victor muenzer, music director
Vic Muenzer is a conductor who served as Music Director of the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra (PRCO)/Discover Symphony from 2012 to 2020. Under his leadership, the orchestra played to its first sold-out concert in the history or the organization. The orchestra was also highly praised for its performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. He conducted the orchestra in well-received performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Orff’s Carmina Burana. In 2016, he and the PRCO initiated a second concert series in the northern suburbs of Chicago. In 2019, the orchestra was proud to give the North American premiere of Kareem Roustom’s Adrift on the Wine-Dark Sea, with clarinet soloist Kinan Azmeh, a member of the Silk Road Ensemble.
In the fall of 2025, Muenzer was appointed Music Director and Executive Director of a new orchestra, Third Coast Symphony, based in the Chicago area. Third Coast Symphony will perform at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, IL, and in venues primarily on the west and south sides of Chicago. The debut concerts are planned for May 2026. The orchestra is planning a robust commissioning program to inspire works written by composers from the communities it serves.
Muenzer has been passionate about bringing classical music to young people. In 2013, the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra unveiled a Halloween-themed family concert. Working with the Park Ridge Park District and the Chamber of Commerce, the orchestra built events around the concert that involved the entire downtown business community. Trick or treating, storytelling, games and other fun activities were created for kids before the concert.
Muenzer has a long history of creating concerts for kids. In 2003, he created the Imagination Symphony, which debuted at Chicago’s Athenaeum Theater to a sold-out audience of parents and children, receiving rave feedback. The Imagination Symphony developed seven different concerts for children, all of which included original scripts and put actors onstage with the orchestra to create an interactive, theatrical event that introduced kids to classical music. For these efforts, Muenzer was named a “Parent of the Month” by Chicago Parent Magazine.
Muenzer has also conducted the Seattle Symphony and members of the Utah Symphony in recordings for the Northsound label.
Since 2015, Muenzer has served as the Senior Audio Producer for the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming, returning to a role in which he saw much success early in his career. In the 1980s and 90s, he produced over 75 classical symphonic recordings working with orchestras and conductors such as Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Raymond Leppard and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony. In 1993, he produced a recording with Itzhak Perlman and the Chicago Symphony that spent five weeks at the top of the Classical Billboard Chart. In 1994, he produced the Mozart and Beethoven Wind Quintets with Daniel Barenboim and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. This Erato Disques release won the 1995 GRAMMY® Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.
In May 2023, Reference Recordings released a complete cycle of the Beethoven Piano Concertos with legendary pianist Garrick Ohlsson and Sir Donald Runnicles leading the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. Muenzer served as producer for this project. With the success and critical acclaim of the Beethoven project, the Grand Teton Music Festival is moving forward with commercial recordings of a complete Brahms Symphony cycle with Sir Donald Runnicles and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. Also to be released will be the Mahler Fifth and Seventh Symphonies and the Brahms Violin Concerto with soloist James Ehnes. Muenzer will serve as producer/engineer for all of these projects.
In 1985, Muenzer created Classic Digital, the first compact disc mastering facility in the Midwest. Classic Digital Records was founded in 1987, and in 1995 he created Clay Dog Records. In 1995, Clay Dog released StreetDreams, a recording of Chicago street musicians that captured hearts across the country. As producer, Muenzer was interviewed by Noah Adams of NPR's All Things Considered, and the project was covered by feature stories on ABC's Good Morning America and in the Chicago Tribune and Associated Press.
Muenzer founded Classic Digital Syndications in 1994 and pioneered the syndication of weekly symphonic radio programs on compact disc, which now uses direct digital delivery. Muenzer has created four national radio series: Indianapolis On-the-Air, Center Stage from Wolf Trap, Concerts from the Library of Congress and Live from the Grand Teton Music Festival. Classic Digital Syndications has specialized in creating radio shows that invite people into the world of music and remove the mystery. Exciting people sharing music has always been a goal of the company’s production style. The goal is to present music in a warm, approachable way that pulls the listener into the broadcast. These radio shows are unscripted and recorded live, emphasizing spontaneity and excitement.
Updated January 2026