Conductor Zachary Carrettin is the Artistic Director of the Boulder Bach Festival, which celebrates its 35th season this year. He represents twenty-first century diversity in programming and a commitment to education, reflected in dynamic performances on period instruments, modern instruments, electric instruments, as well as collaborations with modern dance and film. He has performed in thirty countries on four continents, conducting symphony orchestras across Europe, the United States, and South America, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia and the National Symphony Orchestra of Moldova. His original compositions and arrangements have been presented by orchestras and new music ensembles internationally, from Brazil to Oman, and he conducted the first recording of the resurrected Symphony #1 by Gustavo Navarre. Additionally, he has collaborated with the Assad Brothers, the Tokyo String Quartet, and many luminaries in the early music world. His critical research has included multiple excursions in Italian archives, focusing on the work of Giuseppe Antonio Capuzzi (1755-1818). Carrettin performs on Cello da Spalla, viola, baroque/classical/romantic period and electric violins, and has served as concertmaster in a variety of projects including Ars Lyrica’s Grammy-nominated recording of Hasse’s Marc’ Antonio e Cleopatra, and the U.S. premiere of Vivaldi’s rediscovered opera Motezuma, with Musica Angelica and Long Beach Opera. An advocate of diversity in music, he toured one-hundred cities with Yanni and shared the stage with Ray Charles, the Black Crowes, Cake, Joan Jett and many others at festivals internationally; as Artist-in-Residence and Composer with Project Bandaloop aerial dance troupe, he premiered original work at the opening ceremony of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and the Dayton Center for the Performing Arts.

He holds degrees and professional certificates in multiple disciplines from Rice University Shepherd School of Music, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the National University of Music in Bucharest, Romania. Additionally, he studied orchestral and choral conducting, and early music performance practice in Germany, Belgium, Italy, and the United States.

Carrettin started the orchestral program at the University of St. Thomas, and significantly expanded the orchestral program at Sam Houston State University, prior to accepting the position of Artistic Director with Boulder Bach Festival.

The Bach festival is an impactful cultural offering in the State of Colorado; recent press reviews have stated:

“noble … revelatory … an overwhelming experience”
-Daily Camera
 
“an amazing range and depth of mood which was absolutely exhilarating.”
 -Opus Colorado
  
“Creative, provocative, and sensational … It is this kind of creative rethinking that keeps the great masterpieces alive in our times.”
-Sharps and Flatirons