Music & Artistic Director
A second season on the podium, leading the orchestra into its landmark 55th year.
A second season on the podium for Music & Artistic Director John Mason Hodges.
John Mason Hodges returns to the Monroe Symphony Orchestra as Conductor and Music Director for the 2026–2027 season — his second on the podium after a debut season warmly received across northeast Louisiana.
Based in Memphis, Tennessee, Hodges is a conductor, lecturer, composer, and writer. He holds degrees in music from the University of Maryland and Indiana University, studied with Leonard Bernstein through a summer studies program, and worked as a professional conductor from 1983 to 2009 — leading orchestras and choruses throughout the U.S. and abroad, including guest appearances with ensembles in Ukraine.
Away from the podium, Hodges lectures internationally on aesthetics, classical education, and music, and writes on the arts for various publications. He served as Associate Professor of Arts and Culture at Crichton College and is founder and director of the Center for Western Studies, serving as scholar-in-residence for the National Fellows movement.
He is also the co-creator and composer of GOLDEN, a new musical currently in development in New York City.
Orchestral music ranks up there with great plays, epic poetry, and the medieval cathedrals as the very height of human expression. Composers have used the language of music and the instruments of the orchestra to investigate and convey the joys and sorrows, the loves and sufferings, the humor and the chaos of human experience. I am delighted to continue exploring some of these great works with the musicians and audiences of northeast Louisiana.
— John Mason HodgesFive concerts under the leadership of Maestro Hodges, in the warm light of the concert hall.
