Darko Butorac currently serves as the Director of Orchestras at Northern Arizona University, a position he has held since 2004. He is also the newly appointed Music Director of the Missoula (Montana) Symphony Orchestra. His inspired performances, imaginative programming and passion for working with musicians of all ages has earned him international praise.
      Butorac is the 2004 Grand Prize Winner of the Fourth Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition where he was selected out of 24 competitors from 17 different countries for the Gold Medal. He also was awarded the Audience Favorite Prize. As the winner, he will conduct concerts across three continents during the 2006-2008 seasons.
       Throughout his career, Butorac has guest conducted such orchestras as the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Mendoza Symphony in Argentina, the Kharkov Symphony Orchestra, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with youth orchestras of San Francisco, Detroit, Tucson and Buffalo. He has also appeared with the Danish National Radio Symphony as part of the prestigious Nikolai Malko Conducting Competition. Future engagements include concerts with the Verde Valley Sinfonietta and the Dnepropetrovsk Symphony in the Ukraine.
       Previously, Butorac served as Music Director of the Musical Arts Youth Orchestra of Bloomington, Indiana, and Conductor with the Louisville Youth Orchestra. In March 2005, he was invited to participate in the American Symphony Orchestra League National Conducting Preview with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. The preview showcased eight young conductors from across the world “carefully chosen for their talent, accomplishments, and qualifications, who are ready to assume important professional conducting responsibilities with American orchestras.” 
       Butorac studied at the renowned American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival in 2003 and 2004, and was named the Assistant Conductor of the Aspen Opera Theater Center during his second summer, assisting noted opera conductors Arnold Oestman and Julius Rudel.
       Darko Butorac received his Master of Music degree from Indiana University, where he conducted over thirty concerts with the school's five major ensembles. He has also worked extensively at the Brevard Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and the University of Toronto, his alma mater. His principal mentors are David Effron and David Zinman.