaster for the Northwest Indiana Symphony, DuPage Opera and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Laurino has participated in numerous festivals in Europe and the States including the Macerata Opera and Festivale della Valle d’Itria in Italy and the Gent Opera Festival in Belgium. In 2005 he joined the faculty of the Rocky Ridge Music Festival as conductor and violinist.