Innovative and energetic conductor Demetrius Fuller has garnered critical acclaim at home and abroad. The 2025–2026 season marks his 20th as Music & Artistic Director of Florida’s Sinfonia Gulf Coast. Fuller has redefined the cultural landscape of Northwest Florida by offering inspiring and artistically inventive performances, exciting critics and patrons alike.
CONDUCTOR
Fuller is an award recipient from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, the Werner Foundation and the International Music Foundation. Fuller trained at the prestigious University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music, receiving both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees.
MUSICIAN
As an accomplished clarinetist, Fuller has performed in the Dame Myra Hess Chamber Music Series, sponsored by the International Music Foundation and broadcast live on Chicago’s WFMT 98.7 FM. Festival appearances include the Opera Theater of Lucca (Italy), David Oistrakh (Estonia), Aspen, Cabrillo and Eastern Music Festival (USA). He has appeared in master classes with Gustav Meier, Michael Tilson‑Thomas, Daniel Lewis, Marin Alsop, Neeme Järvi, Jorma Panula, Larry Rachleff, David Loebel and the late Robert Shaw. Fuller has been fortunate to work with various icons in the music industry including: Roberta Flack, Patti LaBelle, Bernadette Peters, Mary Wilson, Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, Vanessa Williams, Sharon Isbin, Chris Brubeck and Pink Martini, among others.
ARTS ADVOCATE
An advocate of contemporary music, Fuller has premiered, commissioned and/or collaborated with composers such as Augusta Read‑Thomas, Dorothy Hindman, Thomas Schneller, Ricardo Zohn‑Muldoon, Joel Hoffman, Moiya Callahan, Samuel Robles, Steven Winteregg, Tan Dun—giving the Southeastern U.S. premiere of his Crouching Tiger Concerto—and Chris Brubeck, giving the Southeastern U.S. premiere of both his violin concerto Spontaneous Combustion and symphonic tribute Ansel Adams: America, co‑composed with his father, the late Dave Brubeck. Fuller led the Southeast U.S. premiere of Identity – Zhongshan Zhuang, co‑composed by Victor Cheng and Michael Gordon Shapiro, and co‑commissioned and performed the U.S. premiere of Chris Brubeck and Guillaume Saint‑James Brothers in Arts, conducted the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s full orchestration of his electric violin concerto Seeing Is Believing, co‑commissioned Billy Childs’ Diaspora: Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra for Steven Banks, and this season has commissioned and will perform the world premiere of new dual concerto for harmonica and piano by Howard Levy.
INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM
Abroad, Fuller was invited several times by Maestro Kurt Masur to conduct the l’Orchestre Nationale de France (Paris) in a set of conductor readings. For two seasons, Fuller served as resident conductor of Brazil’s Festival of the Mountains in Poços de Caldas and was one of two conductors selected worldwide to conduct the Iraqi National Symphony and three other Iraqi orchestras in a groundbreaking Unity Academy in Erbil, Northern Iraq sponsored by American Voices and the U.S. Department of State.
LEADERSHIP
Fuller sits on the board of directors of the prestigious New York City‑based Young Concert Artists (YCA) and will continue to oversee the annual Sinfonia Gulf Coast Prize offered to a winner of the YCA finals each fall. In 2009, New York City‑based Musicians For Harmony appointed Maestro Fuller as one of three Artistic Advisors, an honor shared with musical luminaries Arnold Steinhardt of the renowned Guarneri String Quartet and violinist Cho‑Liang Lin.
Locally, Fuller serves as a Trustee of the Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation, is a past chair of the American Cancer Society’s Cattle Baron’s Ball, has served on the boards of Alaqua Animal Refuge, Cultural Arts Alliance, Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center, Okaloosa Arts Alliance and continues to serve as a grant panelist for the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. In 2023, Fuller was named as a mentor for Grammy U participants in the Grammy Awards/Recording Academy and in 2024 was elected to the Academy as its first professional member. Fuller was recently appointed to a four‑year term on the board of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
