Maestro Fleary celebrates his 15th year as RCO music director and principal conductor.
Dingwall Fleary is the conductor of two orchestras in Northern Virginia. They are the Reston Community
Orchestra, to which he was appointed in 1996, and The McLean Symphony, of which he is the founding music
director since its inception in 1972. In May, 2006 the Virginia General Assembly and the Fairfax County
Board of Supervisors recognized him for his musical leadership in Northern Virginia, and cited what was then
his ten years of service as conductor of the Reston Community Orchestra. Highly regarded for his
musicianship, he has distinguished himself as a conductor, pianist, harpsichordist, organist and chamber
musician.
A native of St. Louis, Fleary holds degrees from the University of Kansas, at Lawrence, and the School of
Music at Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois. Prior to moving to Northern Virginia in 1969, he
taught music and helped to develop a Kinder Music Program for pre-school children at Vassar College, in
Poughkeepsie, NY. Between 1970 to 1972 he studied, taught and performed extensively at the L'Accademia di
Chigiana, in Siena, Italy
A consummate musician, in addition to his work with instrumentalists, Dingwall Fleary is respected for the
ease and natural ability with which he is able to lead choral ensembles of all sizes. As a pianist, he has
had the distinction accompanying many performers from operatic personalities Robert McFerrin and Grace
Bumbry (both also St. Louis natives), to vocalist Nancy Wilson and Virginia-based song stylist, Beverly
Cosham. He created and performs in a two-man production titled, “The Measure of a Man: The Life of Paul
Robeson-A History through Words and Music” as pianist and narrator, which had its first performance at the
National Archives in 1987. It has since been presented in schools, universities and private organizations
throughout the country. He has appeared as a guest conductor and organist with the Finger Lakes Choral
Festival in upstate New York, both in Rochester and at the famous Chappaqua Music Center, and with the
principal orchestras of St. Louis, Baltimore, Forth Worth, Buffalo, in addition to numerous regional and
community orchestras and choruses, and recently had his debut as a guest conductor to the National Gallery
of Art Orchestra, in Washington, DC.
In June of 2010, maestro Fleary was invited by the City of Richmond to conduct a concert performance of the
famous Gershwin opera, Porgy and Bess, with the cast of the Virginia Opera and the Petersburg (Virginia)
Symphony Orchestra. Internationally, Fleary has participated in the Salzburg and Vienna Mozart Festivals in
Austria, and has conducted the Lausanne Festival Orchestra in Switzerland and the Rotterdam Philharmonic in
the Netherlands.
Fleary has received awards for his creative programming, and presentations of contemporary music from the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He has served as music director of the
International Children’s Festival at the Wolf Trap Farm Park, and for five years was a member of the
Virginia Commission for the Arts. In 1994 his native city of St. Louis inducted him into its Hall of Fame,
an honor which places him among the city’s most accomplished and respected individuals from a wide variety
of professions. Because of his involvement in community educational activities, he has been honored by
numerous community and citizen’s associations. Since 1988 Mr. Fleary has been director of music and organist
at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church, in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dingwall Fleary is the conductor of two orchestras in Northern Virginia. They are the Reston Community
Orchestra, to which he was appointed in 1996, and The McLean Symphony, of which he is the founding music
director since its inception in 1972. In May, 2006 the Virginia General Assembly and the Fairfax County
Board of Supervisors recognized him for his musical leadership in Northern Virginia, and cited what was then
his ten years of service as conductor of the Reston Community Orchestra. Highly regarded for his
musicianship, he has distinguished himself as a conductor, pianist, harpsichordist, organist and chamber
musician.
A consummate musician, in addition to his work with instrumentalists, Dingwall Fleary is respected for the
ease and natural ability with which he is able to lead choral ensembles of all sizes. As a pianist, he has
had the distinction accompanying many performers from operatic personalities Robert McFerrin and Grace
Bumbry (both also St. Louis natives), to vocalist Nancy Wilson and Virginia-based song stylist, Beverly
Cosham. He created and performs in a two-man production titled, “The Measure of a Man: The Life of Paul
Robeson-A History through Words and Music” as pianist and narrator, which had its first performance at the
National Archives in 1987. It has since been presented in schools, universities and private organizations
throughout the country. He has appeared as a guest conductor and organist with the Finger Lakes Choral
Festival in upstate New York, both in Rochester and at the famous Chappaqua Music Center, and with the
principal orchestras of St. Louis, Baltimore, Forth Worth, Buffalo, in addition to numerous regional and
community orchestras and choruses, and recently had his debut as a guest conductor to the National Gallery
of Art Orchestra, in Washington, DC.
