Ronald Demkee
Associate Conductor/Pops Conductor
Allentown Symphony Orchestra

Ronald Demkee has played in the Allentown Symphony Orchestra since 1980 and has served as Associate Conductor since 1983, working with conductors Donald Voorhees, William Smith and Diane Wittry. Over the years he has conducted ASO Young Peoples Concerts, Pops Concerts and Holiday Concerts as well as full performances of "Nutcracker" with the Berkshire Ballet (MA), the American Ballet Repertory Co. (Princeton, NJ) the Lehigh Valley Ballet (PA), and the Repertory Dance Theatre of Allentown. He has conducted the ASO in Subscription Concerts featuring internationally famous artists including: Rudolf Firkusney, Cecile Licad, Robert McDuffie, Young Uck Kim and Joyce Castle of the New York Metropolitan Opera. He has also conducted ASO Pops concerts featuring Monica Mancini, Beatles’ Tribute show “Classical Mystery Tour,” “Bravo Broadway,” “Three Phantoms,” Beach Boys tribute “Papa Doo Run, Run,” “Piano Men- The Music of Elton & Billy,” Dave Bennett’s “A Tribute to Benny Goodman,” “Disney in Concert-Magical Music from the Movies” and many more.

Demkee joined the Allentown Band in 1964 as featured tuba soloist and was elected conductor in 1977. Under his direction the band has recorded thirty-two volumes of the highly acclaimed "Our Band Heritage" series, which have reached listeners in all fifty states and twenty-six countries. These recordings are now available in CD and digital format from Naxos, i-Tunes, and Amazon. The Allentown Band, America's oldest civilian concert band since 1828 averages forty-five performances annually. Under Demkee's leadership, the band has taken four European tours for concerts twice in Switzerland, Austria, and the St. Tropez Music Festival in La Croix Valmer, France. The band was the featured Showcase band for the New York International Band and Orchestra Festival at Carnegie Hall four times, most recently in March 2023, and performed in the same capacity for the Washington International Music Festival at the Kennedy Center in April 2010.

In addition to conducting numerous high school honor bands and orchestras in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, he has served as guest conductor for the Army Band, the Army Field Band, the Military Academy Band at West Point, the Navy Band, the Coast Guard Band, the Marine Band of Washington, the Air Force Heritage of America band from Langley, Virginia and the Air Force Band, Washington, DC. He has served as Assistant Conductor for Leonard B. Smith’s famous Detroit Concert Band where he conducted the band for Smith’s cornet solos in live performances at Detroit’s Ford Theater and Michigan State Fairgrounds as well as the highly praised “Gems of the Concert Band” recordings. In 2017, Demkee served as Conductor of the Concert Band for the Northeast Instrumental Music Festival in Lake Placid, New York.

Ronald Demkee is the recipient of many prestigious awards including: The National Band Association's "Citation of Excellence," The John Philip Sousa Foundation's "Sudler Legion of Honor," the City of Allentown’s “Arts Ovation Award” for Outstanding Achievements in the Performing Arts and the first recipient of Allentown Arts Council’s “Lifetime Achievement Award.” Freedom High School honored Demkee as the first faculty member to be named to the school’s “Circle of Excellence,” and Whitehall High School named Demkee the school’s first alumnus to be enshrined on the school’s “Wall of Fame for the Arts.” He is an inductee to the “National High School Band Directors’ Hall of Fame” and has been a member of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association since 1986. He received an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from Muhlenberg College in 1991. In April 2018, Mr. Demkee was named a West Chester University Distinguished Alumnus. At the 2023 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) State Conference, Phi Beta Mu Band Fraternity, Pennsylvania Chapter, presented Demkee with the 2023 "Outstanding Contributor Award for outstanding contribution to the support and/or development of bands," making him only the seventh recipient of this award since this chapter's founding in 1959. Demkee was also named a National Semi Finalist for the 2023 American Prize in Conducting, Community Band/Wind Ensemble Division. He serves on the Advisory Boards of both the National High School Band Directors’ Hall of Fame and the Association of Concert Bands.

Ronald Demkee earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in Music Education at West Chester (Pennsylvania) University. In 1991 Muhlenberg College awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Music. He conducted the Freedom High School (Bethlehem, PA) Patriot Band, Orchestra, and numerous other instrumental ensembles, where he was also Chairman of the Fine Arts Department, from the time the school opened in 1967 until 1997. During his tenure at Freedom High School the Patriot Band performed in the nation's most visible parades including The King Orange Jamboree, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Aloha Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, two National Cherry Blossom Parades in Washington D.C., and three Tournament of Roses Parades in Pasadena, California. After teaching in the public schools for 32 years, Demkee continued to teach in the music departments of both Muhlenberg and Moravian Colleges for an ther 18 years, culminating with 50 years of teaching from the elementary to collegiate levels. He has performed in the Brass Choir for the Annual Bach Festival in Bethlehem since 1968 and has conducted pit orchestras for numerous Muhlenberg Summer Theater productions. After thirty years, he retired as Personnel Manager of the ASO, but continued as Associate Conductor, Pops Conductor and Principal Tuba of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra.

He and his wife, Joan, who have been married since 1967, have two children, Mark and Elizabeth, both public school teachers, four grandchildren Aidan, Sarah, Katherine, and Rose, and a beloved golden doodle Rudy.