MDSO Names Matthew Sheppard as New Music Director
In May, the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra (MDSO) announced the appointment of conductor Matthew Sheppard as the ensemble’s next music director. Sheppard is well known across Illinois as a conductor and educator. In addition to his new post with the MDSO, Sheppard serves as Artistic Director of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Hyde Park Youth Symphony, Music Director of the Danville Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra and the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company of Chicago.
The MDSO was established in the early 1920s when the Millikin University Orchestra combined with an established community orchestra. Since 1996, the MDSO has transitioned from a college–community model to a fully auditioned professional orchestra with a full-time music director. In addition to conducting the MDSO, the music director serves on the faculty at Millikin University. This aspect of the job was a major draw for Sheppard, a passionate music educator who thrives in positions that allow him to be “at the intersection of teaching and performing,” he said.
“In my career, one of the things that I’ve loved the most is the ability to both teach and perform,” he expressed. “I think that conducting is such a wonderful thing, partly because no matter what level of ensemble I’m working with, I’m always doing some degree of teaching and always doing some degree of performing.”
While the kind of teaching varies depending on the level of the ensemble, he maintains that there’s always an element of teaching to a conductor’s job, even with professional orchestras such as the MDSO. “I am teaching as the resident expert on that repertoire that we’re studying that day together in an orchestral setting,” he explained. “I’m teaching my understanding and interpretation of the music, and I’m helping to convey that to the audience.”
Plans for next semester are still in the works, but at Millikin he will teach conducting classes, honors seminars, and intro-level courses on aural skills and music theory—“things that give students the grounding they need to be really excellent, successful artists and communicators of music,” he said.
When asked about his plans for the future of the MDSO, he intends to use the first year to get to know the orchestra better. Even though he has experience working with the orchestra from the two concert cycles he guest conducted last year, he is excited to get to know the players on a deeper level.
He then looks forward to shaping what the next few years will look like for the ensemble by “bringing all of the artistry and teaching and innovation in programming and creating transformative experiences for our audiences,” he said. He hopes to make every orchestral experience something special, or as he put it, “something that you come away from feeling absolutely inspired and awestruck.”
Above all, Sheppard wants to ensure that the orchestra “remains front and center as a vibrant arts and community engine,” he said. “Millikin University has a long history of engaging with Decatur in particular through the arts, and the School of Music at Millikin is innovative and allows for students to be self-starters, to be creative in their own projects, and to be out and about in the community.” He hopes to bring that same level of community engagement to the MDSO. Given the large scale of a symphony orchestra, it is logistically difficult to mount pop-up concerts, so they will have to devise creative solutions to bring the orchestra to the community, rather than expecting the community to come to them.
Sheppard already has a successful track record of connecting an orchestra with its surrounding community in his work as the music director of the Danville Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 2024. (Read our interview with Sheppard from 2024 here.) “There is an incredible esprit de corps among [the DSO] now, and the audience is so engaged and so enthusiastic about the work we’re doing and the types of concerts we’re doing,” he said.
One such concert that exemplifies the DSO’s increased visibility in the community took place this past March, when the DSO helped kick off celebrations for Vermillion County’s 200th anniversary. To mark this milestone, the DSO commissioned a new work for the first time in the orchestra’s history. The intent was to “capture in sound the stories and the spirit, as well as the potential future, of Vermillion Country,” Sheppard explained. The result was “Where the Rivers Meet” by Tim Corpus.
“Our composer, Tim Corpus, visited multiple times, spent time at museums, interviewed folks, and created a piece that was just a smash hit,” Sheppard said. “Everyone loved it. Audience members came up to me afterwards with tears in their eyes and said that they had lived in Vermilion County for seven decades, and they could hear it in this piece. That type of connection to the community matters a lot. So, it’s been very exciting to be able to do that at the same time as create a really reinvigorated sense of artistry amongst the musicians themselves.”
Sheppard will continue as music director of both the DSO and the MDSO and maintain his other posts upstate. How does he do it all? “I have a calendar, and I stay on top of it,” he said with a laugh. In addition to careful advanced planning, he credits a “wonderful support system of family and colleagues” who help make it all possible. “It takes a lot, but I get a lot of joy out of the work that I do with everyone, and it’s truly a pleasure.”
Stay tuned for the 2026–27 season announcements from both the Danville Symphony Orchestra and Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra later this summer.
