Distinguished Concerts International - New York

Co-Founder and General Director

Combining 25 years of experience in the arts with a passion for creating a new cultural landscape in changing times, Iris Derke enjoys a diverse career as an entrepreneur, executive, and producer. Derke is Co-Founder and General Director of Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY), a major production company encompassing large-scale concerts at numerous prestigious concert venues, from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York to Disney Hall in Los Angeles, as well as a recital series, a Broadway workshop, a Mentoring Program for Conductors, and the Premiere Project, an active commissioning program. DCINY has brought together several thousands of talented artists and musicians from across the globe in performance. Derke is also a frequent collaborator of such esteemed artists as Eric Whitacre, Karl Jenkins, Morten Lauridsen, and Bob Chilcott, presenting numerous world and American premieres of their works.

Ms. Derke is a major contributor to the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, National Collegiate Choral Organization, and the International Federation of Choral Music, among other organizations. She recently presented at the Association of British Choral Directors Conference in Leeds, UK.

Also an active flautist in the New York area, Ms. Derke made her solo Carnegie Hall performance debut at Weill Recital Hall and debuted at Lincoln Center with the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra International. New York Concert Review praised Ms. Derke's "attentive and loving performance...[providing] celestial music...and heart-rending sequences". Additional solo appearances have taken her to France, Poland, and across the United States. Ms. Derke can be heard on numerous studio recordings for film, television, and educational music software.

A native of Santa Monica, California, Ms. Derke received her B.A. from UCLA, with continued graduate and postgraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music and at London's Royal College of Music in the United Kingdom.

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