Kevin McMahon’s primary opera work occurred in Chicago and Rome, Italy. He served as Conductor for the Lincoln Opera of Chicago for six seasons and as Resident Conductor of the Rome Festival Opera, Orchestra, and Ballet for ten seasons. Over the course of his career, McMahon has conducted more than 100 orchestras, opera companies, choirs, and ballet companies.

Maestro McMahon leads a broad range of operatic repertory, including works by Barber, Bartók, Bernstein, Bellini, Bizet, Donizetti, Hindemith, Humperdinck, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Menotti, Moore, W. A. Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Rossini, Johann Strauss II, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Verdi, and Wagner. His world premiere opera credits include Jonathan Schwabe’s The Hard Years, The Sojourner (after Carson McCullers), and The Bake Shop Ghost (after the children’s book by Jacqueline Ogburn). Other premieres include Clarisse Tobia’s Poe Requiem (words from various works of Edgar Allan Poe) and McMahon’s own show Marilyn Monroe. He also led the world premiere of Maud Powell—Queen of Violinists by composer Andrzej Hanzelewicz and librettist Carol Shamory.

McMahon’s orchestral repertory includes major works such as Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Debussy’s La Mer, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, Bizet’s Roma Symphony, among many others.

His guest conducting engagements have included the South Bend Symphony, New York City Repertory Orchestra, Spokane Symphony, Lawrence University Orchestra, Fresco Opera Theatre, Elgin Symphony and Choral Union, Georgia Ballet and Symphony, Lincoln Park Sinfonietta, Evanston Symphony Orchestra, Southfeld Ballet, Varna Philharmonic, Forfest (Czech Republic), Cassini Ensemble, and Damiana Ensemble (Czech Republic), among others.

McMahon trained as a violinist, following in the footsteps of his musician parents—his mother a singer and choral conductor, and his father a keyboard artist who conducted bands and orchestras. He holds a Bachelor and Master of Music in Violin Performance, as well as a second Master’s in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting, with a minor in Opera Production, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was a Collins Wisconsin Distinguished Fellow. 

He studied with many of the important conducting pedagogues of his era, several of whom authored major conducting texts. Continuing that legacy, McMahon is currently working on a book on opera conducting.