American conductor Kevin Fitzgerald is a formidable musical leader. In July 2023, he won the Special Prize for the Best Performance of the Contemporary Piece at The Mahler Competition. Kevin is the first conductor to win this award, sponsored by the Mahler Foundation, which led to him conducting the world premiere of Bernd Richard Deutsch's Con Moto with the Bamberger Symphoniker during the final concert of the competition. In 2021, he was a Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellow and, beginning in 2019, has been awarded Career Assistance Grants by the Solti Foundation U.S. for four consecutive years.

He has been the Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony since the 2022-23, during which he conducted over thirty-five performances, including a fully-staged production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. In the 2023-24 Season, Kevin makes his subscription debut with the Jacksonville Symphony and pianist Joyce Yang, records Sean Shepherd's Concerto for Ensemble with the University of Chicago's Grossman Ensemble, and makes his subscription debut with the Cape Symphony. Further, Kevin will return to the New York Philharmonic as a cover conductor for three programs, in addition to assisting Stéphane Denève at the St. Louis Symphony.

Kevin founded the ÆPEX Contemporary Performance ensemble in 2015 in order to perform and promote contemporary classical composers from historically under-represented backgrounds. Additionally, Kevin co-produced and conducted “Requiem for Orlando,” a moving musical tribute to the victims of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando. Planned in under 48 hours, over 400 musical volunteers performed at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor to a full-capacity audience. He continues to seek ways to use music as an effective and therapeutic vessel for equity, healing, and social change.

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