David Stewart Wiley

Conductor

Longtime music director shaping Roanoke Symphony's mix of classics and American pops.

Hear about it when Wiley is on a program.

Following is how the site keeps watch for you. When Wiley is named on a concert program, we tell you. You never have to come back and check.

A note in the bell at the top of the page, and a line in your daily email if you want one.
Anywhere in the country, or only near home. Set a home city on your page and you can keep a follow within your own radius.
It shapes what we suggest to you on your page, so the more you follow, the better the suggestions.
Want it in your calendar too? Your page has a personal calendar for Google, Apple or Outlook that fills itself with everything you follow.
Press Following again to stop, any time. Everything you follow is listed on your page.

You need an account to follow, and membership is free, for life. We never sell what you follow, and only you can see it unless you make your profile public.

Join free, for life or sign in

Add to my calendar

In short

David Stewart Wiley is the conductor leading the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra through a season that spans Sinatra standards, Handel's Messiah, and Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony. He also composed a short fanfare for the orchestra's Virginia 250th-anniversary program, suggesting a conductor who is also invested in writing music for the ensemble he leads.

On the podium

Wiley's Roanoke programs move between American popular repertoire and orchestral staples, so listeners can expect a season built around contrast. The Sinatra program leans on Porter, Loesser, and Anka arrangements built for a big-band-meets-orchestra sound, while the Grofé Grand Canyon Suite and Copland's Lincoln Portrait (spoken narration over orchestra) point to a taste for American scene-painting and patriotic occasion pieces. Elsewhere, the Messiah performance and a Poulenc Gloria for soprano and chorus show a willingness to program choral works alongside symphonic ones. The season closes with Strauss's tone poem Till Eulenspiegel, a rapid, mischievous orchestral showpiece, paired with Rachmaninoff's lush, melody-driven Second Symphony, giving listeners a clear sense of a conductor comfortable across styles from pops to large-scale Romantic works.

Written by OrchestraFinder, reviewed September 2026.

David Stewart Wiley

In short

On the podium

How can we help?

Thank you!