About the Founding Conductor

Sadly, our beloved longtime Music Director, Maestro Dingwall Fleary passed away suddenly on New Year’s Eve, 2022, mid-way through his 51st season leading the orchestra that he founded. Dingwall was highly regarded for his outstanding overall musicianship, and orchestra-building skills. He was recognized in various musical capacities, from conductor to pianist, harpsichordist, organist, and pedagogue throughout the Washington, D.C., area. He was chosen as the founding conductor of The McLean Symphony—first known as the McLean Chamber Orchestra—from its inception.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he was greatly influenced by Vladimir Golshmann, the conductor of the St. Louis Symphony, who expanded his love of orchestral music. Fleary studied at the University of Kansas at Lawrence and Northwestern University. At both institutions, he received highest honors. In 1962 he accepted teaching positions at Bennett College and Vassar College.

Since moving to the Washington area in 1968 Maestro Fleary became widely known as a conductor, teacher, coach, lecturer, and advisor to aspiring artists. He scripted and starred in a two-man stage production titled The Measure of a Man: The Life of Paul Robeson. The production had its premiere at The National Archives in Washington, DC. Following further studies at the L’Accademia Musicale di Chigiana in Siena, Italy, he became a contestant in the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conductor’s competition in 1970 and in which he ranked in the top ten of over 150 worldwide contestants. It was after that achievement that he was called to the attention of the directors of McLean’s Academy of Musical Arts to organize an amateur orchestra in the McLean community. In addition, Mr. Fleary was invited to guest conduct principal orchestras in St. Louis, Fort Worth, and Baltimore, among others. He also participated as a conductor for Mozart Festivals in Salzburg and Vienna, Austria. For five years he was the music coordinator/director for the International Children’s Festival at the Wolf Trap Park for the Performing Arts, and he served four terms on the board as a member of the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Concurrent with his position with The McLean Symphony, he was the Music Director of the Reston Community Orchestra since 1997, and he also served as Director of Music and Organist at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Bethesda, Maryland.

For his dedication to local communities, Mr. Fleary was the first to receive the Outstanding Artist Award from the McLean Citizen’s Association, and he was the recipient of countless local, state and national awards for his musical involvements from organizations such as the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for the programming of contemporary music, the Arts Council of Fairfax, and gubernatorial awards and proclamations from the Commonwealth of Virginia.