concerts. In 2001 he became music director of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, in 2004 he added the music directorship of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and in 2008 was named principal conductor of the Duluth Festival Opera. Following a remarkably successful 12-year run as music director in Duluth, which saw record audience and income growth, Thakar was named Music Director Emeritus. As a guest conductor Thakar has appeared with orchestras across the United States and Canada, including those of Washington, DC (National Symphony Orchestra), San Antonio, Charlotte, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Richmond, Charlotte, Portland, Wichita, Ann Arbor, Flint, Sarasota, among many others, and with the Baltimore Opera Theatre and Opera on the James. Publications On the Principles and Practice of Conducting (2016), issued by the University of Rochester Press. Looking for the "Harp" Quartet: An Investigation into Musical Beauty (2011), issued by the University of Rochester Press in the Eastman Studies in Music series. Lauded as "A 225-page tour de force," (Midwest Book Review) the book is a comprehensive examination of the experience of musical beauty: what it is, and how the composer, performer, and listener each contributes. Counterpoint: Fundamentals of Music Making (1990), issued by Yale University Press, in Italian by Rugginenti Editore of Milan, and in Czech by Nakladatelství Akademie múzických umění. The book uses species counterpoint to lead to an understanding of how different successions of tones, and different inflections of the performance, lead to different quality experiences. "Remembrance of Things Future" (written with the assistance of Paul Henry Smith), presented at the First Symposium on Phenomenology and the Fine Arts sponsored by the World Phenomenology Association, Harvard University, April 1987. The paper explored the structure of the listener's consciousness in the experience of musical beauty. Recordings IGNAZ PLEYEL Symphonies Concertantes, Violin Concerto in D David Perry, violin; with Isabella Lippi, violin, and Victoria Chiang, viola Baltimore Chamber Orchestra NAXOS 8.570320 JONATHAN LESHNOFF Violin Concerto, Distant Reflections Charles Wetherbee, violin Baltimore Chamber Orchestra NAXOS American Classics 8.559398 KARL STAMITZ and ANTON HOFFMEISTER Viola Concertos Victoria Chiang, viola Baltimore Chamber Orchestra NAXOS 8.572162 External links Markand Thakar website Looking for the "Harp" Quartet Baltimore Chamber Orchestra website Peabody Conservatory Markand Thakar on Music and Conducting BCO Conducting Programs with Markand Thakar Baltimore Chamber Orchestra on YouTube "MENDELSSOHN Symphony no. 3, Scottish" MENDELSSOHN Symphony no. 4 "Italian," mvt 1 TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for Strings, mvt 3 Élégie BEETHOVEN Symphony no. 3